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Yet another Prius newbie from the Portland area...

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by dvd, Feb 28, 2005.

  1. dvd

    dvd Junior Member

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    2010 Prius
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    III
    Hi All,

    Just thought I'd share my recent experience becoming a new Prius owner. My search was over in less than two weeks, but there's a lot to tell so forgive the missive...

    After poring over prischat and john1701a's site for a while, I committed myself to buying a Prius and started scouring all of the local (Portland area) dealership websites looking for inventory.

    I ended up on a list with a broker thru my credit union, but there was a 4-6 week wait. The deal was struck at $150 below MSRP!

    I also went to Beaverton Toyota and test drove one they had on the lot. They had a blue one available, but I was holding out for the Salsa Red. That is, until they showed me the blue one and I decided to go for it. Unfortunately, while we were sitting down to start the negotiations, somebody else bought it out from under me! In the end, they asked for a $1000 deposit to put me on their list, which I felt was steep. On the other hand, they did put MSRP in writing, so what the hay. No joke, in an ironic twist of timing we ended up following the blue Prius off the lot and quite a ways down the road.. the new owner was just leaving as we wrapped up our business.

    Meanwhile, my regular commuting car sold privately, so I was going to become a serious leech on my carpool buddy for who knows how long.

    On a whim, I emailed Jon Geffen at Tonkin Toyota and asked him if he happened to have exactly what I wanted, a Salsa Red #6 for MSRP.. they don't have their inventory online, so I wasn't optimistic.. sent him the email late on 02/17. He replied in the affirmative at 10:30am the next morning. I think I had him on the phone before his finger left the "send" key on his keyboard. The deal was quickly struck and the perfect Prius was parked in my driveway by 9pm! Jon is the VIP/fleet manager and also the go-to guy in Tonkin's "Alternative Fuel Vehicles Division."

    I may be seeing patterns where none exist, but a) it seems like all the local dealers inventory swelled with Prius on Thursdays, and B) regardless of how many people are on "the list" it seems like the dealerships frequently get 1-2 unallocated vehicles.

    PS - Russ Jr himself (the owner) refunded the $1000 deposit I had given Beaverton Toyota -- no problems whatsoever. The sales guy was a bit miffed when I cancelled my order, but otherwise, they really treated me well.. if they had the right car at the right time, it would have been a perfect car-buying experience at Beaverton Toyota. And I will be taking my car there for service since it's so close to my office, so everybody wins, right?

    PPS - When I called to cancel with my broker, turns out she had used Beaverton Toyota as well.. so I was actually on their list twice!
     
  2. kjb516

    kjb516 New Member

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    Very cool!

    I guess production is starting to catch up to demand. I put my name on the list at Ron Tonkin back in January 2004 and picked my Prius at the end of June only after upping my "order" from a (then) package 1 (RW) to a package 7 (AM).

    I was quite impressed at Tonkin's handling of my order back then with the feeding frenzy that was going on and was happy that they did NOT have their inventory online to avoid bidding competitions (unlike Thomason Toyota). Because of the honesty that they showed during the purchasing process, I plan to continue to returning for all of my servicing.

    While I have not heard anything particularly bad about Beaverton Toyota, I also cannot say I've heard anything good either.
     
  3. Robert Taylor

    Robert Taylor New Member

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    Congrats on the Salsa Red BC package, that is what I ordered and it has been great.

    You will really love this fine automobile.
     
  4. hdrygas

    hdrygas New Member

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    Congrats!! :mrgreen: I love that below MSRP shows that the supply is catching up with the demand. I am seeing more and more in the wild. More and more at work in the parking lot.
     
  5. xevious

    xevious New Member

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    Congratulations! I'm glad that you didn't have a negative experience with Russ Toyota, and I'm also glad that you purchased your vehicle through Tonkin instead.

    Way back when, I signed up for a 2004 through Toyota corporate as an Internet pre-sales customer. This was a special offer extended only to customers who ordered their 2002 (2003?) Prius through the prius.toyota.com configuration system. The corporate deal was that you would be the first kid on your block with a new 2004, and that you would pay MSRP.

    Signed all the appropriate papers with Russ, then when the car came, they refused to sell it for less than $3000 above MSRP. Loooong story short, after involving Toyota corporate (the "Customer Experience!") and pleading my case to Tonkin (where I purchased my 2002), I finally ended up with my package 9 five months later than I should have had it.

    My thanks go out to the nice folks at Tonkin who demonstrated integrity that was otherwise lacking in another corner of the Portland metro area.

    Tonkin service is excellent too!
     
  6. pdxprius

    pdxprius New Member

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    I'm also from Portland and just bought my '05 Black beauty with package #4 two days ago with 12 miles on it from McMinnville Toyota.

    That's interesting to hear what you say about (Russ) Beaverton Toyota. My wife and I had a particularly poor experience with them in my search for a prius. The test drive went well, but the moment the sales guy got us in the building everything became shadier and shadier by the minute. Our goal was to order a prius and wait, since they did not have the package we wanted. He first tried to sell it to us for $2000 over MSRP, strike one. I bargained him down to MSRP but he had to "go chat with the manager" first who he said "must have been in a good mood to let you have MSRP", strike two. He then insisted we fill out a credit application prior to our deposit, I refused because I knew that other dealerships require no such application to place an order. He then initially said the deposit would be $500, but then quickly said 'I mean $1000", strike three. Then he went on to say that it was non-refundable. I don't think so. I had enough of this jokester and told him we were going elsewhere. He quickly got up and grabbed the manager... trying to do the double-teaming approach, how classic. The manager had the gall to use the wait list as leverage.. "if you don't buy it now you'll be waiting 6 months". Whatever. I found my prius at McMinnville Toyota, 30 miles from Portland. I experienced no wait, got the exact package that I wanted, and no salesman BS. The people were respectable, honest, and I got my prius at MSRP. I would recommend them to anyone in the pdx area.

    I was also on the waiting list at Broadway Toyota, put $500 down for an order back in January. They gave me an estimate of 8 months. The experience there was ok, nothing bad, nothing particularly good either. At the time we made our order they didn't have an '05 available to test drive, which was a bummer. The salespeople were decent though, not too much pressure. I'll be getting my $500 refunded in the next couple of days.

    It really seems that the prius availability in the metropolitan area of Portland is quite poor. However, after calling toyota dealerships at a 30 mile radius outside of Portland, I learned that the availability is much better and the wait is much shorter. Thank you PriusChat for helping me in this regard.
     
  7. DanMan32

    DanMan32 Senior Member

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    I'd do the Pretty Woman bit to those shady dealers.
    You know, drive up to the dealer with your goods, asking if the salespeople work on commission, remind them that you were the one they pushed out the door, and that it was a huge mistake.
     
  8. dvd

    dvd Junior Member

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    Wow, we could form a Portland contingent with all the locals on here! That makes sense, I see a lot of them around the west side of town.

    Funny that you mention McMinnville as being on the fringes.. they're nearly my closest dealership! :)

    I guess everybody has different strike zones. You're right, Beaverton Toyota's approach is decidedly old-school. In fact, during our visit there, I noted to my wife, "I didn't realize car dealerships still worked this way." I just reverted back to my counter-old-school tactics that have worked for me in the past. Not sure how I lucked into MSRP, as I simply pointed to the MSRP sticker in the car window and said, "I'm prefinanced, have no trade-in, and this is the most I'm willing to pay." The price never came up again.

    I did get the "unrefundable" spiel but I took the owner at his word that I could get it refunded, and he made good on his promise. Had it been anybody other than the owner himself, I wouldn't have signed the paperwork.

    To their credit, they did offer me three Prius with package #6 in a 2-week span, and 2 out of those 3 offers were before I was on their list. So they do seem to do lots of volume.

    I guess I chalked the differences between Tonkin and Russ up to the differences between the showroom sales experience versus the dealing with the Internet/fleet office. Tonkin was a much more straightforward deal, but I never set foot on their showroom floor.
     
  9. kjb516

    kjb516 New Member

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    Well it looks like I stand corrected on my previous statement about not hearing "anything particularly bad about Beaverton Toyota". When I placed my order at Tonkin, I simply went there first because it was the closest dealer to my home. Since my car at the time was still in good running condition, and because I simply DETEST dealing with most car sales people, I decided to just stick with Tonkin and wait my time.

    Out of curiosity, I did stop by Gresham Toyota after placing my order to see if the wait time claim was valid. After a rather unpleasant discussion with the snot-nosed sales kid, who was fully uninterested to even show me the Prius that he was leaning against when I pulled up, my decision to stick with Tonkin was solidified.

    Though I probably could have gotten my Prius faster by running all over town, it sounds like I made the better decision.
     
  10. eklabbers

    eklabbers New Member

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    Congrats on your Prius! I'm so excited to see so many Prii here in the Portland Metro area. I wonder how Portland ranks when it comes to the relative % of Prii being sold here.

    I had a bad test drive experience at Beaverton Toyota, so I got my Tideland prius at Broadway Toyota instead at MSRP, with a 6 month wait (this was last year when supply was still limited). I do however go to Beaverton Toyota for service. They have a much bigger facility than Broadway Toyota for servicing. The first time I tried to schedule an oil change at B'way, they gave me a 3-week wait, but at Beaverton Toyota I could come in the next day. You can schedule your appt. online and they give you a free car wash with your oil change. I was very happy with their service.
     
  11. kjb516

    kjb516 New Member

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    For what it's worth, the Oregonian from 01/28/2005 reported that the Portland area is buying hybrids at 5 times the national average. I'd still venture a guess that California is way ahead of us, though.

    If you are anywhere near Tonkin, you don't even need an appointment for oil changes. They are not quite as fast as a Jippy-lube, but there is no pressure to have any additional worthless services done. In their defense, both times I’ve changed my oil was on busy Saturday mornings.
     
  12. pdxprius

    pdxprius New Member

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    I agree that it's nice to see some many fellow Portlanders here. I see quite a few Prii around these parts, especially where I live (Marquam Hill).

    I appreciate eklabbers post on her experience with Prius servicing. Although it immediately invokes a visceral response upon even considering going back to Russ, it will remain a potential option from the servicing perspective. My wife and I were just wondering where a good place was to service our new baby, living in the portland area.. Anyone else from the area have any recommendations, or know of places to avoid for servicing? Much appreciated!
     
  13. xevious

    xevious New Member

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    During my first two rounds of DVD replacements, the Tonkin service manager was great about following-through with corporate. Excellent service, especially considering that they probably weren't making much money from those disk swaps.

    For what it's worth, I used to have good service experiences at Russ (Beaverton) Toyota, but that slowly went downhill following the change in ownership to Russ.

    If you're on the west side, Russ is probably much more convenient, but I'd advise using Tonkin for anything other than oil changes.
     
  14. pdxprius

    pdxprius New Member

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    So it sounds like, by consensus, Tonkin is the way to go so far. Although I live on the "west side", I care less about convenience than I do about finding an honest, professional service department that treats it's customers with respect.

    Thanks for your replies! Any other Prius service experiences in the Portland area? Keep 'em coming.