The only people that said this car was in high demand was here on pruischat.. the rest of the world looks at a $33-$40K+ Toyota Prius and thinks you are crazy, regardless of plug in or not. The percieved high demand makes it easier for dealers not to negotitiate. Let's face it, people are posting that they are only on order #2000 or so. That means even if you order now, the difference in wait is 1 extra month, if that. If you can wait, now's the perfect time to call up another dealer and jump ship. Get an extra $1000 off to cancel your order and reorder through them, just like you would for any car. Only reason I'm not doing it is because I ended up buying from a dealer 5 min away and they are local but if I was buying from somewhere far, I'd jump ship for another $1000. I'd bet you'd get more off if you're a good negotiator, get accessories at invoice, etc.
I have a theory that since the website said "sold out" for a long time yesterday when folks tried to log back in and do their final confirmation, not as many confirmed or sold due to the confusion. I am still confirming orders even as of 5 minutes ago from folks who have either been surprised that they can still ordcer because of whatg happened yesterday with the "sold" message, or folks who are cancelling from dealerships who have yet to confirm or send back any manner of pricing and they feel either ignored or concerned that no one will finalize in a speedy window of time. Maybe the Powers that Be threw more cars inito the pre-order line out of sympathy for the folks who believed the "sold out" message most of yesterday morning. That could be too. I don't know. I am guessing and have not spoken to anyone who might know anything... been too busy trying to gather everyone's order site emails together and update my database... the internal site's not too user-friendly for that purpose... it's slow going! And, I do have other cars to sell too (LOL) ...
See that's what you get for taking over 500 pre-registrant PIP orders! By the way - we should start a pool on the actual number of confirmed pre-registrant PIP orders Dianne takes. Closest guess gets free floor mats from Dianne! In case of ties, she draws from a fish bowl....
Baby I have nowhere near THAT many orders confirmed or otherwise. Ok I'm open to a guessing lotto or pool. It will fluctuate for the next few days tho. And soneone here knows do he can't guess because he will be too close! Still have two Prius wristwatches .... They make fun gifts or prizes.
OK - 1 Prius wristwatch it is, and we wait for the final number until after the 96 hours is up. Open to all Prius Chatters. Do we need a separate thread? I'm going with 93. oooh, another thought - should we guess on the numbers of both standard trim and advanced trim?
If Dianne took 100 orders, that would be least $3 million in revenue for Carson Toyota. Not bad for a couple of days! Of course, she's been working hard in advance of this week. If Toyota "sells out" at 5,000 orders, that would be well over $150 million. That would be impressive for a car that few people have seen and won't be available until next spring.
...and if a giraffe and a half ate a banana and a half, how many monkeys with a wooden leg would it take to kick all of the seeds out of a dill pickle?
We all thank Dianne for being on top of all of this - loved all her email communications- most dealers are still trying to figure it out I think...
Don't forget that this is just the ordering window for those aware enough to sign up for the program earlier this year. I know several people who plan on buying the car but weren't pre-registered. And some of the dealers I contacted asked if I was on the priority list because they already have several people on their dealership's regular inventory waiting list. So I wouldn't say that there is only demand for the 2000 pre-orders. That's just the size of the group that's most engaged, aware and savvy. As more people in California get wind of the new green carpool/hov lane sticker program, I'm sure the car will sell from regular inventory just as well as the 2006s did (when I got my first one for the stickers).
I have to thank Dianne for her help placing my order. Toyota had all fall to open the site for order and they decided to do it the week I leave the country to go on holiday. I was very surprised when I got the e-mail in the morning to place the order in just a few hours! LOL Placing the order was an ordeal! 1) Find a place that offered Wi-fi (found one 40 minutes prior to website opening) Thank you burger king! 2) Pray to the battery gods that my laptop didn't die. (which it did as soon as I finished placing the order) 3) Felt a relief until I got an e-mail on my phone that I needed to log back in to confirm the order. (no battery charge left on my laptop, panic mode sets in!) 4) Call Dianne and she was able to assist me until my order was succesfuly confirmed and submited. **All of these while I was on holiday in the Caribean.
GG: when do you stop my confirmation clock and start guessing? I'm still accepting orders as of 5 minutes ago. People frustrated with their first choice dealers.
Deposits OK: after an hour of frustrating effort to try and get the website to give me the final and formal data/emails I need in a spreadsheet, I am exhausted and giving up. If you are awaiting my promised email for the day or nite in regards to the deposit, I give up! It will be to you tomorrow at some point, so don't fret, it's not important right now. The important, harrowing part already took place. I'm headin' to B.W. for a looooooooooong well earned massage!
Oh Tim, if only we could keep all that and not have to pay Toyota back for the cars' invoices!! I think when you deduct the invoice, the gas cards, the cost of the charging stations .... We'll manage! I hope my boss isn't reading this thread. If he is: M - how about the bar and bistro on the third floor and oh yeah a sauna or hot tub! :rockon: And, the BBQ and fake grass & deck ... for the patio floor on the rooftop behind Margi!
I count all most 60 PCers have preordered based on this and other threads. Noted this evening that to see all of the PIP order pages I had to change screen resolution to 768 from the 600 my netbook has normally. No auto scroll bars for the pages! I claim prereg fence sitter #0001