My husband and I are looking to buy a 2012 Prius. I'm just having a tough time deciding if the 3 is worth the extra money. We are going to have the leather and heated seats added to whichever one we decide to buy. We are in New England, so I really haven't found any great deals for either car. We've been quoted out the door prices (incl. leather heated seats) of $27,562 for the Two and $29,040 for the Three. Not a huge difference in the long run, but you have to stop somewhere with all the extras. Correct me if I'm wrong, but all I would gain by getting the three is the nav, backup camera and sks on 3 doors as opposed to 1. We do have a garmin, but it is nice to have the in dash nav, but how good is it compared to a garmin? Neither of us have a smart phone at this point in time, but we plan on keeping the car for a long time, so I would think that it could be likely in the future. How much does everyone use these extra features that you would get with the 3?
FYI Prius three in LA have run about 22,500 before tax, tags and titles. Those prices sound pretty high. Look for a sale this weekend. I was quoted 1300 for a dealer to install leather. It's a kit they get from Toyota. And others wanted to charge more, so shop around.
I wish I was in the LA area, but we've spoken with 5 dealers or so and these were the best prices we could get over the phone. Connecticut is not cheap. They've said at most they can take a couple hundred off. Leather and heated seats around here seems to go for $1650-1750. It seems like all the dealers use the same place to install it.
Then just get a Prius III/4 with the Softex, heated seats. Plus you will get power seats which are essential if you do trips over 30 minutes as the Prius seats have proven uncomfortable for many. The solar/sun roof is a great option, nice to have a sun roof, the black roof looks great, the solar fan cooling actually works. You get auto/on/off headlights, an essential safety feature. You get heads up display (HUD) which is also a safety feature as it keeps your eyes on the road vs. looking down at the dash to manage your fuel savings. You get the bigger, higher definition multifunction screen which is nice though the nav etc. is not worth it but that applies to all models.
Trust me the backup camera in this car is worth the price of a three in itself. If it were me I'd try dealers in Pennsylvania, New York and even Ohio, your local prices are sky high.
2011 lvl 2, we bought it used so kinda had to work with what was out there. The only option I wish we had was the backup camera.
I haven't found New York prices to be any different. The Prius 3 base price is $25K, it's the leather and heated seats that is making the price so high. A month or two ago, when we were getting prices for a 2 without the leather and heated seats, it was a struggle to get it to $26,000 out the door and we got quotes from many dealers. If anyone can recommend a dealer, please do.
I would not buy a Prius at that price. You should seriously contact New York dealerships. I purchased my Toyota Prius 3 a few days ago for $25,800. As someone else stated, the leather seats should be no more than $1,200. The price range you should be aiming for $27,000-$27,600 OTD. No reason to pay a premium for a 2012 model.
Did you purchase your Prius in NY? If so, at what dealer? In April, I got a price of about $27,500 for a 2011 new 3 with leather and heated seats, so I was a bit shocked at the 2012 prices. I have a partial breakdown for the 3 price: Prius 3 - $25,000 Seats - $1650 Tax - $1692 Other - 698 I want the 3, I'm just not sure where there is much room to negotiate here.
I agree that your prices are high. Unfortunately, us center and right coasters don't have the deals that the lefters have, so I had to learn to not set my expectations fully on some of the deals that people are reporting (like a Prius 3 for $22,500). They may be there, but they are very rare. I was fortunate to find a Prius 2 for close to that price in our part of the country. Unless you find a dealer who's unloading them I think a fair expectation would be closer to $24,000 before TTL for a base 3 before options. I went the Prius 2 route as I didn't see much value in the add ons. There were certain features that I wanted like 3 door SKS and power seats (although the car is comfortable without them), but the price with the extras wasn't worth it to me. For the nav/backup camera I plan on putting a real head unit in at some point. With the $1000-$4000 I saved, I can put in a much better aftermarket system, homelink auto dimming mirror. I may even tackle the power seat and add lumbar. What helps is that I'm an avid DIY type of guy and don't mind tweaking cars.
I would strongly consider a package four. Carmax is laurel MD is selling their new package 4's for $28,218. All you would need to add is your CT tax. They're also selling Two/three's for $23,478/$25578. It may be worth your while to drive down and pick one up. The plus to the 4 is that you would be getting the factory installed leather (softex) as opposed to aftermarket. www.carmax.com I work for a Toyota dealer a little further south..if you didnt mind driving a little further I'm sure we could get you an even better deal.
We ended up going for the Three with the leather and heated seats installed. Came to $28,346 out the door. We might have been able to get an extra couple of hundred knocked off, but I didn't feel like arguing back and forth and from all the dealers we spoke with, this seemed like a decent deal for the area. I know it seems high to people on the west coast, but it's about as good as we were going to get in our area. Thanks for all the responses.
I am also in the market for Prius 3 in NY area. Did you pay $25,800 OTD ? If so would like info to that dealer. Thank you
Hey, Talk to Joe Dapolito. Here is his contact information - Toyota Car Sales - Tacoma, Corolla, Camry, Prius - Jack Sherman Toyota - Proudly serving the cities of Binghamton, NY, Bimghamton, Endicott, Johnson City, Vestal, Owego, Ithica, Elmira, Oneonta, and Scranton.
