2010 Prius Owners Poll - really

I would just like to add that I only brought my Prius in so the dealer could inspect the cargo net issue. (so clicked the "had an issue") Everything else has been wonderful!!

 

What a difference a year makes. If you would have told me last summer that I could get the new generation Prius, that is bigger, more powerful, and more refined for around $23k, I would never believe it.

As for my purchase, it was very positive. This car is amazing.

 

Dean, your Barcelona Red is simply stunning with the window tint.

 

Other than one safety feature of the NHW11 and NHW20, I'm very pleased with our ZVH30. Also, the Bluetooth could be documented better but this is not a problem unique to the Prius. The failure to adequately document Bluetooth standards hurts everyone. Bluetooth is the Java of wireless.

Bob Wilson

 

Re: 2010 Prius Owners Poll - let's be careful about MSRP

One of the questions on the poll is whether you paid less than, equal to, or more than the MSRP. How in the world could anybody know??

Of course the dealer can subtract $100 from the line labelled MSRP, but then add back $100, or $150 someplace else. Are you sure the "document fees" are $350 and not $250? What about dealer's prep? detailing? delivery? even the taxes ( and sometimes there are state, local, business and other tasex are a place to play games) because earlier versions can be used to hide and move around $, and then the final sheet gets corrected.

Did you not notice that that from the time you started "negotiating" until you wrote the check or signed the loan papers, that 2, 3, oreven 4 different sales papers weres shown to you? Did the FINAL sales contract you got show all the details that the earlier papers showed, or did it start with some "total car and accessories" number or something else where you have no idea how they got the number (and you certainly don't know what "MSRP" you paid)? What did youpay for warrantees, etc. Remember it's a zero sum game, you move the $ from this line and put them in that line.

I've been buying cars for almost 50 years (Chevy, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Toyota, VW, etc.) and can say that the pros (the sales people) are way ahead of the game. I am not implying that MOST dealers are not honest, only that they play so many "games", I doubt that anybody really knows if they paid less than than the MSRP unless the discount is more than, say, $500, and they didn't buy anything else.

Of course, if you are happy and think you got a discount, isn't that all that matters?

 

My dealer (in the SF Bay Area) got me my new Prius fast (late May) but told me that "my MSRP" was $22,750, even though the sticker (which I did not see until after I bought the car) has the MSRP at $22,000. The $750 was Dealer Processing and Handling Fee. Had I known this, I would have tried to get this removed.

Overall, I am very happy with my base model Prius. Though, I'm not crazy about the stereo quality. Also, when a door is left slightly open, the car indicates this but does not tell you which door--I find this very annoying and cheap. Do non-base models have this issue?

 

The extra $750 represents a standard destination charge, not dealers playing games. If you paid $22,750 for the Prius II, you paid MSRP.

I'm happy with just about everything. The car drives well, it's very fuel efficient, and it's spacious. Third Generation rocks!