I currently drive a 2012 Mustang v6 Premium 6spd manual transmission. I love the car, I really do. I got the v6 over the GT because of the extra 4mpg and for being a sports car it's not bad, I average 20mpg city and about 24mpg highway. My motivation for getting a Prius is that it's a 4 door hatchback with fantastic mpg. I have a one year old boy and while I knew we'd be having kids soon when I got the Mustang and my husband warned me I am stubborn and got the Mustang. Now I am realizing that a 4 door car would be fantastic. I wanted a Prius before I got the Mustang and even though I have considered other options I still keep going back to the Prius. I am currently researching prices and options in my area and weighing new/used options. After driving the Mustang I have to have the bluetooth option on a Prius which I'm not finding on some models. When did that become standard? I'm in the SET area (South Carolina) and I really don't want the Toyoguard garbage (glorified wax job and scotch guard) is that something the dealers will actually knock off? Where can I find invoice price information? Also, is TrueCar over priced? One of the dealerships close to me doesn't do the Toyota leather add on if the car you want to buy has fabric seats. They send it to Elite Audio and get leather added, it's like what's in the Mustang. A friend had theirs done that way through this dealership and I like it. They would give the same warranty as the Toyota leather. Other dealerships will send it to the port to get Toyota leather added. I called Elite Audio to find out how much it is to add it myself and it's $1,100, the dealerships want to charge $1,600 - $1,800 to do it. Why doesn't this one dealership offer to send it to the port, is there something fishy going on there?
Truecar pricing is pretty good, a good place to start and you can get a real ballpark of what you're looking at in terms of pricing. Dealership's business is to make money, they don't send you somewhere else to save you money. You can install leather Clazzio seats yourself for about $500 or less. Many people have them on here.
They are available online and through the Priuschat shop. I can understand you want to feel and see the quality before you buy it. If that's the case, many Toyota dealerships sell this product as well. Maybe there is one closer than 1 hour away? You should call them and confirm before making the drive......
The one place that sells it an hour away is a Toyota dealership. Call me crazy but I kind of want to get the leather added that is similar to what I have now in the Mustang. I keep flip flopping on features that I want too. First I didn't care about the backup camera and navigation but now I do, then I didn't care about the solar roof but now I'm kind of interested in it. Though, I also think that it's just one more expensive thing that can go wrong.
So basically you are looking for a Prius 3 or Prius 4 with a solar roof. You can get the backup camera and navigation on those models. Prius 3 doesn't have leather so you would have to add Clazzios for $500. A prius 4 with solar roof would be your ideal package.
The roof is something you can open. Also it's all black, some like the look of a black roof "if you get a blizzard pearl, black roof would look cool".
If cost is not a factor, the more options the merrier. The black roof on the blizzard pearl is great. Some have put black vinyl to imitate the look of the solar roof....just to get the look
Cost is a factor. I could do a 3 but I don't think I can swing a 4. Though I did a search and the 3 is $28,000 with solar roof. Does that sound about right?
Is there a forum to discuss pricing? I found one I like but it has other garbage SET features on it I don't want but I'm not sure I can get away with the dealership taking them off the price. Unfortunately it won't let me paste the link here.
There's a forum here for everything!! But pricing is done on a individual basis, supply and demand. It's not the easiest to say what's right and what's wrong. But a ballpark figure is something people can offer. If you get a package 3 with all the options, you may be able to find a 2013 model. The cars with a lot of options are harder to sell. If you can find a 2013 model, you would be able to get the best price.
I found a 2013 Persona series at a dealership but wasn't in a place to purchase it last month when I got it. I did manage to get them to offer it to me for around $24,000. I'll have to find the pricing forum.
You can actually do a search online for the car you want at Toyota.com, they have inventory of all the dealerships. You can email the internet department and have them quote you the price. You can email all the dealers and see what you can afford.
