No longer waiting - Another new prius owner

First time poster.

I just bought a '05 Black package #4 today at MSRP and am thrilled. Already managed an average of 50 mpg during 35 mile drive home from dealership... and it's not even broken in yet!

I have been reading priuschat for some time now and wanted to thank everyone for all the helpful information. I especially am thankful for those who encouraged potential prius buyers to look outside of metro areas. I live in Portland and initially did the wait list thing and put 500 bucks down on an '05 at a local metropolitan toyota dealer and was initially given a waiting time of 8 months to a year. At the time, that didn't sound all that bad, but after several months of waiting I became a bit frustrated. I then tried several other dealerships within the area and had some pretty bad experiences with the car salesmen. One dealership tried to screw me over with a pkg 4 at $2000 over MSRP, not to mention that they also wanted $1000 deposit. After mentioning to them that I refuse to pay over MSRP, they had the gall to tell me that NO ONE sells Prii at MSRP. What a crock. Needless to say, shopping for the prius was not a pleasant experience. I eventually read several topics on this fine forum discussing better availability outside of the "big city" and began to call dealerships within a 50 mile radius of my house. Luckily enough, a toyota dealership in McMinnville, OR had 4 Prii available, one with package #4 (which is what my wife and I wanted). Not only were they offering MSRP, they also were a true pleasure to work with in comparison to our previous experiences. A day after contacting them, my wife and I drove down and bought our first new car together, a 2005 prius with 12 miles on it. No wait.

My wife and I are having a fun time learning all the bells and whistles. I have already spent quite a bit of time with my nose in the owner's manual. Look forward to becoming a tad more savvy with the car, although I know it'll take some time.