I'm ready to forget the whole idea, and never use the Toy- word again. Apparenty Toy--a thinks U.S. customers, in a capitalist society, will simply pay more to get an earlier delivery. What makes this country great is that we respect equality and justice. I wasn't interested in the first generation hybrids, and neither were many other North Americans, so I missed the Pioneer order option, seems biased anyway. This artificial scarcity of new Prius shows that Toy--a is treating the U.S. customer like toys. I'm convinced of this because I just passed the local Enterprise rental and they have lot's of Prius. Don't tell me that they were ordered before Sept 4, 2003. If someone could tell me what the expected price and fuel efficiency of the hybrid Sienna would be, I might wait for it.
heya Mel! YOu are getting a lot closer. You are #24 on my list for a package 9 car but wanting only red (one color) really painted you into a corner in my region - red 9's are too scarce here in SoCal! And, for the record, I absolutely agree with your "pissed at the whole waiting time" problem. Yes, they had orders thru rental car companies before they realized the car's popularity would skyrocket and the price of gas would skyrocket at the same time. But, they also had committments... with dealers who wanted trac cars and ordered them (us too!), with rental car companies, and with other companies as fleet units. It was hard to placate everyone, especially us as dealers with thousands waiting for their cars. I learned to shrug and walk away (emotionally, or not participate in their spouting) from anyone pissed because there was literally nothing I could do anymore. You, and everyone else waiting just picked the hardest car to obtain, and we all have to live with it. Personally, I also got tired of waiting and bought myself a new Solara convertible last month. I still believe in Toyota, and think we have the best and most reliable cars made, but I'm flexible as to what I'll drive. On a personal level, Mel, I hope to be delivering you one of the first 2005 Prius package 9's in red in the fall. Dianne
sigh Am still trying to purify my list as I betcha I have a lot of folks on it who are no longer needing to be on it! I'd guess at 250 serious right now at MSRP... and plenty are from last fall, still... I take orders with the information back about it being a year or more wait at MSRP... and there are plenty who already are ready for that wait.
