Best way to buy a new Prius Prime?

Looks like no way to get one in WA. I see Cali has cars in build phrase.

 

There is no way. If there were, there wouldn't be waiting lists or markups.

You need to understand the difference between MSRP and the market value.

You either buy it at market value or enter a futures contract, which is the waiting list. This is no different than buying stocks and trading futures in that sense. Think of MSRP as the IPO price, price with markups as the daily trading price, and the waiting list as a futures contract.

 

i would put a deposit down with everyone i could and take the best deal when it happens

 

When you end up not dealing with them?

 

That varies with the dealer. The $500 Longo Toyota deposit is fully refundable at any time.

 

with each entity, i would ask if it's refundable at any time, and follow up with paperwork

 

I tried the Costco Auto program, but it rejected my request because there were no Prius Primes in stock anywhere in Austin. Did some searching via the Toyota website and found two Prime Premiums in Killeen, which is just over an hour away. One is on the lot and the other is in transit. That one has all the features we want including the solar roof, but it's red and that isn't the color we want. I might consider placing an "order" at that dealer to see if they can get what we want. I'm guessing Prius, Prime or otherwise, is not a super popular vehicle in Killeen - opposite of Austin. Don't know if the Killeen dealer engages in markups

 

Just because there's one on the lot and in transit doesn't mean they're available to purchase. They may have already been sold to someone on the list. There are a lot of dealerships who don't update the Toyo inventory website indicating that the vehicle has been Sold.

 

Because of tight inventory, keep looking everyday. Contact every dealer within reasonable distance (or further away if you choose). A couple dealers I contacted (Vancouver and The Dalles) initially said they would only sell to local residents who lived in the same county due to tight inventory. They eventually contacted me after I had already purchased one. There were dealers in my area that took deposits while most were only keeping lists which in my opinion was suspect since you never really know where you're at on the list. I visited some dealers all over town when I had the time in an effort to show my seriousness. While they didn't have what I wanted in stock or in the pipeline, it got the discussion started. Every dealer I met with called me at some point about a Prius they had coming in. Unfortunately for them, I had already found one with the exact equipment and color I wanted in Albany, 68 miles south of Portland. When one becomes available though, you have to move quickly unless you already have a deposit down.

I started my search at the end of June and purchased one on August 8. I only used the Toyota website and set my search out to 100 miles. Every time I saw one appear that wasn't there the day before, I contacted the dealer about it thru their website. All promptly responded

 

Somebody here might be able to confirm this, but an early review I watched said that the states were only getting 1500 Primes in 23. That's nothing compared to the demand for the car. From what I can tell it's still hard to get any flavor of the 23 Prius, but the Primes are next level unicorns.

 

i forget the number, it's here somewhere. toyota was unsure about demand for the design change and didn't want to over commit.
that being said, demand is high on most all vehicles and you want your production lines busy with the high profitability models.

 

The PHEV numbers I've seen suggested 10,000 globally in 2023 - that's 800-1000 a month depending on whether that's a calendar year or ten months of production starting March.

And 450 a month of that for Japan (4500-5400 for the year), leaving 350-550 a month (4,600-5,500 for the year) for the rest of the world. And Europe is getting only PHEVs; I don't know if that means they get more of a share of them than the US.

1500 for the year for the US is then possible, but seems maybe a bit low. But it probably won't be more than 2500, as that would mean the US getting more than Europe.

It's a bit rationed in Europe too, in that it's not going to all countries there - it's not made it to the UK, Spain, Sweden or Norway. But available basically everywhere else.

 

Chiming in from ON, Canada. The production numbers on the Prime has got to be abysmal. I just heard back from my dealer that I'm #30 on their list (I pre-ordered in November when Gen 5 was announced) and the oldest order they have is from April 2022. I was initially quoted a 2 year wait time from the date of order, and that seems to still be accurate. Hopefully next year's production improves.

 

Im not sure but can you not get the numbers out of the allocation sheet? Not sure what to count exaclty but if jus just sum up all its getting close to 4000:


It makes sense that US has much more 2023 compared to Europe given that here official sales started like summer. Dealers got models just this month. The only exception is switzerland for some reason. Dont know why they got special early treament.

 

Toyota halts all Japan assembly plants due to glitch | PriusChat

I tried for weeks to buy a new Toyota truck, and they actually had real units on the ground.
I wound up buying my sixth-in-a-row GMC instead.

I've seen ONE G5 Prius on the ground in three states for MSRP +++.
.....AND the dealer was one that I would not willingly deal with.

If I woke up in your shoes?
First thing I would do is pry your shoes off of my feet and give them back to you.
The second thing I would do is nothing.
Maybe you can save some money by seeing if the '04 will run for another year.
DO you WANT a Prime or NEED a Prime?

Your call, but I'd be VERY interested to find out if you wind up paying JUST MSRP....


BEST of luck!

 

That's neat - not seen those data scrapes before. Okay, that's a lot of Prius PHEVs going to the USA. I see 3700 or so real VINs there, spread over a range from 151 to 9540, with about 2300 in status F or G, meaning they've reached the US.

Assuming sequential serial numbers represent all PHEVs produced, then the USA has been continuously getting about 40% of the production - I did a bit of analysis, and that's been basically steady throughout the serial number range. I was looking to see of there was any noticeable shift in later serial numbers as European production came, but can't see anything clear.

 

I bagged the unicorn and it didn’t feel that hard to do. The key is to call around to different dealers and ask what their policies are. My 500 dollar deposit was fully refundable. The car I was told would take 6-10 months took about 4 weeks. Most dealers get new allocations twice a month.

DOn’t be afraid to laugh and walk out if the dealer is asking something crazy. I burst out laughing when Ourisman Toyota told me their $11,000 dealer markup was what the market was doing. They never even attempted to contact me again. I got my car for MSRP.