Did you do this? Why?

That seems a little backwards to me -- wouldn't you normally do the physical inspection and test drive first, to determine whether or not you wanted to accept that particular car, before doing the paperwork?

 

It could be that the dealer wants the hard (for them) to get Prii off the books as soon as possible so they can order more.

 

... and what happens if the car you bought were damaged en route, on the truck in some kind of accident? you already bought it so you're screwed.

i'd pass...

 

I'm not sure how much you did when you purchased your Prius. But maybe the salesmen wants to firm things up, Get your financing squared away and things like that. Probably wants to be sure he has a legit buyer.

 

He probably knows that Friday nights are slow at the dealership and wants to knock out paperwork when nothing is happening. Then, when things are hoppin, you are gone in 20 minutes and he's selling some other car..

 

I got the same "invitation" from my dealer. I politely turned him down (40 min. round trip on a rainy Saturday didn't appeal to me) and there was no repurcussion. The paperwork only takes 20-30 minutes to fill out anyway. I do not know what the incentive is for them to get us in "early" but there is no obligation to do this -- or even a reason to that I know of.

 

Haven't heard of doing that before---no real problem, though, as long as "the paperwork" does not include paying for it or signing any of the "addendums" illegally, e.g., the one stating the mileage on the Prius as delivered.

Maybe the finance guy wants more time---if/when things are otherwise a little slow---to "work on you", e.g., sell pre-paid maintenance, ext. warranty, etc., unless you've already made your wishes on these things known.

 

Nope, no similar deal here. My salesguy said eta for my 06 #8 is 2/3-6. He'll call when it's in and we'll do the deed then. I may delay a day or two while he waits for the Comfortreads to come in, but that's it.
Since I work only 15 minutes away from the dealer, I'd have welcomed going in to get the paperwork done early - except for my signature and payment of course. Since I've got nothing in writing, I'm just a tad nervous that I can't hold the dealer to anything more than a verbal promise. Completed paperwork would give me something tangible.....
Anyhoo, looks like we'll be getting our wheels around the same day! SOON!!!

 

I did this with my Prius. I had called around and found that this dealer had the exact car I wanted comming in 3 days. So I went in and made the sale, and signed all the paper work, except the mileage thingy. They actually wanted me to sign that before seeing the car as well, and I refused. They had put 5 miles down as the mileage, and said the cars usually have three miles on them when the arrive, but I wasn't going to sign anything I couldn't verify. When the car arrived it had 3 miles on it. I also paid them most of the cost of the car that first day.

There was nothing in the paperwork about the condition of the car, and when I raised that question to the salesman he said that you are automatically protected against any defects when the car arrives by the warranty.

My situation was slightly different since I wan't on a waiting list, the first day I made contact with them was only 3 days before I got the car, so it made sense to just do the paper work so when I came in to get the car I could just pay the remainder, sign the mileage and go . . . however . . .

When the car arrived it turns out they had sold me the wrong car!! They had used the wrong VIN on all the forms, so we had to sign them all over again anyway. Sigh. But on the upside, since I allways read _everything_ before I sign it, I had allready read everything so I could just glance at it, remember the form and sign it.

So there you have it, you will have to decide for yourself if this story is pro-early paper work or not.

 

I think that dealers just think that the more time you have invested, the less likely you would be to change your mind.

I am very sorry to hear that the Prius is so hard to get in San Diego. On Saturday, I jsut walked into my Toyota Dealer in Portland Oregon where they are on sale for $1000 off and picked between all the colors. We got the silver pine (light green) with the #5 option package. They have 50 Prius in stock, so if anyone feels like taking a road trip, come on up to Portland.

 

I had a similar situation happen at my local dealer. The dealer didn't have the color I wanted in the Touring model, so he sent a guy to pick one up at another dealer miles away. While we waited for the car to show up the dealer suggested we fill out all the paperwork ahead of time...saying I could always walk away from the deal prior to taking possession. The dealer was smart in keeping me there, filling out all the forms, and waiting for the car to arrive in a couple hours. It's certainly harder to say no when the deal is done and all you have to do is drive away.

In retrospect it felt like the "snowball effect"...the dealer kept moving closer and closer to the sale and before I could "slow the train down"...it was done and I was driving away. I had just stopped by to take a test drive and before I knew it I was a Prius owner. I knew I wanted it days earlier....just didn't think it would happen that fast. Unfotunately I didn't have a chance to return home to check my emails from pricequote.com where I had an offer to save $1600 at a closer dealer down the street. At least the dealer I bought from offered to pay my last two payments on my Murano lease ($640), cover any existing damages ($320), throw in tinting ($100), and the car came with Lo-Jack installed from the other dealer ($700)...at no cost to me!! It's all good....I'm happy

Here near LA, dealers can find anything within a 2 or 3 hour drive. My car arrived with 28 miles on it. No waiting or pre-ordering.

 

that topic is a year old.