Is Hawaii allowed to mark up the Prius?

Everything is marked up in Hawaii, from cars down to corn flakes. You might as well get used to it.

Everything is shipped in by boat or plane, so everything is expensive. You can't look at items in isolation and look for a justification. The Toyota dealer has to mark up the prices of his cars because his expenses are higher. Everything from business expenses to personal living expenses. For instance, he has to pay more for his corn flakes.

 

what island are you going to? when i purchased my '04, it was at msrp, purchased from Toyota City in Honolulu, no markup. it is true that Servco Toyota is the main distributor. did you check the servco online website (servcoautocenter.com)? it's usually up to date. you can try contacting their internet dealership and inquire about it.

wait time is around 3-4 mos depending on what color and package (some colors are more in demand than others, same goes with package). with an allocation of around 30/month for the entire state. 2 yrs ago, there were very limited package options, they didnt even offer nav here. now they do. their website shows packages 1-8. Destination charge of $580. i never heard of the 'Adjusted Market Value'. (who knows maybe things have changed in 2 yrs.)

as for the warranty, there's been a lot of discussion about it. i didnt get the Servco service contract since i'm gearing towards the PC rate. when i asked the servco financial dept about someone from the mainland moving here with their car having the extended warranty, they said they would honor it. so i guess it's up in the air.

 

Hawaii has an independent Toyota importer/distributor who also owns all the dealerships.

Servco Pacific Inc.
900 Fort Street Mall, Suite 600
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Phone. (808) 521-6511
Fax. (808) 523-3937

http://www.servco.com/

 

Mel is right, Hawaii is VERY expensive. nearly everything has to be air freighted in. i venture to say that even boat freight for the Prius will be higher than normal. either way, i bet they dont get a new shipment of Priuses in every 10 days like my local dealer does.

90% of the relatives on my mothers side lives in Hawaii so i go to visit, it doesnt cost me anything to stay since my uncle owns interest in hotel so i usually stay there for free. but the prices are definitely steep

 

I ordered a 2005 Prius and when it came in about the time of the new tax credit decided to cancel and wait for a 2006. The 2005 would have been at MSRP, and every indication from the dealer (Toyota City) is the 2006 will be at MSRP. Right now they are not taking exact orders for different packages and have not given me any pricing or availability. I am on a list for a January 2006 Prius. packages to be determined soon.

There are a couple of reasons why the packages available on the mainland are not available here. We don't really have a port facility that adds options like leather and Hawaii doesn't have the satellites to cover navigation and XM radio. My 2005 would of had all the options available on the mainland except navigation (and bluetooth since they were bundled together from the factory) and leather. 2006 should have all options including leather, bluetooth, and camera, except navigation. They do bundle the packages differently here. The 2005 Prius would have been right around $30000 including the extended warranty.

Not too long ago you could buy and ship a Toyota cheaper from say Carson Toyota, but Hawaii now charges sale tax on new vehicles shipped in. Shipping is about $900 from Long Beach. So it's pretty close and comes down to maybe $1000 saving on a $30000 Toyota vehicle.

Servco Toyota which owns most of the Toyota dealerships here (I think there's an independent dealer on Maui and the Big Island) now has a policy of one price, no negotiation. They have close ties with the family who started Toyota and I think get a larger Prius allotment which might have something to do with the MSRP pricing. I did recently buy a 2005 Tacoma, their discount was a little over $1400 off MSRP.

Sevco is in the midst of upgrading their dealerships and service. I heard that they sell so many Toyotas that the factory felt their service centers were not adequate based on their sales. My personal experience is I got better treatment on a preivous 91 Toyota truck which was sold by them than I got on a 99 Camry which came from the mainland.

The extended warranty (7 years, 100,000 miles) which Servco sells was about $1700 for the 2005 Prius. If you don't use it, you get a full refund.

One more thing, Servco is seperate from Toyota USA, national sales etc. do not apply to Hawaii.

 

OK, I have some fairly reliable information.

True, the Toyota distributor in Hawaii owns all the Dealerships on Oahu. Not sure about the other islands. The dealers are pretty good. No hassle.

On Oahu, the dealers sell at MSRP, no unwanted extras.

Destination charge is $540.

As far as I know, they only honor their own expensive extended warranty for cars purchased from them. (I don't know how flexible they are on the price)

Hawaii [edit: sales tax not State tax] is 4.166% (a little savings compared to some other states)

Available 2006 packages are #2,3,4,6, and 8.

First shipment of 2006's should arrive sometime this month.

Currently, there is a long waiting list, probably 4 months or more.

Best bet is to contact one of the dealers. I would be surprised if they were not willing to help you out. http://www.toyotahawaii.com

BTW, Marlin, not everything is expensive . Although many things in Hawaii are expensive, many are not. Some things are actually cheaper. I have compared prices at some major stores and the prices are identical to mainland prices. As in any area, knowing the area and shopping around helps.

 

The Prius sells at MSRP in Hawaii, but corn flakes.....don't get me started. The price of cereal is absurd . If they marked up the Prius the same percentage as cereal, the Prius would sell for $60,000. :lol: (shopping for cereal at Costco helps )

 

which is why i get my gas from Costco!

 

I would think the best place to sell a used Prius is where the dealers are getting higher than MSRP. Hawaii is not really one of those places. No HOV stickers here.
Also selling before the tax credit gets well known would be good.

Even though Hawaii real estate values are high, property tax is fairly low compared to California. There is no heating fuel expense. Hawaii is a very healthy place to live.

Many things you can buy online now, and if you shop around many places (Amazon) offers free shipping on many different items, so we pay the same as anyone. Shipping is more for somethings in Hawaii, but you guys keep saying everything needs to be shipped here, verything needs to be shipped to where you are too.

Ask people in SF or NYC if they think Hawaii is expensive.

 

I guess it's all relative, depending on where you're coming from, huh?

I live in OC and I think it's crazy expensive both here (actually, all of SoCal) and in Hawaii. Life can be expensive...the median home price here in October was a mere $606K. In San Fran it was $614K. NY's just plain crazy: $750K median sales price. All #'s are from Oct 2005.

 

Ditto...$2.49 last visit. That could actually be cheaper than some parts of the lower 48 :mellow: Maybe the silly gas cap law is really working!

Some things that are cheaper in Hawaii (al least from my experience):
-Spam (already mentioned. Usually on sale as a loss leader)
-Movie tickets ( compared to other big cities)
-Renting a car (compared to my last rentals in Denver and Baltimore)
-Rice (I can buy a 20lb bag for the same price as a 5lb bag in most other places)
-Sales tax of 4.16% (but the income tax is a killer)

I know, kinda of a short list. Hey, it something

 

If you walk into a Safeway in Hawaii and buy a pineapple, it was grown in hawaii, shipped to california and then shipped back.

William