Why can't I buy the Prius I want?

Why don't you drive the 250 miles to OH and buy one and bring it back? We get customers from NY, NJ, VA, NC, MD all the time. Again vote with your feet.

 

I had to go to another region 12 hours away to get the car I wanted. I think Toyota is making a mistake by limiting regions.

 

What's the difference between a 3 w/o nav and a 4 w/o nav. 4 has leather seats and ??? Does not appear as Mid Atlantic Toyota (Pa, MD, WV, Va, De) has ordered any pkg 4 w/o nav. Couldn't find a single one searching online. That includes Eastern Ohio. Lots of solar on the lots now and my local small dealer has had 4 Prius in stock for a couple of weeks now with more to come.
Your salesperson might be right in what they told you.
Noted that Wash. DC area dealers were $1000 off msrp.

 

Toyota doesn't limit the regions. The regions decide what to order from Toyota then that's what is Japan to that region. It all depends on what models, trims and packages move the fastest.

This is also one of the key reasons why Toyota is so well-respected in the industry. They don't force anything. Sales drive shipments.

 

Wth? If you were the suing kind? What the heck does that mean? On what basis do you think that you have any right to sue some company because they don't offer what you want to buy?

A local company offers a product, if you don't like the choices then you move on.

 

No way to do it according to what I've read. The dealer would have to grab one at the port en route to other regions. It can't be "special ordered" if there's no way to preference a certain option within a region.

 

I had understood that multiple companies are involved. The national company might be a subsidiary of the international company. But the regional entities and the local dealerships are usually independent companies.

Who knows the real structure of what we simplistically call 'Toyota'?

 

You'd lose money on that bet. It's not price fixing at all. Here's the first paragraph in the Wiki article..

Honda and Nissan and GM don't sell the Prius. Only Toyota sells the Prius. Now the dealers do compete against one another but it's been proven legal for the manufacturer to suggest a retail price..i.e. the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. However the competing dealers have no requirement to sell at this price ( which causes another whole group of buyers to get terminal agita ). Dealers are independent businesses that can do as they wish with the product that they buy from Toyota. They can and do sell it higher than Toyota suggests or they can discount the heck out of it to move inventory. It's their choice depending on their own individual situations.

Again you missed the point. Toyota does offer the option to all regions ( so right there you are mistaken ). What you're misunderstanding or ignoring is that the commercial decisions are all made at the regional level, in this case CAT. Some regions may choose not to order certain options from Toyota because in their opinion those options don't move as quickly.

Or what's more likely is that the region has 1000 units to spec out and they choose 995 units that move very quickly and 5 units that are 'unusual' like your Prius IV with no Navi - that almost nobody wants to buy. These 5 units end up spread out all over the 155 dealers all over the Mid Atlantic states. Finding one is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The Cinci region may have decided that there is a bigger demand for Prius IV's with no Navi in their region so they've spec'd out 100 units this way. That's their choice.

 

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The downside of no NAV is no backup camera. I also am in Fl. would like to have leather but why do I need heated seats in FL.

 

:cheer2:I also had a bit of a time trying to customize my new PriusIV. I couldn't get the Prius III with leather and I wanted a sunroof. Both were offered with an outside source installation (I didn't want that) or I could order the car and wait 3 months.
In the end I purchased my Prius IV with the sunroof package which includes the nav package. I wanted the sun roof and figured that the navigation package would be good for resale. They made me offer I could live with, trading in my car and discounting the Prius.
I am an experienced garmin navigation user with my motorcycle so I thought at first that I didn't need to spend the extra money, since I have my own portable navigation. I am so glad that I got the Prius navigation system. It came with traffic updates free for a year plus it is so easy to set my destination with the bluetooth technology.
I have only had my car for a week now, but I am loving it!

 

SecondGear, a red base IV is theoretically available in NJ. If you want to go this far use zip code 08077 (just across from Philly) to source the car and www.aaa.com to get quotes. If you need a list of dealers pm an e-mail address.

Good luck.