I'm in northern California. I just checked with Overstock.com and their price seemed good considering I still see people saying they are paying sticker price for new a Prius despite the economy and relative low gas prices that aren't making getting a hybrid much of a money saver on fuel costs vs something like a regular Civic or Corolla. Unless I get an unexpectedly high insurance quote tomorrow, I plan to buy a new Prius in the next few days. I have a firm price from CarMax to buy my current car for an OK price for the next 7 days. I might be able to do better by negotiating trading it in, but if not, I can fall back to selling it to CarMax for the agreed amount. I checked carsdirect.com and they were listing the Prius III for full sticker in my area. Later this week, I'll check with Costco, Sams Club and the buying service from my credilt union also. I don't see any special discount financing from Toyota Finance on the Prius in my area, so I will probably use my credit unions 60 month financing that's ranging from 2.99% to 4.24% depending on whether I buy from any dealer of my choice or a special list of dealers (only 1 is a Toyota dealer) participating in the 2.99% finance special starting Dec 22nd. I was also considering a Prius II plus Blu Logic, but the discount on the II was only about $460 off sticker, so after paying for Blu Logic, it makes more sense to get the Prius III with JBL for just a little more than the net price of the II plus the cost of the Blu Logic install. Should I be able to do better than the Overstock.com price listed above by buying from somewhere else in Northern CA this week?
I'm in SoCal and I called a dealer and asked them if they would do the CostCo deal and only one would even though they weren't officially doing it on the Prius. So I got my Pkg III for $400 over dealer invoice and didn't have to go through CostCo, they just gave me the price. Can't hurt to call dealers and ask them to beat that Overstock price.
I just noticed the Overstock.com price is exactly $500 over invoice, so if the Costco dealer for my region also does $400 like in So. California that will be better than Overstock.com. If the dealer participating with the 2.99% finance sale also does $400 over invoice, that will be even better.
I'm sure you've thought of this already, but just in case you haven't, I would make sure I bought the car from a Toyota certified dealer, especially since it's a new model year. If something goes wrong with the car, you want to be first in line for repairs.
Web1b, You sound like me--hate to do the haggling by talking in person. What I did was try to get quotes from individual dealers by e-mailing them (I got several of them through cars.com). Several didn't want to give me quotes by e-mail, but you have a device to do it--as going red baby said, you can ask them to beat the overstock.com price by a significant amount. I'll bet you can get a better deal through that. (At the time, I got something of a discount even though overstock.com said it had no price in my region at all--and I think prices overall have come down since I bought).
I think your best chance for a bargain price is after Xmas. I believe salesmen/women will be looking to get a deal sealed before the New Year. So I believe Dec 28-31 will be the ideal 'buyers market'.
