Rodney Dangerfield of Prime wantabee owners

I've been told that there will be a 6-8 month wait after I order mine. None in MN either!

 

you just can't get any respect

 

Maybe the midwest will get one around the time they do the mid-cycle refresh.

 

California is the designated market. Everyone else is not.

 

You have a 2011.

Best advice....wait.
Get Professor Whoppee to turn the wayback machine back to 2012 and read through some of THOSE posts.
If you wait a year or two then you will likely have more cars to chose from and they won't be selling at MSRP++.

 

As I have said before, it is a 2017 model, and it is still 2016.
The CARB program has bearing on where plug ins go first, but even without it, a manufacturer will likely ship the first cars to the East and West coasts, simply because there are more people there, and thus more potential buyers.

 

do you really want one in mid winter? i got my pip april 26th, and it was perfect. yes, the 6 month wait was agonizing, like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. but how often do adults get to experience that?

 

So there aren't a lot of people/potential buyers in the Chicagoland area?????? I'm not driving 300 miles or more just to look at one in person and decide if it will work for me or not.

 

Did you want it for Christmas?
The 2017 Prius Prime is a low volume car that is being shipped on a slow boat from Japan. A couple have made it to Alabama, and they will come to Chicago. Barring a major issue with production, it will reach all 50 states before Toyota starts talking about the 2018 model.

 

I got mine for Thanksgiving and I live in central Illinois.

 

Guess Toyota simply doesn't want to sell the Prime in Chicago then.

 

Where did you get yours?

 

A little dated but if they can't get you a car they're not really trying.

Update: Found the source links:
Toyota Dealer and Demand Fulfillment - Toyota Management System
Toyota Sales and Operations Planning - Toyota Management System

Toyota Dealer and Demand Fulfillment
January 1, 2010 - Tags: Toyota Learning

Dealers use a number of different processes to fulfill retail customer demand. This chapter will explore the major ones; it will be subdivided into three areas: vehicle allocation, demand fulfillment options, and dealer operations.

Vehicle Allocation

At Toyota, vehicle allocation in North America is a two-step process. In the first step, the national sales company allocates vehicles to their regional areas. In the second step, the regional areas allocate these vehicles to dealers.

Regional Allocation

The regional allocation is performed monthly, about six weeks prior to the start of the production month. If the next production month is July, then the regional allocation would occur in mid-May. The purpose of the regional area allocation is to allocate the quantity of vehicles by model to each region. The quantity is calculated using a share or percentage of the total national market that each region will receive. The following are some of the factors that are used to determine each region’s share:

• Sales versus previous month and model-to-date objectives
• Regional weather conditions that can impact future sales such as floods, snowstorms, drought, etc.
• Regional economic conditions and trends that impact future sales
• Competitive strategies that may affect market share in a region and necessitate more aggressive marketing strategies

Once the volume of each model is allocated to the regional area, the region must create a vehicle order for each unit. The regional vehicle order is an input to the sales and operations planning process, which was described in Sales and Operations Planning. After the monthly order is scheduled by manufacturing, regions receive a file containing the details of each vehicle along with the tentative scheduled date. These data are used to perform the dealer allocation.

Dealer Allocation

Toyota uses three methods in the United States to allocate vehicles to dealers. The methods vary for the three Toyota brands: Toyota, Scion, and Lexus.

Toyota Brand Allocation

Dealer allocation is based on the fair share of the regional volume for each model. That apportionment is intended to be a very objective calculation based on a turn-and-earn concept. Turn-and-earn is a results-oriented methodology that rewards the dealers for increasing their sales. The goal is to ensure that all dealers are treated fairly and to avoid the perception of favorable treatment. Therefore, the initial dealer allocation is based on each dealer’s share of the regional market, as calculated based on actual sales. The allocation is performed twice each month and, unlike with the regional allocation, dealers are allocated or assigned unique vehicles with full specifications.

The vehicle specifications that the dealer is allocated are matched to two inputs that are provided by dealers. The dealers can maintain an allocation preference database that describes the type of vehicle specifications that they desire—or do not desire. We return to the example that dealers in Arizona may not want dark colors and dealers in northern cities may want cold weather kits. Dealers can also submit special orders from customers.

Once the dealers receive their allocation of vehicles, they have a few days to accept the vehicles. If there are reasons why dealers do not want some vehicles, they may turn down specific units. Those units will be placed in a supplemental pool and offered to other dealers. In the situation where there is a surplus of some models because of slow sales, the region may offer dealers a financial incentive to take these slow-selling vehicles.

After the dealers accept the vehicles, they appear in a pipeline inventory report. At this time, dealers can make changes to some of the factory specifications and also add accessories that will be installed at the marshaling yard and/or port. Now that the dealers know which vehicles are scheduled for production and approximately when they will be built, they can use information regarding these vehicles in combination with the dealer stock to fulfill demand.

`````````````

The third option is to locate the vehicle in the dealer’s pipeline. The pipeline consists of vehicles that have been allocated or assigned to the dealer but have not arrived at the dealer. The pipeline can be divided into three segments:

1. Vehicles produced and in transit from the plant
2. Vehicles that are either in the process of being built or for which the specifications have been frozen just prior to production
3. Vehicles scheduled for production with specifications that have not yet been frozen

If an exact match of the customer’s specifications can be located in the first two groups, then the vehicle can be reserved for the customer and should be delivered in two to three weeks.

The next choice is to locate a vehicle that is scheduled for future production and request a change in specifications. That step requires the manufacturing plant to agree to change the vehicle specification. The process is as follows:

• The dealer submits an online request to change a vehicle that has still not been produced. The change request can be a simple one-for-one change; for example, “I have a red Camry and I want a blue Camry.” The change request can also be one-to-many or many-to-one; for example, “I have a red Camry and I want either a blue or white Camry,” or, “I have a blue Camry and a black Camry and I want a silver Camry.”
• The next step is for the sales company’s computer system to analyze and determine if any of the change requests can be satisfied by simply swapping the vehicle with a dealer who has submitted a change that is the exact reverse change request. For example, if a dealer in Boston wants to exchange a blue Camry LE for a black Camry XLE and a dealer in Chicago has a black Camry XLE and wants a blue Camry LE, then the computer can simply swap the dealer assignments. If this online swap is successful, then the virtual swap is made and both dealers will be notified.
• If the above swap is not available, then the changes are sent to the manufacturing computer system that checks to ensure that the change can be made without exceeding any of the manufacturing constraints. Each assembly plant establishes a fluctuation allowance for each vehicle option, including color. Each dealer change request is systematically evaluated to make sure that none of the allowances are exceeded. If the change is accepted, the vehicle specifications are changed and the result is sent back to the dealer via the sales company. Also, the dealer will be notified if the change cannot be accepted, so the dealer can modify it or leave it in a pending status to be reprocessed the next day. Vehicles changed at the factory are usually delivered in 30 to 40 days.
• The last resort (or fourth option) is to request a build-to-order vehicle from the regional office. That step would require the region to input the special order in the next month’s order cycle. A special request order typically has a very long lead time (usually three or more months).

In addition to the order-to-delivery lead time for each of the fulfillment options as shown in Order-to-delivery time for U.S. market , it is also important to provide an accurate ETA (expected time of arrival) for the dealer to keep its customer updated. Not only should a date be provided, but the actual progress should be updated daily, similar to the way UPS tracks packages. Initially, the ETA is calculated using the estimated production build day and adding the standard transit time from the factory to the dealer. As can be seen from Order-to-delivery time for U.S.market, the longer lead time orders will result in a less accurate ETA. This calculation must take into account the standard deviation, because the transit time for each route will vary depending on many external factors. Toyota believes that it is better to underpromise and then overdeliver.

 

Here is to leaving in a CARB participating state. Much of New England does participate, thus I know that several Primes have been shipped to Maine, at least 10 have been in Massachusetts just this last month, and I imagine that is very low for what really has been here since that was at 2 dealerships I talked to and there are at least 3 more within 20 miles of me that I have visited in the past and I likely don't know all of them. With the number sold, I am surprised I have yet to drive past another one so far.

 

I have seen quite a few of them on the road here in So Cal

 

I got mine in early November. The first dealer asked for $3,000 over MSRP but did not have one. The second dealer called me late around 9 pm and said two of them just arrived and being unloaded. I was offered to take one at MSRP with factory rebate. I drove over and bought one. Yes, l live in S California.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I like the futuristic look of the cars. I hope it catches on and the requests and sales increase.