New driver in CA: Prius Prime LE or Prius LE

Kudos; for doing your homework. That's what they charged me a few months ago; so our tax rates & fees are about the same. The XLE will come in around $3450; taxes are based on MSRP minus dealer discount - but before rebates are applied. I think Toyota kicked in another $500 rebate beginning March 1. I negotiated my LE down to 22k, but missed the additional discount. I'm pretty sure the dealership knew that additional discount was coming; that's why they decided to let me move the price that low - besides they had 15 - 20 primes on their lot.
Since your not a good negotiator, go through Truecar, Sam's, Costco. They should be able to get you the deal you mentioned above. DECLINE any additional warranties and services.

corrected a few things - too much coffee....

 

Hi Lili, Yes, telling you something ends "in May" is probably just another ploy to try to get you to buy now. Or it might be true. Assume everything any sales person tells you is a "lie". My friend trades in as soon as any warranty which covers everything expires. Under warranty you pretty much don't have to plan on any expenses for maintenance. That is the advantage. After that you're on your own, and it's back to trying to find a repair place you can trust. And as many DIY'ers have found they are few and far between. Taking this issue out of your life, albeit at a cost, is pretty nice. The one advantage of the vast number on "no value added" dealers is that buyers have a lot of opportunities to practice negotiating skills. Use Truecar or whatever it's precise name is, to get an accurate take on what people are paying. Then write down your wish list, and what would make you buy right now. And then call a few dealers, in as wide a circle as you are willing to travel, and make them an offer. You might even try asking for the sales person who has closed the least number of deals in the past x months (because they will be hungry). None of this is fun of course, but if saving money is important to you, then it may be worth it. Also, absurd as it seems, it might help to take your most cynical male friend with you any time you go and look at a car. Dealers get rich from all their "sales techniques" so don't have any qualms about trying to pay the least you can. Forget that they'll tell you "we only make $500" on a car. Some dealers have their own private jets, so this is BS. Good luck with this adventure. Obviously, like all things economic, this business is cyclic. There are times when it's a buyer's market, and times when it's a sellers market. As an example of a buyer's market, you can take a look at certified used Toyota Mirai's. They are hugely limited - short range, very few dependable hydrogen filling stations, only usable in CA. But the deals are remarkable - $10k or so for a 3 year old car with 40k miles, plus free fuel for 3 years. And that's just the asking price!

 

Toyota's & Honda's are very reliable cars; as long as you follow their OEM recommended maintenance schedule. There are several Prius only independent repair shops in your area; that can do as good or better job of maintaining & repairing, your Toyota as the dealer. After the 2 year 24K "free" maintenance.

The battery is covered for 10 years 150k miles
The EV drive train is 8 years 100K mile; mandated by Ca EPA
The power-train warranty (ICE & non-electrical portions of transmission) is 6 years 60K mile
As you stated; bumper to bumper warranty is 3 years 36k miles.

IMHO - I usually drive cars till the wheels fall off ; unless I have an "actual need" to replace a vehicle. I've sold several Toyotas to friends with over 200k miles on them. They're still my friends and they are all still running, except for one - got totaled by an uninsured driver.

 

If you have cash, I would buy it with that or take the Toyota cash/rebate offer ($5k) and get the 4.x% financing, if you qualify. Then refinance the loan with a Credit Union (PenFed offers great rates). You could also pay cash and then refi afterwards. That would be best for long-term credit history. Just try to get 2% or less APR.

You should target $5k rebate, $900 CA, and a dealer discount of $3k (for LE/XLE). See the prices paid thread - that is fairly standard now.

XLE is fine UNLESS YOU NEED ANDROID AUTO!!! That was huge for us. 2021 LE finally has AA. We also much prefer the physical buttons for HVAC. That huge screen is mainly for looks on the higher trims. Functionally it is annoying to use. Subaru does the same thing in their Outbacks.

We pay $300 for ceramic tint on all windows (minus windshield). $600 is inflated. Ceramic is great though, it blocks heat and won't fade like cheap tint. Very easy to see out of also, so no visibility issues (we use LLumar CTX 15 or 25, with AirBlue 80 on front windows).

 

sounds like a fake upcharge to me

 

At least in Hawaii, tinted front windows and windshield will not pass "safety inspection". I've had to remove front window tint plastic from 3 cars. If your dealers have already put it on, you can use that as one more negotiating point - you don't want or need it, so why should you pay for it? However, if they give you a full size spare wheel and tire (which you can secure in the "trunk" in case you have a flat and want to drive further than the "donut" is good for. Or just keep at home.), and a debit card for $1000 of free gas (they give debit cards with the sale of any Mirai), then you'll be happy to pay $600 for the unwanted tint ;-) After a while this can get to be fun, especially if you smile and are friendly when negotiating, and know in advance your own bottom line ;-)

 

This is one of those shark things; I was telling you about. A fair price would be $200; call around - I can get places up here to do it for that. The dealerships gets volume discounts; so their cost is way cheaper. oops; Just read your latest post - That's only $150 max. worth of tint - the other price is all doors and rear hatch.
Ca. law explicitly forbids tint on the car's front door and forward. It's rarely enforced, but it is illegal. Negotiation point; I've got really light tint on my front doors and limo tint on the rear - the contrast makes it difficult to tell that there's tint on my front doors. The hatch has 50% tint; mainly to cut-out UV and prevent interior fade. Anything darker makes it difficult to see cars, at night, with defective headlights or those very old incandescence headlamps.

If the dealer want's to be an idiot about it; tell them you'll take a XLE off of their next delivery batch; before their tint guy gets to it. IMHO - that tint price should've been included in that quote they gave you; otherwise they aren't dealing with you honestly. The salesman stated that all prime XLE gets tint; so why are they quoting you a non-existent car. The dealer also has an option to do a dealer to dealer trade. If a customer won't budge on a certain color car or option; the dealer can find the car you want and trade one of their cars to the other dealer to sell you the car you want. It's all a game to them.....

 

create a new email account and use it on truecar.com .. You'll get multiple offers in your area and the web site will let u expand your search area. Sunnyvale Toyota had very good prices around the new year, when I was looking. they may have been able to work down their inventory by now.
I was on the nation wide Toyota.com web site and somehow got into the dealer's car inventory count. I targeted my local dealers with the highest number of primes on their lot. I don't remember how I got in there.
Dealerships don't like posting large discounts - it's a "lost leader" designed to generate sales leads. Sam's, Costco and Truecar quotes are actual cars for sale, usually tied to a vin number.

 

Try Autonation Hayward - I think they were always competitive. We bought from Autonation Buena Park (LA area). Also the price paid thread had a good deal from Santa Cruz just posted.
Find a vehicle you like at one of those dealers online, click the "get best price" button or whatever they have and put in your info for a quote. Tip - I use a fake phone #. Easy to ignore spam emails, phone calls would be annoying. Almost no one gets the 867-5309 song reference sadly, though.

 

I purchased my 21 Prime LE in early February at Hanlees Hilltop Toyota in Richmond. Looks like Toyota rebate has improved by 1K since then.

My deal:

3100 dealer discount
4000 Toyota rebate
900 CA clean fuel rebate
Paid 24,400 out the door

 

Autotrader - page unavailable
not sure if that link is going to work; but give it a shot.

Android Auto is no big deal; but it does let you use Waze. I'm an old school Garmin guy; usually out of cell coverage when camping, hunting, fishing. Now that you can download off-line maps, the cell phone is usable - if it has built-in satellite GPS antenna; not all cell phones do.

 

Steven's Creek shows 49 available: Steven's Creek Website

That's where I bought my Prime. I did 7 months of comparisons between ALL the toyota dealers in the bay area. Steven's Creek gave me the best deal from when I started my search for a Prime in March 2020 until my purchase in Sept 2020. While the deal was good, I wouldn't praise them for customer service or their ability to prep the car for delivery.

 

That is a real risk because the metals in the converters are worth a lot. you can get a shield to reduce the risk. Here is one: Cat Shield™ by MillerCAT– MillerCAT Corp

 

there are many threads here on cat protectors, don't just search the prime forum