It's here! In my garage!

MOSSY TOYOTA in San Diego came through for me! It's actually here and parked in my garage! Paid MSRP - $28,284.00 (package 6) and not a penny more (not including tax and title). I had called over 45 dealerships until I found one that was not charging over MSRP and/or forcing add-ons. I found several actually, but only about 4 were the real deal. For the most part the rest were not telling the truth. I will post more on that tomorrow. I plan on namin' names. If you live in So. Cal - it's a must read.

Just got home about an hour ago - the dealership stayed open late for US! (We live in Orange County and didn't leave home until 7 pm!) More details tomorrow! I'm absolutely exhausted and still have to get up and go to work in the morning. :yawn:

Woohoo! :biggrin1::biggrin1::biggrin1:

 

It's a Super White package 6 with bisque interior. Very pretty. Hopefully I will post pictures tonight if I haven't passed out from exhaustion yet.

Like I said we bought it from Mossy Toyota - our salesman was Eric Dejong and he was great but they are all great there. MSRP and not a penny more, just like they promised. My only complaint is that they lowered our trade in value by 2 thousand dollars from what they told us 3 weeks ago, so we did not trade in the Explorer. We will try to sell it private party.

I said I was going to be namin' names, and I'm keeping my promise.

When we started (see my earliest posts) we first went into our local Toyota dealership which is about a mile from me and where we get my dh's Prius serviced. Wanted to stay loyal, ya know? Well, not only did they lie to us about not charging over MSRP to get us in the door, but the salesman was so incredibly unprofessional. Their premium was $4000.

So then I went onto the locator on Toyota.com and searched for the nearest dealerships within 250 miles. 86 came up, we got about 45 through on the list.

Pretty much all of the dealerships in the OC area were charging over MSRP. Elmore Toyota and Tustin Toyota were the worst at $7000 over MSRP. All of the others ranged from $2000 to $5000 over MSRP. Several of them were also incredibly rude to me, down to laughing at me on the phone due to my craziness of wanting to buy a Prius.

I also contacted several dealerships at the recommendation of people here. I had heard that Torrance Toyota was not charging over MSRP. I emailed them. Turns out they are - $4000 over - and they keep emailing me over and over and over - I've asked them to stop but they aren't. They want to know if I am satisfied with their price quote? Well, heck no... I could never get a hold of the lady that people recommended here.

I was also told that Kearny Mesa was not charging over MSRP but I could never get them to return my calls.

Soutar Toyota in Barstow (recommended by the OC Prius Club) seemed like the real deal. I actually talked to Clint Soutar - the owner - he said they are the smallest franchised dealer in the nation. He also gave me his word that he is not charging over MSRP, but said that he rarely gets a Prius in. He did put me on the waiting list though. Mossy came through first.

Miller Toyota in Anaheim at first promised me that there was no markup. Put myself on the waiting list, they called, car was in, suddenly, it's $3000 over, didn't we tell you?

South Bay Toyota and Longo Toyota also told me no markup but I don't know how truthful that is.

Toyota of Escondido and Toyota of Carlsbad (spoke to a Marcos at both places, boy did that confuse me) but tell me that they are not charging over MSRP and recent purchases here at PriusChat makes that probably the truth. We opted to try Mossy, though.

We also tried Claremont Toyota, where we bought my husband's Prius. They were the WORST. The sales manager, Alex Gonzalez, told me for a week straight that there was no markup, no forced add ons. Over and over no matter in which way I clarified this he said this. I put myself on the waiting list. Finally that weekend he told us that a Magnetic Grey was in. So we drove from Orange County to Claremont (long drive) with the Explorer, only to find that there was no car (oops, we were wrong) and there was a $4000 markup and you get $600 chrome wheels out of that - no way out of it. My husband went through the ROOF right there in the dealership and we got a call from the owner's son the next day. He then offered us the car at MSRP but it would not be until mid-July. Not trusting them, we went forward w/Mossy.

Drove to Mossy right after that - yup, Claremont to San Diego - and they required a $1000 cash or check deposit (no credit card). It was refundable. Said they only wanted serious buyers. We agreed, after our frustrations, because we only wanted a serious dealer. I've dealt with Mossy's business office before through work and wasn't worried about getting my money back from them if push came to shove. That was 3 weeks ago. Last night, my car came in, and they even stayed open late for us because we didn't get there until after 8, didn't leave until after 11 pm. The financing process was great, we are happy with our payments, the only complaint as I said above was the fact that the trade-in wasn't going to work out. I just hope it turns out to be the right decision. I still don't think I honestly trusted them until we got into finance and then I truly believed, for sure, that they weren't going to charge us over MSRP.

(Anyone want to buy a 2005 Ford Explorer?)

I love my car!

 

I also forgot to mention that Cabe Toyota in Long Beach seemed like the real deal. I spoke with Steve there.

 

Pictures! (of both!)