I've been lurking here for a few weeks and finally joined. I'm considering a Gen 3 and this forum has been a great resource. Anyone know if there's a way to find out when new shipments will be arriving to a particular area? Specifically, I'd like to find a way to figure out when a new round of inventory will make it's way to the Dallas / North Texas area. There was a decent supply a few weeks ago but C4C depleted it. I've seen a few new ones trickle in but I was hoping there would be a small surge of inventory at some point. Anyone know how the Gulf Coast region works? Can I expect a boost at some point or is it completely random?
My dealer told me that GST cars are brought in on the west coast and transferred by rail. Other than that, I can't really help. Sorry!
It's all allocation based and upon a dealerships sales of Prius help to qualify them for additional units. I would suggest placing a deposit on one and hopefully they can allocate to your dealership seeing that it is considered a sold unit. That is what I did and I got a V (One of the first to hit my dealership) so the deposit helped and they were allocated the vehicle I wanted. I will be picking it up Friday. It took about 9 weeks from deposit to delivery. Times may be a little extended but if your in the Market, then do something to help secure the vehicle you want. Just my opinion...and best of luck.
I got the last one on the lot at a local dealer in northern VA about two weeks ago in the C4C program. I suspect any cars they have coming in now are pre-sold. We originally wanted a Camry hybrid but there were NONE anywhere on the east coast. Good luck trying to find a Prius right now.
I tried to get my local dealer to swap with another dealer for what I wanted. Unfortunately, even most inbound cars were already spoken for. I started calling dealers in my state (around 20) to see what they had on the lot (almost none) and what they had inbound (like I said most were spoken for) until I found an inbound that matched what I wanted. Not the most elegant solution, but it worked.
I highly recommend the generation 3 prius. I put an order in for mine and recieved it 2 months later. It added things to it that had to be put on when it was made so it was shipped from Japan and frieghted over to PA. My dealer was able to tell me when a prius might be coming in, he seemed to be getting the Prius II versions. They only got about one a month and the one I test drove sold in one day. They go quick. I got the prius IV with the solar roof package and pearl paint. I love it and have had no problems with the vechile. I have had it in the city and in the country and driving has been great. Just a little lower than I am used to, I have driven Jeep's for my entire life. Big change to say the least.
Your best bet is to go to one of your local dealers and talk to the inventory manager. He has access to the allocation report for your region. Unfortunately, you live in Texas, which is under the control of Gulf States Toyota (GST), the distributorship for the Gulf states. GST doesn't appear to provide its dealers with the same level of information as the rest of the country. The inventory manager at my dealership was able to print out the allocation report, which showed exactly what cars (models, colors, packages) were coming in the next allocation. Every two weeks, GST releases this information to their dealers and allocates cars based on the preferences submitted by the dealers. If you are looking for a specific model, package, color combination, the only way you will get it is to have the dealer "order" it for you. You will probably have to put down a small ($500) deposit (refundable) to have them submit a request to GST. You should probably check with several local dealers, find the one you think will work the best for you, and order the car through them. If you are looking for a Prius V w/ATP or a Prius III or IV with the solar roof, you might have to wait for a couple of months, since they are still rare here in Texas. Good luck.
The C4C program is scheduled to end Monday. That additional $2 billion went pretty fast. We were really lucky, the last one our local dealer had was in our desired colors of red/tan leather. We drove it off the lot that day. YEAH BABY! Good luck trying to find any Prius on the ground anywhere, especially with your desired colors/options.... Sorry.....
In the DFW area, your best bet is probably Pat Lobb Toyota of McKinney. They tout being a "green" dealership, and it seems to have gotten them larger allocations, at least at first. I went through them and had a good experience. That being said, like somebody else mentioned, have them look at the allocations and see who is getting what. A new allocation just came out in the past couple days (I recently contacted them because I might be needing to replace mine due to an accident).
