Is this a reasonable wait time?

I have been crosshopping a few other hybrids, including the Kia Sportage hybrid. The Kia dealer tells me that they haven't had a hybrid allocation in 2 months due to a lithium shortage in summer. Ofcourse, he also told me that he "knows someone" who rolled their kia 6 times, and the glass roof was fine... still i googled it and it does seem that we are experiencing a mild lithium shortage atm, and with the trend toward EVs comboned w the complexity of mining lithium, this is likely to get worse before it gets better.

 

There's a plethora of repoed cars mostly out of Washington DC which were purchased with $1,400 stimulus checks and no income to back it up by hungry dealers willing to sell a car to anybody. Manheim is stocked full and they ran out of room. The banks don't want to release everything at once because it'll crash the market but man are there a lot of used cars available. The public just doesn't know it

 

My local dealer just told me to upgrade my specifications for 2023 because first allocation starts end of this month. I’m at top of the list so maybe depends on your region and where you are on the list.

 

The wait is not unheard of. In 2008 we ended up with a 6 month wait for a new Prius and then when it arrived the dealer sold it as it was being unloaded off the truck - so had to wait another 4 months before we got our new 2008 Prius.

They are popular cars and economical - our 2008 was well worth the wait we kept it for 12 years and over 150,000 miles averaging 50 mpg for us.

It sounds like the new Prius is even better.

 

Did you ultimately by from the same dealership? I’d be feeling a little burned after that first fiasco.

 

Yes I did.

I was a Toyota employee and got a good discount on the vehicle through the Toyota Employee Discount program- basically the Dealer was selling the vehicle to me at his cost with no profit margin - the person buying the vehicle wanted it badly and paid much more for it which gave him an excellent profit margin.

Most importantly the Dealer called me immediately told me what he did and why he did it and said they had reordered the car for me. They also gave me some extras for my trouble.

I was disappointed but understood why they did what they did, appreciated them letting me know what they did and why and was satisfied with their honesty, efforts and compensation.

Most importantly I got exactly the car I wanted at a great price with a few added bonuses from the closest Dealer in the region to me.

I probably could have raised 7 different kinds of hell but what would it have gotten me - I would be without the car I wanted and damaged the relationship with the closest Toyota Dealer near me - I was satisfied with my outcome.

I was trading in a sweet little 1992 Corolla on the Prius which was also a great car so an additional 4 months wait was doable for us.

 

the wait was 14 months in 2004

 

Yep, in 2005 I was living in Tallahassee and called several dealerships, several could get me one for like 5-6K markup.

I called Toyota of New Orleans, about 6 hours away. They offered me 5K over MSRP, I said no and hung up. They called right back and offered me MSRP plus $600 to deliver the car to Tallahassee.

The car was dragged to tallahssee, not on a flat bed, which annoyed me (but the car ultimately lasted for as long as I wanted to keep it so no problem). Also, they charged me Lousiana tax which is higher than FL tax, and I never got the difference. Katrina happened and they were impossible to get ahold of so I gave up. It also showed up with 75 miles on it.

Anyway, the Prius was the only hybrid option at the time. Now there are dozens of options, from pretty much every manufacturer, and half a dozen options from Toyota. So hopefully it won't be as bad as 2004-2005.

 

The Gulf Coast and Southeast areas are served by distributors independent of Toyota and Toyota USA. In addition to tacking on port added items that are option only in the rest of the country, they haven't been welcoming to hybrids and plug ins. I think they've accepted the hybrids by now, but comments here about the Prime being order only at dealers seems there is a plug in resistance still.

If you are looking for a Prime, might get a better deal taking a trip to the Northeast. With a couple big CARB states, the selection will be.

 

Not just the add-ons. The processing/documentation fee. My last two I went north 350 miles and saved $10 a mile. Yes, $3,600 each time I did it. Once by train and once my wife drove me up. Sadly the dealership was sold and I'm sure I couldn't do as well today.

SET and SWT are to be avoided if you can.

 

I love my 2017 Prius - it has 98,000 miles, and I average 50-60 mpg using cruise control whenever possible. In April 2023 I was told the reg hybrid was a 12 month wait and the plug-in was 18months. I really want to upgrade but it looks like middle to late 2024 for a 2023 model? Yikes.

 

I've owned domestic brand cars to 130k miles. You should be fine waiting.