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I bought my '13 Prius C Three two days ago. Here's the buying advice I'd extract from my experience. This was my first car-buying experience without my car-guy brother's assistance, so this stuff may or may not be helpful to your specific purchasing experience, but it's what worked for me.

• Take the time to haggle. I hate haggling as much as anyone possibly can, which I tried my best to articulate to the salesman from the jump. But at some point, I had to accept that this is the way the game is played and there's just no way around it--they're a business and they have practices that they adhere to in order to perpetuate their business as profitably as possible. Rather than bemoaning the haggling, try your best to embrace it and play ball with them.
• I happened to go near the end of the model year, which is when dealerships will offer their best incentives and they are generally more motivated to move their remaining inventory. This, I would imagine, is really the key--that they were motivated to sell. As an example, I got 0% financing for 36 months, and they were also offering what sounded like some pretty smokin' lease deals as well as a cash incentive for those who were willing to put some money down.
• Don't be afraid to walk away or to do a little acting. Everyone's a little different, but what worked for me was not being combative. I spoke in a manner and wore an expression on my face that conveyed hopelessness that we couldn't reach a deal and sorrow that I had wasted his time. Key lines I delivered were "Ehhh... It looks like your number and my number are too far apart. I don't want to waste any more of your time," and "Would it behoove me to maybe wait a month and see what new incentives come out?" My salesman went back to his manager no fewer than four times until the manager himself came to me with what he said was his best price, which happened to be about $4000 below sticker and $2200 under invoice.
• Do your homework, not only on the car, but also on what your trade-in is worth. The Kelley Blue Book website is a good, free-to-use resource for this information. Even after I got their alleged "best price" I knew they were lowballing me on my trade-in. I did a little more acting. Hesitantly, I said, "You GOTTA be able to squeeze more out of the trade-in."
• This is a longshot to apply to most of you who might be reading, but I'll tell you about it anyway since it happened to save me some money. I wanted the car in the Moonglow finish, but it got bought from under me by another customer about 20 seconds before I said "okay." They had the exact same spec, but in blue ("Blue Streak Metallic" I think it's called). I happened to know that the Moonglow was a premium finish, so I agreed to take the blue one if they knocked a few hundred bucks off. This got the price down about another $300 or so, from a price that I think was already pretty good."

Again, I hate haggling, but in my case, 20 minutes of my time going back and forth wound up saving me about $4000. Play the game.

...and if you're curious, the final deal we settled on was roughly $20,800 out the door (i.e. tax, title, registration and everything included) for a 2013 Prius C Three with the alloy wheels.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi Hey It's Solomon,
I want to thank you for your great post re: the art of negotiation. It's that time again for us... we're hoping to trade-in our 2008 Touring (I love that car!) for an end of the year 2013. Wish us luck! Thanks again Solomon, your points are spot-on, and I agree, getting nasty combative just doesn't help a deal.