1st Prius - 2011 Prius III Bought Yesterday But Only After Major Haggle

Okay. What happened next?

I assume you talked them out of the $5000 markup?

And welcome to Priuschat! You'll love your new car!

 

Hey Lisa, Welcome. I think you made a good buy, on a great car and I am sure you will be happy with your purchase for a long time to come.

And this says a lot about Prius, when we are excited to pay MSRP. But you know what, it's worth MSRP, so congrats!

 

Welcome aboard! Glad you guys stood your ground. Sad that this kind of stuff is going on... but it has I suppose for a long time.

Glad you got exactly what you wanted.

 

YIKES HOLY EXTRA CASH BATMAN, I guess i fell into the right dealership. I got mine for sticker as they had none on the lot and 6 inbound. I asked about market adjustment which i have seen at other dealerships. The salesman said we don't do that here.I put money down and asked ?? You won't sell my inbound car to a higher bid or call me trying to raise the price because of other offers. He said again we don't do that here the price is the price and the inbound car is yours. I was still skeptical but got the car and nothing changed. I guess i was lucky.

 

One local dealer (Piercey Toyota in Milpitas) slaps on a couple of ridiculous looking "HYBRID" stickers to the bottom of the doors and it becomes the pompously named dealer installed "protection package". $1,995. Pretty ballsy when all the other dealers in the area sell it at MSRP. They did hear a few choice words for wasting my time.

 

Hi Lisa. We're new Prius owners as well. A few years back, when gas here was $5 if you could find it they wanted $3K over sticker and I will not pay MAV or MAP or whatever they want to call all that EXTRA profit.

We did pay sticker for this one, a first for us as well. Our reasoning was pretty sound. Supplies from overseas are limited and will be for months. Gas prices are going higher. And aside from color, we wanted red but got a deep blue, we got everything we wanted.

We are very pleased with the car and only wish we had a 2 car garage so the 2004 CRV did not have to get left out. It now has some hail damage.

Enjoy and these folks on the forums are great people. Very willing to share information.

Take care,

 

I am SO glad I bought mine last November before higher gas prices. I have a friend who will be in the market to buy one this summer - good luck!

 

LISA99: "They weren't happy with us...they sold nothing but the car"

Congrats on your new Prius! :dance:
I cannot stand sore-loser-dealers that act this way. They MADE $$$ regardless what you paid.

 

I love hearing people hassle the dealer back. we had to drive 2 hours to find ours, but we did the pack up and leave thing as well after the initial slap in the face that was our trade in estimate (08 VW Rabbit that ran like a top with almost new tires on it). I ended up negotiated for 600 over KBB trade.

Another customer walked by the one I was just about to test drive while she was having her prius serviced and said, "huh, no dealer mark-up here i guess..." Those extra mark ups are so bogus. we had a lot of that going on around here in '08 when gas was $4.33/gal

 

We had a relatively minor "sneaky" pulled:

Documentation Fee which on one first invoice was "included" became "$295" on second invoice. Now why would they need two invoices...

Anyway, after the usual "this is highly unorthodox, I'll have to discuss this with..." we got that off.

Also, good to see you held firm when they're pushing the extended warranty BS.

 

Good job sticking with your price. Now you will start saving some monry on gas. I've had a month and average 48MPG. And I look forward to driving my spaceship to work everyday.

 

Hi Lisa, from one newbie to another! Wow I feel like it's a small world... I found my dream Prius in February at the Hollywood dealer and drove there from Orange County for it. It is just amazing driving by that lot of Prii! My sales guy has been keeping in touch to ask if I have any friends looking for a new car; he had been saying they were trending towards MSRP, but I hadn't heard about the market adjustments yet.

Before my Prius I had a Saturn, and so MSRP was something I had been accustomed to paying. I guess I should be glad I got my Prius in time to actually get to try negotiating for a car!

 

:welcome:

A generic question to all US PC users here - can't you just *order* a Prius of your liking at the dealer and wait for it to be delivered according to spec? or you can only buy from available stock? nobody in the EU practically buys anymore from "stock" (which is mainly what the dealer has in the showroom - nobody wants to keep a full blown stock) and we all order (and wait) for our car, built up to our specs, to be delivered from the fab (or the manufacturer's stock).
Wait times for delivery can be anything from a couple of weeks to several months. I waited a little less than 2 months for my Prius.

For Lisa99: a bit of self advertising from my side - check PC for additional information on the Prius, but check out also my blog, link in my signature, as I have made a few articles and a complete overview of the Prius (with several topics of interest to newbies) covered all in one place - most articles have been reviewed and corrected from PC forum members.

 

Congrats on your new Prius and welcome to PriusChat.:welcome:

Once again, car dealer U.S.A. plays the too often tune of under-handed pickpocket! Kudos to you for standing your ground; prepared to go home. I'm wondering outloud if you left money on the dealer table by not asking for a discount from the MSRP rather than settling for full sticker.

Regardless, enjoy the coolest car ever and reap the rewards of high MPGs, technology and low emissions.

 

The USA is divided into 12 Regions. The Regions order the cars from Toyota then allocate the cars to their dealers. This is why some combinations are not available in some states.

 

The car dealers in the US usually has an assortment of cars in stock to choose from. 1973 was the last time I special ordered a car and it took 2 months.
Last Feb. I was looking for a Prius IV in Barcelona red with no packages. I just went on my PC and imputed exactly what I wanted on Overstock.com and it pulled up the exact car at 3 dealerships with the discounted prices. I called the dealership with the lowest price to verify that he had it in stock and would honor the price. I drove there (26 miles) and completed the paperwork then picked up the car the next day.
Should a dealer not have the exact car you want in stock, he can swap cars with another dealer. I don't think it is necessary to special order a car unless there is an unusual situation like the current status of the Prius or you want a special color on a $75,000 Mercedes.
Before the current Prius shortage, a Toyota dealership near me had 42 Prius in stock. Now they have 3.

 

Yes, but still - can you just order a Prius to your liking?
(among the combinations allowed in the state you reside - why some combinations are not allowed/available in some states I don't understand)
Can you just order a car with the trim, color, options as desired, then wait for it to be delivered?

 

One of my more enjoyable negotiating experiences (for a previous car, not a Prius) was when the salesperson said, "Are you going to let $50 (the cost of the floor mats) come between you and this beautiful new car?", to which I replied, "Are you?"

#1 Car Purchasing Rule - Always Be Prepared to Walk