Good dealers in central fl?

I bought mine from Lakeland Toyota. When I left the deposit, there was no mention of anything over MSRP, but when I went to pick it up, they wanted the fee -- don't remember how much, but I said no deal, asked for my deposit back, and got up to leave. After an hour or so of typical car-dealer negotiation over price, trade-in value, and options, we agreed on a price and I bought the car. Next time, I would, frankly, just go on eBay and find a dealer who will sell you what you want at a fair price without all the BS. You can fly anywhere in the US now for a couple of hundred bucks, and enjoy your new Prius on the drive home. Post-sale, Lakeland Toyota has been OK; nice new service facility.

 

i just recieved my beautiful red salsa from Earl Stewart of North Palm Beach......! i got it at msrp with no extra dealer prep.....& NO i did not pay for the toyo guard.......i visited the the internet division & got exactly what i wanted.......i got an option 5 with carpet mats ....... when i went to pick up the car.......it was less than i was quoted!! the experience was wonderful.........& the salesman was knowledgeable & very professional.......oh yeah......did i mention that if u continue all servicing with this dealership...u will get tires & batteries for the life of the car???!! (not the hybrid battery tho!)
http://home.earlstewarttoyota.com B)

 

Thanks for the info... yesterday I (finally) took a test drive of the Prius you mentioned at Daytona Toyota, and spoke with Dana. As of yesterday afternoon they actually had a silver package 5 on the lot to sell because some buyer pulled out. But I'm waiting for the January tax credit, myself.

As far as "where to buy" in Central FL, my experience has been that -- with the exception of David Maus Toyota in Longwood which charges $1.5K over MSRP -- everyone else is charging exactly MSRP, plus a notorious "dealer fee". Most dealer fees seem to be 599, although some are 699, and I think a dealership in Leesburg was 499. So there didn't seem to be any real variation in price. I'm sort of bracing for the possibility often written about in these forums where a dealer informs me once "my" Prius is available it has all these other little crappy dealer add-ons that bump up the price. For this reason I am on waiting lists for an 06 at two different dealerships, and thinking about getting on a third just to cover my bases. Is this logical, or foolish? Courtesy Toyota in Winter Park doesn't even take a deposit to be put on their waiting list.

 

On advice from this forum, we gave Mark Schryver at Phillips Toyota (888-721-2030) in Leesburg a call in December. We went this morning to pick up our 06 Seaside Pearl package 3... now I can post to all the fun forums discussing geeky things like tire pressure and fuel economy! Some final thoughts on the whole experience as a first time new car buyer:

1. Mark was wonderful to work with - no complaints. Very straightforward; no games. He's sold a number of Prii, and I told him this forum may be one of the reasons why!

2. Phillips Toyota's dealer fees were at least $100 lower than everything closer in Orlando. Other than that, most dealers around here say they do MSRP. Mark definitely did.

3. There were two reasons why I considered buying a Prius in Virginia: First, the SE region doesn't get any package 2's (I didn't feel the curtain airbags are worth $650), and secondly, the SE region has this infamous Toyoguard add-on that knocks it up another $500 or so. While Mark was not able to do anything about the package 2, he was able to specify on the manifest to exclude the Toyoguard when I insisted on it. I would imagine other salespeople might hassle you more on this thing alone.

4. I was very impressed with the speed the car became available. I told Mark I definitely wanted it after Jan 1 for tax credit reasons, and he had me thinking it would be late February or early March. January 14 was quite a pleasant surprise! The more Prii a dealership sells, the better their allocation and the more they can swap out vehicles to get the ones they have sold. Based on the speed the car came, I believe Phillips Toyota probably has a pretty decent allocation.

Thanks, Mark!

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