How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. area

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Dianne Whitmire (The Empress of Prius) -She has helped support this forum for ages.
Carson Toyota
[email protected]
310-522-2317

Dianne's Southern CA available units are view-able at the link below.

=17] http://69.93.188.20/~tundraso/fleet/showro...el_id]=17

Cathy
Orange County Prius Club
OCPrius.com

 

I paid msrp at Penske Toyota in Downey. If I had read PC before I bought, I would have tried Carson first. I did not have a bad experience, but I like PC.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

I went with Crown Toyota in Ontario. www.crown-toyota.com You can click on "Quick Quote" to have them email you a quote. Not sure how fast they'll be on a Sunday in responding. Ya never know.

Here's my (LONG and wordy) story. I read that someone got a deal for under MSRP at Crown so I filled out the "Quick Quote" form on 2005-03-14. For a Tideland pkg#6. The quote came back as 26,142. That is 600 off the MSRP of 26,742 including the floor mat pkg (Z1). At different times in the process they referred to this as 500 under MSRP but I always had my email printed out ready to show them in case they tried to reneg. A couple times in the process they wanted the price to be 26,242 but when I mentioned the original email they went along with 26,142.

I was slow in getting back to them but drove over on Friday 3-18 as they said they had one that was coming in soon and I could hold it with a $500 check. I talked with Debbie and Shaun was my salesman. I gave him my check. He filled out a one page form and took a copy of my drivers license. The paper had a VIN number that was called a "temp VIN" but I believe it was a real VIN as it was the proper VIN format. He said he wouldn't cash the check and that it didn't obligate me to buy the car. I later learned that maybe it didn't obligate them to anything either. He said it was scheduled to be in the Port of Long Beach that day (3-18 ) and the earliest it would be ready for me would be Tuesday 3-22.

On Tuesday 3-22 I called to bug them about the status of "my" car. I couldn't find anyone who knew anything about it. I'm think they may have sold "my" car to someone else. No one ever quite fessed up to this but I'm not sure why else the car I ended up with has a different VIN than the original VIN on my first form from 3-18. BUT, innocent until proven guilty, I do strongly believe.

They did find another Tideland Pkg6 in the pipeline (about 3-24) and told me to be ready to come in and fill out paperwork as soon as its VIN shows up on their computer. On Tuesday 3-29 they called me. I went in and signed a bunch of papers, not just one like on 3-18. I picked up my car on Thursday 3-31.

Result: I have my Prius. I feel I got a really good price. I love it. Compared to many people with long waits, my wait was insignificant. The people really hustled to find the car I was seeking and they succeeded. That makes me happy. The process didn't really give me a warm fuzzy feeling, tho'. On the plus side I didn't get any of the stereotypical car salesman hard sell tactics thanks to the people being in their Internet Sales Department. And if "my" original car did go to another customer I think it was just a mistake from which they recovered quickly. I would do business with them in the future if the price was right but I would be "on them" more through out the process to make sure nothing stopped the process.

One other thing. The finance guy tried to sell me the Extended Warranty for $1920 and the 45,000 mile maintence plan for $995. Thanks to PriusChat and PriusOnline I know that I can get both for less thru other sources if I decide to buy either. It wasn't a real hard sell, tho'. He was OK getting a "No, thanks."

One more other thing. I would have had a much harder time doing my research and finding my deal without PriusChat and PriusOnline. Once I get a little dinero transferred into my PayPal, I'll make a donation to both and I urge everyone else to do likewise.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Dianne's sales-people lied to me on the phone about the MSRP being more than what it actually is.....telling me Toyota raised the price long ago!......

I bought mine in Corona below MSRP.......

A person that I had contacted while shopping......keeps emailing me that he has P* on the lot and When I told him it HAS TO BE BELOW MSRP.....he said he could accomodate.......

Call him and tell him I referred you!

Edwin TIllman
Fleet Manager
760-241-6484
760-486-4641
Valley Hi Toyota in Victorville

Brad in HB

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

I bought mine yesterday from Toyota of Rancho Santa Margarita for $22,700, $200 off sticker. The car was in inventory and has the Option 1 package, 6 disk changer and Preferred Accessory Package.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

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Apparently you haven’t seen a Salsa Red

If you don’t believe me, look on the link above provided by inventor00 for the Empress of Prius' web site. Scroll down to #53352. There in the right hand column the car is given it’s rightful notation as “specialâ€. :mrgreen:
Apparently no other color Prius is as “special.â€

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

One of the people I work with got one at a couple of hundred under MSRP a few weeks ago. I paid MSRP in August and that was good at the time. I would imagine with the rising gas prices that the demand will go up and the price will not go down even with increased numbers of cars reaching our shores. We shall see.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Firmness of suspension-wise: I had the opposite impression. But my previous car is a Honda Civic so the Prius is smoother. Guess it's all relative.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Hi! We originally went to Carson and dealt with someone else (not Dianne) but the interest rate that was offered was way too high for us. Ended up at Toyota of Hollywood and picking up a white #6 at MSRP for less than half of the interest rate offered previously. Extended warranty was $1000 and $670 for the tuneups and stuff package. We worked with Evan. He was completely honest (told us we shouldn't get certain services/options done at the dealership as they were cheaper outside) and we plan on buying our next car from him.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

My story is too long and convoluted to bother writing about so all I'll say is avoid Power Toyota of Cerritos. I originally did a walk in at Carson to do a test drive but my sales guy knew so little about the car that I was telling him about the Prius and this is before I even discovered Priuschat or Priusonline. Power's sales guy was just as bad but they weren't charging dealer markup. It was after the sale that I started getting a lot of runaround. I also checked with Costco auto sales and my credit union's auto sales but both told me to expect markup so I passed. Longo told me I had to wait 13 weeks and Torrance Toyota told me 6 months. I love my Prius but I hate dealing with auto sales/finance snakes.

 

You overpaid for extended warranty (but not by much) and pre-paid maintenance is overblown. Only thing to do is oil/filter change, tire rotation, and at 30K, the air filters.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Yeah, I was pretty sure at the time that it would probably be less to just get it serviced myself, but I tend to be one of those gals that mechanics love to target when they take their cars in. Being as gullible and paranoid as I am, I always fall for the 'this needs to be flushed' or 'that needs to be changed' spiel. At least this way, I can take it in and have them do whatever needs to be done to it without worrying if I'm being duped. I don't know what's harder, finding a reliable mechanic or a good dentist.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Prepaid won't stop a mechanic from telling you additional work is recommended or needed. In fact, Prepaid is a guaranteed way of getting more of the customers money back to the dealer. Best and worst case scenarios will be presented to you and it's up to you to decide whether your baby will need the extra work, whether you need it or not. The more you know about your car and maintenance in general the better you will be at making costly decisions.

We've all heard about or seen on TV or experienced the b.s. some mechanics, even (especially?) dealer service departments. All those service agents aren't cheap and someone's got to pay for them. The longer you continue to go back to the dealer and older your car gets the more service additions they can throw at you.

 

Well, that's what PriusChat (and PriusOnline for that matter) is for! Ask us if you need to have something done! We won't steer you wrong.

At the very least, check your maintenance schedule manual. There's a whole lot less shown there than most cars. As a matter of fact, I think there are some things missing on it, such as ATF (it says only to check, should be changed SOMETIME), waterpump belt, and PVC valve. I dont' think the PVC valve is even a check item.

 

Still shopping myself . . . Crown Toyota offered

to sell me a Package 6 less than MSRP . . . I am stuck in the middle of KS and must fly to a coast to drive home a Prius without waiting 6 months. I have had good offers so far from Crown Toyota in Ontario, and also from Koons in the DC area. Waiting a month or so till school's out and I can take time off, then I'll decide where my best deal is. Can't wait to go from Prius wannabe to Prius owner !! :lol:

 

Ontario, as in Canada, versus DC, as in US? Stick with the country you'll be driving in, as the car packages are different: No HID in Canada because of required DRLS, but no DRLs/auto in US because of HID option. That, and metric versus US measurements. Speedo is the only thing you can change from KM to M.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Yikes, I didn't think of Canada. I think the one I'm talking to is Crown Toyota in Ontario, California. I'm pretty sure it's California because they have a 909 area code. Anyway, I'll go back to the website to be sure. Good info, though, to avoid Canada. Thanks.

 

Re: How much did u pay 4 your P*? Any recommendation? L.A. a

Crown Toyota is definitely in the Ontario in California.

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