List Dealers Charging Over MSRP

What?

Here I have shared with all the future of hybrids and made some provocative statements and I don't get a question or arguement?

 

Umm, I'm no expert Lucas, but you might have better luck posting your ideas in a subject heading that's more germane to what is being discussed. Just a thought.

 

Of course you are right. Any (nice) suggestios?

 

Sorry Lucas, my intent was not to offend. My post was trying to be humble, but may have come off sounding sarcastic.

 

Independence Toyota of Hazleton, PA is charging a little over $1,000 over MSRP for the Prius. If I had to wait list it I wouldn't have gotten it from them, but I had a couple hundred dollars of repairs on my old car needed to get it to pass inspection, and they had one on the lot.. So I broke down and paid the extra $1,000 :-/

I was on a waiting list at another dealer doing MSRP, but that one isn't due to show up for another three months! I figured that with the gas savings over my old car, and the repairs it needed now and whatever unforseen repairs would be needed in the next few months, the $1,000 extra wasn't so bad. Plus I got to show it off and drive it home for Thanksgiving (I got it that wednesday). Picked it up with 9 miles, already over 1,600.. whee

Edit: Except for that markup, the dealership was pretty decent. Didn't try and sell me on any extra stuff, and didn't have any problems with managing an out of state purchase for me, even though they had to figure out how to do it This is my first new car though, so I don't know how bad buying one is "supposed" to be.

 

Congratulations spectral on your new Prius, I think you made the right decision.

 

The dealerships that I have found in SoCal that are charging over MSRP are:

Keyes Toyota-$2500 over

Toyota of North Hollywood-$4000 over

Toyota of Glendale-$2000 over

 

James Toyota in Flemington,NJ claims they are an outlet, yet is charging $4000 over msrp (because "everyone else in NJ is doing it too, and they're charging $6-10K over msrp").

 

I met with Toyota of Long Beach this weekend. They've got Prii, but the markup is $4500 over MSRP.

To be fair, that is a starting point. I had them down to $1000 over, but they weren't willing to give fair market for my trade, so I wasn't interested. I wouldn't mind paying over MSRP for the instant gratification, but to take advantage of the trade-in too... Well, that's just a little greedy.

DG

 

Now can now see dealer advertisements for Prii (w/ photo) in the Boston newspapers. I assume there is a mark-up because the Prius is the only model that doesn't have a price on the advertisement.

 

Be careful in Albuquerque! There are two Toyota dealers, and neither had any new cars.

American Toyota had a USED '04 red (a repo) with dirty interior and a dinged-up front bumper, 20K + miles, fairly plain (not sure which package), and they wanted $25,777. They didn't really try to sell it to me, but did brag that they were thinking of listing it on E-Bay so they could get more than $30K.

Karl Malone Toyota had a USED '04 white, 17K miles, plain (no back windshield wiper), and they wanted $26,900.00!

I ended up driving up to Salt Lake City to Mark Miller Toyota. Got a white '05 package 4 @ MSRP, and they gave me a fair price for my trade-in. Certainly worth the trip!

 

Over MSRP in South Western PA:
Washington Auto Mall - Washington Toyota, Washington, PA
Rhuric Automotive Group - Rhuric Toyota, Delmont, PA

They each describe it as the lowest price that they can possibly give you and neither of them will budge on anything. Unfortunately if it had not been for my memorization of the prices, they may have fooled me. I am sure that there are more in the Pittsburgh area that are upping the price. My most successful dealership was in Uniontown at the Uniontown Toyota. They seemed to respect me more than think of me as an expendable customer as i felt at these other two garages.

 

Toyota of Lewisville, Tx

I received an email today telling me they had two cars, both with the "leather upgrade".

Pkg 3 $28,481 +ttl
Pkg 6 $31,551 +ttl

You can approximate the math, given the leather and extra mile pkg. I already bought my car from Ehrlich in Colorada at MSRP. Thanks anyway

 

Fort Myers Toyota (Florida) initially quoted me $1,500 over MSRP, but after I balked, they backed off and we signed a contract for MSRP. The squeaky wheel gets the oil <g>!

The salesman called last night and said that my car is scheduled to reach port on May 7th (Jacksonville, FL) so looks like I'll be getting it in a couple of weeks. Anyone know how long it takes from "port to garage"?

 

Usually no more than 2 weeks.
Check to be sure you don't get 'extra options' when you sit down at the desk. The Gulf States buyers seem to get stuck with a lot of "port options".

My car has the PITA wheel locks which weren't in the original plan and I didn't notice until we were well into the paperwork and decided not to see if they would take them off. 'Only' $60 and we didn't have time to mess around, had to get back home before the kids got off the bus in 3 hours.

Besides the fact that not a lot of wheels are stolen around here, and that there are a lot more expensive alloy wheels to steal if one is so inclined, I would be surprised if any decent thief doesn't already have a complete set of 'keys' for these special lug nuts. It is nothing more than a groove in end of a smooth nut: [web:a0b2558d2d]http://www.toyota.com/prius/accessories_bat.html?acc=wheellocks[/web:a0b2558d2d]
How many variations can there be???

 

I just stopped by Michael's Toyota in Bellevue, WA. I asked how long the wait was for a loaded Prius. My sales-guy said, "I can get you one in a week". I said, ahh, but at what price, and how long if I insist on MSRP? He said $3000 over MSRP, or I could wait "a year, maybe 6 months". I guess $3000 is what they charge to cut to the front of the waiting list. He asked me if I was interested in a used 2004 Prius. I said sure, if it is a good deal. He showed me a base prius with few options (no nav, no smart entry, etc), 20K miles for $26,000. He looked a little abashed when I started laughing out loud, and he said the price was negotiable.

Look, I understand the temptation to sell a hot car for over MSRP. On one hand it is simply supply and demand, how capitalism works. But there is another consideration for dealerships. That is the issue of customer satisfaction, the buying experience, repeat business, and word of mouth advertising. Selling a car for well over MSRP does a few things. It pisses off the people who are unwilling to spend over MSRP because they know that people are getting to cut in line in front of them, and because of the icky feeling that comes from having someone try to rip you off. It pisses off people who do pay over MSRP because they know they got ripped. It pisses off people shopping around, who decide not to buy. And you know what? Every one of those people are probably complaining to their friends, posting negative comments online, and are pretty unlikely to steer business (or be a repeat customer). I'm a perfect example. I'm bitching about this to my friends, and complaining about it online.

Here is a news-flash for dealerships:

You stand to make much more money from me through repeat business and referrals than you will trying to squeeze $3000 out of today. Your loss. You don't get the $3000 from me, you don't get the MSRP from from me, and you get nothing but bad word of mouth from me.


best,
Cedar

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ohthetrees\";p=\"85014)</div>

Or, in the words of my crusty old grandfather, the rancher, "you can shear a sheep many times but you can only skin them once."

Sorry to hear that about Bellingham...that is a beautiful area that I hope to visit again.

 

Called Liberty Toyota in Colorado Springs today.

I could order a Prius w/ package 6 for estimated delivery in 4-6 weeks for "only $32,000".

I actually laughed at the salesperson and asked her to double check the price, since that was about $5500 over sticker.

Told her good luck selling them at that price, when any Denver dealer an hour north will most likely get one in the same time frame for sticker.

 

Avoid Power Toyota of Cerritos (California).

$3,000 MARK-UP over MSRP plus leather packages. You're looking at $32K+ for a package 6!

Power Toyota of Buena Park was willing to sell one to me at MSRP but I passed at the time.

The sales manager at Cerritos told me that it was Power's policy to charge mark-ups on this car. Since Buena Park was at MSRP I don't know if the guy at Buena Park was being nice (I went through the Internet) or if he going against company policy.

Having tried to deal with Power in the past, I suspect that the guy at BP was going against company policy when he tried to get me into the car at MSRP.

 

No mark up in Bakersfield CA. Bought ours right off the lot for MSRP, but think we got lucky. They just got a shipment of four cars the day before and our super white package 6 was the only one left. Probably had something to to with the superwhite color (see color poll) :roll:

If we hadn't jumped on it I'm sure it would have been sold that day as there were tons of people swarming around it trying to get a test drive. Also noticed several people in the dealership special ordering Prii, so waiting lists may come back even here in SUV land.