Buying your first-choice Prius or "settling"

I got on one list (no deposit) September '04 and was told the wait was 1 1/2 years! I did start getting calls from them (4 in all) in January, but they didn't have what I wanted.

I wanted a #5 package, but then learned that wasn't available in So Cal. I then contacted a dealer in Nevada who said they could get me one. I requested a choice of 3 colors (Seaside, Driftwood and Tideland, leaning toward Seaside). The day I mailed the deposit they called and said they wouldn't be getting any #5s, just #6s (I asked for the deposit back, which I got). Since I could get a #6 in So Cal, after I hung up I called a dealer who had a Seaside Pearl #6 in stock at MSRP (this was back in April).

In short, I had to "settle" with the package, but there are no regrets.

 

Ok Jack, I voted under #2 even though it doesn't quite fit my situation. I actually insisted upon and got the exact color and package I wanted and it took about 2.5 weeks to get the car. I have a package 5 and the official line is that package is not available in the PNW region. However, it isn't available as standard lot stock allocation. However, all packages are available to all dealers if they want to go out there and find them and do an allocation swap with another dealer. They may even have to work with their region representative to get a particular package, but it is possible.

Dealers who are taking lists and just calling folks as cars come on the lot are doing a huge disservice to their customers and to Toyota corporate. Not only are they not finding and getting specific colors and packages to buyers, but they are making it much harder to get the cars in the market quickly and without hassel.

I urge all buyers, insist on package and color details you want and do not back down. Mention that you understand their allocation process, know they can trade with other dealers and that they can get you your car choice if they jump through just a few limited hoops.

 

Where is "exactly the combo desired, but had to wait 2 mo. or less"?

6 weeks for me.

 

There wasn't a choice that fit my exact situation. We got exactly the combo desired, with no wait--the dealer had exactly what we wanted when we walked onto the lot...but not by luck.

I shotgunned an email out to more than a dozen dealerships within a 150-mile radius, detailing exactly what we wanted and inviting price quotes. None of our local Virginia dealers would even give us a price (Mid-Atlantic Region doesn't offer the package we wanted), and most North Carolina dealers just regurgitated the same info I already had from checking their inventory on the web. Only one dealer made the effort to provide a quote exactly tailored to the specs we provided...and they happened to have the right color & package on their lot...and they offered us a price that was under MSRP. This was back in July '05 and we still have no regrets driving 140 miles to Henderson, NC to buy our Prius at Henderson Toyota.

 

I ordered for January delivery back in August.
My salesman has committed to getting me exactly the car I ordered and at the price I ordered (relative to MSRP which was not known at the time).
Whenever we've touched base since then, he's been very consistent on this.

So far, I'm very happy with him.
Since I placed the order before gas prices spiked and because I brought him two other buyers at the same time, we all got $500 off MSRP.
Although he's been clear that he wouldn't be making a similar deal now, he has expressed his commitment to the deal.
Since the packages have changed, he's willing to get me whatever package I choose with the same discount.
I'm getting a #2 in B.Red but indicated that, if there's any way to get a #4 or #3 in this region that I would prefer one of them, respectively.
If the deal closes as planned, I'll be writing a long letter of praise on this site and sending as many potential buyers to him as I can. B)

 

Harry,
Any idea of how you got the emails for those dealerships? I've heard about fax-blasting for vehicle quotes, but I've had difficulty getting the fax/email ids to do this. What approach did you take in getting the emails, and if you don't mind, what was the content of your email?

Thanx!

 

He said his manager had forgotten about the deal but he affirmed his commitment.

I'm not in danger of AMT and Pennsylvania has a $500 rebate incentive as well so I'm looking forward to getting a car that would have been outside my price comfort range otherwise.

 

I'm the #7 in the poll. I walked onto the lot expecting to price things and get on a wait list. A silver pkg 3 had come in the night before and wasn't bespoke. I bought it. I'm glad I did because my car died (the one I was going to eventually replace) 2 days later.

 

waitlisted 4 months, waiting for pkg 5 in seaside.
then my car died.
took a black, my second choice, which was on the truck, picked up 6 days later.

turns out i'd never seen a black pri before and liked it even better than the seaside.

 

Same for me too.

 

The choice is mine to make right now. My preferred is a seaside #7, but when I put my deposit in at Toyota of Sunnyvale, I guess I said "anything goes", because I got a call this morning saying I could have a white #6 first week fo Dec if I wanted.

Hmm. Hmmmm. The economic argument states that that would be $2500 for a few weeks and no nav. But then I get the ability to show it off on my roadtrip.

 

You'll have plenty of other opportunities to show it off.
Grab the loot!

 

My experience was more of a call-in than a walk-in. When I finally reached the amount of savings that I figured I'd need, I called the dealer to find out what was up. Well, they had the package I was looking for in a silver, which wasn't my first color choice but was close enough. So I reserved the car over the phone and went in and picked it up a couple of days later. Pretty painless after all I'd read about 6-month waits, etc.

The Prius is a popular car in this area, and the dealer probably gets a good allocation as a result of that.

Shortly after that, the price of gas shot up, and the wait lines went up with it.

-Roger

 

You have my agreement on all of this. Internet ordering should be the defacto standard now, not the exception. I should be able to go to Toyota's web site, pick what I want and then have that order placed in the queue. It is then delivered to the nearest dealership where ownership is transferred, financing finalized etc. No reason at all that dealerships need to have huge sales staff nor do they need to be in the business of doing much else than offering test drives and service. Think of the extra margins they could make if their "salesmen" were on salary and did nothing more than selling an occasional car at a flat price from the lot and taking care of Internet orders that were coming in and needed to be finalized.

Ford wanted to do that under the Nasser management, but it got derailed by powerful multi-dealership operations and the fact that Nasser got fired before he could force it through or grease up the dealerships. If he hadn't messed up other areas of Ford, he probably would still be there and we would see at least some Internet connected dealership/deliver points for Ford.

Anyway, dealers, especially their managers, need to be reminded that as large and expensive a cost as any vehicle is, let alone this one, buyers should not be hounded into purchasing what doesn't exactly meet our need (taking into account packages and color combinations from the factory). If it is a listed package and color combination, I should be able to get it. And consider how much easier it would be for Toyota to match production to demand if they had a web site that was feeding them info about people's purchasing behaviors and what exact numbers of specific packages and color combinations were in demand.

Dealerships can't get past the fact that if they have Internet ordering doing most of the work, you will end up with no area for extra margin through the customer gouging process and that will probably be the end of commission sales staff. Classic care salesmen don't want to loose commission sales and the dealerships don't want to loose the wiggle room of negotiated pricing. The problem is both of those conditions are counterintuitive to good, modern sales practice.

 

This is a 2006? When did you put your deposit in? Who is your sales person, Lee? Are you paying MSRP - 350?