I’m just curious at this point – I realize I might have to travel a bit to get the car I want at the price I want when I’m ready to buy. In any case, neither my nearest dealer in Los Angeles, nor Toyota's website, will let me configure a Prius with package #3 or #4 with a SoCal zip....but the dealer can't tell me why. A prius can be configured in San Francisco with #3 and #4 (using a SanFran zip online), but no cities in Southern California have those packages available online. What's the deal?
I don't know what the rationale is, but it's like that all over the country. Certain regions are alloted certain packages. If you're paying full price, which I suspect right now is probably the case, is it possible for you pay a little extra to have them trade and ship it from a dealer out of town? I'm in Houston where pkg 4 is not available, but mines came all the way from Salt Lake City.
I faced the same thing when I bought my 2005 package #4. Every dealer from San Luis Obispo to San Diego had never seen one and was not able to get one. Every dealer from San Jose to the North had seen many and could order them. I ended up buying mine at a San Jose dealer and driving back. It actually was kind of nice. I flew Southwest one-way from Burbank to San Jose, the dealer picked me up at the airport, and I drove down the Pacific Coast Highway on a beautiful day! I have no idea why Toyota puts in place these really annoying and perplexing hurdles.
My guess is that this is because the regional office must think the local dealers can meet their quota of Prius sales with the higher-priced packages 5 and 6, so why offer 3 and 4 if they are unnecessary.
This is probably what I'll be doing in a few months if price and availability stay the same in LA. Dealers on the Westside are charging well over MSRP and I met a couple today who didn't seem concerned at all paying 2k over to get one now. I'll use the internet when it's time to buy and, like you, it might be a nice weekend getaway. It just seems like there are very few options (in price and features) in Socal right now.
I live in San Diego and drove to Merced (a little over 400 miles) to get my Package 7 in 2004. I don't know if Toyota decides on the package distribution, or if it's the individual regions...but I wish I could have bought it locally!
