For those of you wondering about the TFS incentive, it is $6500 on the Advanced and $2500 on the base. Available through Feb 4th or until stocks of the 2012 last. I just purchased an Advanced from Toyota of Turnersville in NJ and had it shipped. PM if you need more info. They have 4 left. Call Morgan Pace the internet sales manager....very easy to work with! Purchase Price: $31,251 (after dealer discount and $6500 TFS cash) Sticker: $40,320 Model (advanced or standard): 2012 Toyota Prius Plug In Advanced (Sea Glass Pearl)
Is this a good price for base PIP. Northern California. Invoice 32250 (base) leather 1690 sale tax 2900 dmv fees 310 --------------- total 37305 OTD - 2500 ( hope, I will get it) -1500 (hope, I will get it) -------------- $33305 --------------------
Don't buy base. You will regret it. Buy east coast from the three states that have the $6,500 incentive. The technology in the advanced will go a long way for your car to still feel 'current' in the years up come. Just the led headlight alone will go at least 5 years until they feel 'outdated'!
How much is it going to cost to ship it to N.California ? Please put the things to do in steps. Anybody did it from Bay area? Please respond. I want to do this.
It is a matter of choice. With straight sticker price, it is a matter of cost benefit. But I agree that the unequal incentives designed to move the '12 AT models are game changers. The AT package may not be worth the 7K difference retail, but at +3K difference, it is a steal. NY, and NJ dealers seem to have the biggest incentives and inventory. I bought an AT in NY and it worked out well. Romano Toyota. They had 13 when I bought mine. Down to one now. Check the Toyota site for dealers and inventory.
Yes and No. I live 2 miles from the San Jose Mercury News office. After the all the rebates off my base PiP, I am paying the equivalent of a Prius 3 which have the same options. There is no cost differential. However, I wouldn't have gotten some of the rebate if I didn't have a tax liability to claim it. If you look at just MSRP of the base PiP $33k and the MSRP of the Prius 2 $23k and ignore option differences, you have your $10k differential. So the answer is yes and no. Not everyone is able to claim all the rebates and not everyone wants the Prius 3 model. I was able to convince a coworker to buy a Prius 2 over a Jetta TDI but I wasn't able to convince him to get a PiP. The initial price spooked him despite what I told him.
It's my intuition that it is uncommon for a person to have enough income to be able to afford a $23,000 car, but not have a $2,500 tax liability. I understand how one can have business situations that can result in this happening, but if one is a simple wage-earner, then I don't think it is going to happen. Re: retirement: I suppose it depends on one's source of retirement income. My wife is a retired public school teacher, and her retirement is almost completely taxable. And if one is living off of a 401K, then that is also almost all taxable. I am curious about what kind of retirement income IS non-taxable. "Comparably equipped" is also a significant factor here. The base Prius 3 has a lot fewer "extras" than the base PiP, such as the Nav system (inadequate as it may be). So if one is not interested in the "extras", then the cheaper base Prius 3 is significant. How does a Prius 2 fit into the picture here. Isn't the standard 2012/2013 model Prius a Prius 3 (or one of the variants, such a the -c or -v)?
I'm impressed. Just to clarify, the $31,251 price you are quoting does not include the $2,500 fed tax credit? Also, what did the shipping cost? I've been assuming $600 to $800.
Your information about the Prius Three is outdated. The current-gen (post-refresh) Prius Three has everything the pip does except seat heaters and remote A/C. Seat heaters are not available on any liftback models, while remote A/C comes as part of the solar roof package which costs $1500. Prius Two is lowest consumer-available model grade and it loses three-door SKS, tonneau cover, SofTex steering wheel, and the availability of adding the solar roof package. Prius One is available to fleets only. I suspect it just lacks SKS. Edit: Prius Two also loses XM/HD radio+iTunes tagging and Entune. Prius One probably has the pre-refresh audio system with no screen. Edit2: and, since no Entune, Prius Two has no nav. Side note: Roth IRAs also provide you with a tax-free source of income.
Remember north central America, low wages, not as expensive to live as east coast, west coast. Muni bonds state and federal tax free. People here trying to get by on 35,000 a year husband and wife. Savings ect. Low taxable Annuities, very little income! have enough tax deductions already.
No the $31K price does NOT include the federal tax credit. With that my price will be $28,751 + tax. Shipping to TX cost me about $700.
Yike! Now I realize that I was completely confused with the terminology. When I heard "Prius 3", I was thinking "Third Generation Prius". Now I see that that is not what is meant at all by the phrase "Prius 3". So what IS the proper terminology when referring to generation 1, 2, 3, like my old first generation 2002 Prius? Sorry...
Yeah. John here also uses the terminology of "classic", "iconic", and "liftback", though to me that's more confusing. Part of the problem is that when the third-gen (or Gen III) Prius came out, the model grades used Roman numerals (II, III, IV, V), which obviously became problematic with the introduction of the Prius v. So for 2011, these were renamed to Two, Three, Four, and Five. I remember when the Gen II was out, I loved the fact that the Prius was a model different from all the others in that there was only one model grade and just different packages. It was an Apple-like simplicity. Now, we've almost reached the exact opposite: there's four different cars using the Prius name, and each one of them has anywhere from 2 to 4 different grades, with unique packages available for each. Add to that the Prius Plus performance package and the Persona series, and we really have a mess which is only easy to understand for Prius veterans who have watched the model line develop.
Update: Well the deal I was working on fell apart. Somehow the dealer made a really simple and baisc mistake - the PiP he was going to sell me had already been registered so could not be sold as new. This was Toyota of Greenwich (CT). Can't say I would recommend them to anyone after this poor experience. Will report back after I do another deal.
