OK so I am in final negotiations for my VERY own Barcelona Red Metallic Prius package 2. What do you think? (Price is invoice, any room to negotiate some more?)
The base price looks to be good, a better one by about $800 than I got when I bought my Package 2 in December, but my price included the so-called "document fee" which was somewhere in the neighborhood of $110, not $369, and there were no taxes or "government fees".....unless that is licensing/plates. My OTD price, not counting plates, was $23,311 and the plates were $250, so my total cost including everything was $23,561 for basically the same car. We do not have sales-tax in Montana, however, so that helps some even though the base price here was a little higher. I would say it doesn't sound like a bad deal, assuming those fees and taxes and "document fee" are legit.....I'm a little skeptical about the last one, but maybe that's standard in AZ. Hopefully one of the members from there can answer that question. Patience, you'll get some additional response over the next couple of days.
Are all those fees & taxes legit? I suspect not. My uninformed opinion is that the real price is $200 under MSRP. The last time gas was $3/gal dealers were selling at MSRP or more. I doubt they are willing to sell at invoice now that gas is holding at $3. If your state does not collect sales tax on fees then you can save by paying more in fees and less for the car. Did you follow the advice at www.carbuyingtips.com?
Most of the dealers in my area will sell at Invoice. They won't go into their holdback but they will go straight to invoice.
Thanks everyone, I knew I would get some Prius love around here! I pressured the insanely high doc fees and they told me that their the lowest in AZ. I said I would check on that before signing anything. Other fees are AZ sales tax, title and license (which I already paid my plates on my current car so those will go down since it transfers.)
What is your trade for 12,650? Is that a reasonable trade in for the vehicle you are selling to the dealer (another of the 4 boxes to consider).
The 12650 is for an 04 Passat, that number is 300 above "Excellent" trade in value in KBB so I think it is fair. It has been for sale for a while with no luck I would have taken 13200 in private sale.
SportyJ, check out the site already recommended by JimN: CarBuyingTips.com new car buying guide, avoiding dealer scams, new cars, used car buying Even with my professional purchaser degree I found the information on there valuable in purchasing my last two cars. One of the tricks you'll learn is to always separate the purchase; trade-in and financing parts of your transaction. Only this way you can maximize each component, otherwise the dealer will play a shell game with you. I bought my Prius package 5 last April in Buffalo NY for $24,275. Good luck, Gabe P.S. Deal with the Internet Specialist on-line not with the dealership - you will get a better deal.
