Approximately $1500 mistake

do you want the good news or the bad news? anyway, congrats and all the best! live and learn, i have done the same thing too many times. put it behind you my friend and move forward. hate it when the dealer holds all the cards.

 

Just like Columbo (the detective), just one (more) question. What the hell were your thinking? You go to a dealer looking to lease a Prius Plug In and you drive home in a ORANGE Prius C? Just one other question. What the hell were you thinking? Just having a little fun. Glad everything worked out. The world's greatest sales person WILL NEVER sell me what I don't want.

 

It took guts to come on here and tell the story of how you screwed up. So as bisco says, "put it behind you". Drive the 2011 until it's paid for and then some. You'll probably never make out on a car you use for that long commute, so you need to drive it a long time to get your money's worth. Then turn it over to your son who should be driving by then, and go for the latest version of the PiP. Maybe by then it will go 100+ miles on EV! In the meanwhile, maybe your wife will let you drive her car to the gym.

 

I got some ocean front property in Arizona I'll sell ya.

Don't worry. It happens to all of us at some point in our lives. It may not be a car deal but something will get us and we'll feel like a fool.

 

Paskoo...
Welcome, and enjoy the PIP!

Nobody wins all the time- we've all made some decisions that cost us down the road.
I purchased a brand new 2012 Prius Five, I traded it in for a 2012 PIP six months later. I got significant grief from my SO for that. Luckily the incentives, $500 LIPA rebate and Fed Income tax credit almost made up for the loss on the trade in, but without a doubt i would have been better off if I had just purchased the PIP to begin with. Six months later- she's jealous when I come home from work and tell her I got 96mpg at the end of my 56mi (28mi each way) daily commute.

 

If your commute is 130 r/t you have already made out once your milage is over 40k. Savings in gas makes your 1st Pri a great deal. Never sell or trade it. As for any of the Pri's ownership and high millage is why they make cents. You do to many miles for any lease. Most lease deals are maxed out at 10k -15k per yr limits.

 

At one time or another, I think we have all been there. I know I have too many times to count. In fact we are in the middle of a refinancing and it appears I was duped into at least $475. But the reduction in interest over the period of the loan could by me a PIP!

 

Yeah, don't feel too bad...

Ultimately you got what you wanted....even if you believe it cost you a little more than it should. Nothing new or unusual about that....

I LOVE researching new car purchases. I love websites like Prius Chat and others. I swear I can know EVERYTHING about a vehicle, it's price, it's features, and conversely my vehicle and it's trade in value and still New Car Dealerships pump in some invisible gas that makes you stupid.

I love buying new vehicles...except for the part where I actually have to go and buy the vehicle. I suppose this fear does save me money long term.

Despite my usually well researched knowledge, I'd say the deals I've felt best about over the course of my life, are the deals where the dealership had a large quantity of a vehicle being advertised at a set low buy in price. At least then? I feel good about the buy in...

All the "deals" I've made have at best been mediocre....usually with me thinking 6 months later that I paid too much. I do think I'm getting better at handling the whole procedure.....but it's come with age and sometimes painful experience.

 

You call that a mistake ?!?

Pfft.

 

The upside is things are squared away and another life lesson is learned.

 

Been there, done that. I traded in a T-Bird Super Coupe once on a Toyota 4x4 pickup-- traded the SC in for about $4,000 less than its book value, and bought the truck for about $2,000 more than I should have. Coupled with the lousy loan the dealer fixed me up with, if I'd kept the truck for the duration of the loan, I'd have wound up paying about $25,000 for it all told-- when it was on the showroom floor for $14,000 and on paper they made it look like I was only paying $13,000. I was young and very inexperienced at the time.

Then there's my 2008 Prius #6 that I bought used a year and a half ago for $23,000 plus another $1,500 for AAA's equivalent of Toyota's platinum warranty for it, putting me at roughly the $24,500 mark. The same car today would probably cost me about $18-19,000 or so, but in my defense, the money I'm saving on gas driving the Prius at work pays the car payment even though I wildly overpaid for it, so que sera sera.

As long as you're ultimately happy with what you got, that's all that really matters. A car's real value isn't what a book or a Monroney sticker says, it's what its buyer/owner is willing to pay for it. I agree with the sentiments above-- just put the money thing behind you, write it off as experience (education in the U.S. isn't usually free after all), and go ahead enjoy and your awesome car.

 

Think of it as a $1,500 investment in your marriage!

 

Flowers are a lot cheaper.

 

On the contrary, I think you should feel bad. $2000 is a lot of money. Let this be a lesson to all others out there. You have to consult with your SO before making big decisions. I know I'm being harsh but you own up to your mistakes as you have done and then learn from it. Thats how you prevent from repeating the same mistake.

The last time I made a mistake, I ran into a stupid box on the freeway causing $1000 damage to my PiP I punished myself. No new computer this year. I'll have to soldier on for an extra year with the old one. Call me sadistic.

 

I could have easily made the same mistake in reverse. Bought a Prius Plug-in while my wife was out of town, only to find out later how much she liked the Prius C in Habanero. Fortunately her fondness for the PiP has grown.

I know you're going to love your final choice, which will ease process you went through to get there.

 

Mine went up about $10-$12 a month. It's certainly less expensive than the equivalent in gas at almost $4/gallon still.

 

Oh, and the $1500 "mistake" don't beat yourself up over it... some ppl in Manhattan piss more than that away (literally) on coffee in a year...