Prius Prime won't be available in FL ?

Never believe anything you hear at a car dealership. They either lie or often are just not well informed.

Unlike the original Prius Plug-in, Toyota has said the Prime will be distributed nationally -- and this time they mean it. I'm guessing, but the previous plug-in may not have been available in Florida and whoever you talked to is assuming the same will be true of the Prime. Or maybe that person just wanted to sell you a car now rather than later.

 

agreed. and also, florida is the southeast franchise or something? i've heard they make their own rules.

 

it's funny, iirc, someone else from fl posted the same thing.

 

I was told by the local dealer here (Chicago suburbs) that they wouldn't get any, and if they did it might be only two per year. Very encouraging.

 

that will all change once toyota is finished 'reengineering' the dealership sales associates.

 

Sadly, a salesman is never judged for lining up sales when a new car becomes available. It is all about the current 30 day period.

So the dealer kill their own sales.

 

As I've mentioned before, I'm not at all opposed to flying out to Dianne Whitmore's dealership and picking up a Prime from her and driving it 100% gas (urp) all the way back to Illinois. I have little confidence with anyone at the couple Toyota dealerships I frequent.

 

My purchase from Dianne was entirely remote. We arranged to have the car shipped, right to my driveway. It worked out great.

 

The Toyota dealer in Merritt Island, FL told me that the crooks at Southeast Toyota Distributors would not be selling the Prime, at least not yet. I'll call a big city dealer or two, and see if they say the same thing.

 

Ray Brant Toyota in Kenner LA may be the closest dealer out side of SET with a Prime.

2017 Toyota Prius Prime Hatchback | Kenner

 

Just for the fun of it, I called the closest dealer to us, Sun Toyota in Holiday, FL. The guy seemed pretty up on what's going on. He said Toyota sent them one, which sold right away. (It might be the one I saw on the road last week.) But they don't expect any more for about six months because they are having a hard time making enough to keep up with demand in the states with the super strict emissions rules. I think he even said there are fines if the company doesn't sell enough Primes in those states to keep their average down. Not sure, because I'm not in one of those states and never looked into it.

FWIW, I commented that that was too bad because there seems to be a lot of demand for them. He agreed. He did say that you could call and they would dig deeper to see what they could do. That may or may not be a ploy to get you in so they can talk you into a hatchback.

 

Ugh. It's the same old dealer problem Toyota corporate faced back with the Classic model rollout in 2000. They'd deliver a "fleet demo" model to the dealer with explicit instructions not to sell it for 6 months, that it was to be used exclusively for education purposes in the meantime. Some dealers respected that, using it for customer demos and salesperson training. Others sold it without any regard for what it was intended.

 

If he was talking about CARB's ZEV program, that could be true.

 

I talked to a dealer a few years ago here in Atlanta when I was looking to buy a Prius Plugin. He said that the Southeast District Manager was very much against plugin cars and swore that there would never by a Toyota Plugin sold in the Southeast Region. Today if you look at Toyota's build app and try to build a Prius Prime in any of the Southeast Region states (GA, AL, FL, NC, SC) you get an error "We're sorry' Our servers are experiencing high levels of traffic, or may be down for scheduled maintenance." If you pick a zipcode right next door in Chattanooga TN. You can build one just fine. I am planning to talk to that same dealer sometime in the next week or so and see if their story has changed. If not I may have to take a ride on the Chattanooga Choo Choo!

 

Curious, I wonder if that is still their policy:
Newsroom


Who would we ask:

• Ed Sheehy
• Brent Burns
• Colin Brown

Bob Wilson

 

The Chattanooga Choo Choo is a different hotel.
Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel and Attractions | Historic Hotels

 

I believe the plugin was not sold nationwide, though. They may have been correct about the plugin.
Since many dealer allocations are based on past sales, that makes the distribution of the nationwide Prime more challenging.

 

Ok, that makes a lot more sense. We don't have any CARB credits from sales in the South East. Just we've got Kennedy Space Flight Center, Marshall Space Flight Center, and several engineering heavy DoD facilities. All places where engineers love to have modern transportation . . . especially if great globs of fire come out the back end.

Bob Wilson