Hello everyone. I am about to become a new Prius driver! I found a Prius on the east coast and I live on the west coast (bay area). The car is being built next Tuesday in Japan (Driftwood #9). I am expecting that I will hire a private car transporter to bring the car to me. I was wondering if I could avoid the transport charge by having the car shipped from Japan to a different dealer on the west coast. Does anybody have knowledge of this ever being done? I can see all sorts of reasons why it may be impossible, mostly related to how the actual dealer would get paid. Any thoughts? Thanks! --Bob
The factory most likely ships to a couple of large distributors which then distribute the cars to their network of dealers. You would first need to know where these main distributors are located, and if they deal with one another.
In Puerto Rico there's one Toyota distributor but there are many dealers. Any dealer can get you any color of Prius within 24 hours by ordering it from the distributor. The Toyota distributor also distributes Scion, but that brand will only be available through five dealers. The Aguadilla and the Mayagüez dealerships are owned by the same person, but only one gets to sell Scions. However, both will service the cars. :roll:
Thank you both for the information. I will ask my dealer again about this -- he thinks it will not be possible. I can see that it might be difficult for him to gt paid for the sale if the car arrives somewhere else. Dealers trade cars all the time, of course, but this situation is different.
