Ordering starts October 5?

Hope: An unsure optimism.

 

Do you think the configurator will go live before we'll be able to push the button or will it come up all at once?

 

I have to say that most of the Toyota dealers around the DC area are either misinformed, or dishonest.
The past few weeks I've contacted at least ten of them to get started on the process, and only two of them knew and understood how the ordering process worked.

No later than this Saturday I walked out of the Kay Jennings Springfield, VA dealership, disgusted by their salesmen. I went there to pick up my 06 Prius that had been serviced, and wanted to start the discussion process for my priority PIP while I was there.
The discussion was pretty long, because I had to educate them on the process. But at the end, they insisted that their manager told them that they had a wait list with 7 people already, and that they were not interested in talking to me! If I wanted I could put my name as #8 on their list and it might cost me more than list price... Needless to say I did not walk, I RAN!

Luckily I had found 2 other dealerships in the area that are working with me. One of them will happily get my PIP delivered. I had bought my '06 from Springfield Toyota, but they won't get my business for my 2012 Plugin most likely. Oh and I will make sure that people know how knowledgeable those folks are...

 

Wow, that's awful. They def did not watch the dealer training, nor did they even want to apparently!

 

I don't think you'd see ANYTHING till they are ready to have the orders placed. What would be the point. 40,000 calls about the website being broken!

 

In defense of those east coast guys, no one in my own home region's been told to watch the order video either.

 

It would be clear that the configurator is open and working, for us to config our choices on trim, color and accessories, and allow us to save that car in our profile. The "submit order" button would be grayed out and say "come back on xx/xx to place your order".

That's what I was thinking.

 

No, that wouldn't be open. Interesting but no, the "ready to order" page would have to open up first because it wouldn't serve any purpose for it to allow anyone to choose or order anything.

Sorry Brant!

 

I was just thinking (as an IT person) that if the selections were made before the window opened, that the mad dash of visitors trying to visit the site, log in, configure the car, and then submit the order would be less of a stress on the servers than just submitting a saved config. That's all.

 

I agree, but you never know what last minute changes will take place.

 

I had the same problem in Northern California, I called a bunch of the local dealers in my area to start the negotation process and most just wanted to put me on the waiting list and didn't understand the preorder process. I also found 2 that understood the process but my confidence in them was pretty low because I had to semi-educate them on it and then once it was determined that these pre-order cars aren't part of their normal vehicle allocation, they were willing to deal. My personal preference is to buy local and support the local dealership. I'm going to go there for service anyway, might as well get to know them. I did get one of them to give me a pretty good deal but in the end I decided to pre-order through Dianne, not because of price because I actually got the local guy to give me a better deal. It's just dealing with someone that will smoothly go through the process for me. I don't want to be the one that knows the pre-order process better than the person selling me the car. I am originally from SoCal so I do have family to visit and by chance would have it, I bought my first Prius from Carson Toyota back in 2005, it was during the initial Prius craze when $3-4000 mark ups were common, they were the only dealer in SoCal that would sell it for sticker price. Another benefit would be that since she is probably ordering a lot of cars, at least you know you won't get the car with 50 miles already on it from people at the dealership "test driving" the new prius. My only concern would be that since she seems so popular for orders, how that one dealership is going to handle so many of them at once, will Toyota have a problem with one dealership getting so many of the pre-orders at once and want to spread delivery out to more dealerships instead.

 

I had the same issues with dealerships in VA, especially coming from out of state in GA.

I posted this concern in a previous thread:
http://priuschat.com/forums/toyota-prius-phv-plug-in/98081-dealer-education.html
and you can read Toyota's reply.

I personally will go with a knowledgeable, courteous and recommended member of this community to ensure a smooth transaction where I am treated fairly, even though there's going to be a shipping charge.

I know the dealer that our family uses in Marietta, GA would never treat us the way y'all describe, but unfortunately, they won't be getting the plug-ins until next year.

After discussing the upcoming transaction from an out of state dealer, our salesman wanted to be sure I brought the new vehicle by for them to look at.

 

The orders are for the client and from Toyota.
These are not allocated or earned cars. They are ORDERED cars.
It doesn't matter to Toyota where they drop the cars ... they are going to arrive in order of their ORDER... so we're just kinda the middleman in all of this. I accept the order if you assign it to me.

For lots of reasons I don't care to make public, it's best to order from someone who knows their proverbial a$$ from a hole in the ground and from someone with a lot of orders because it will benefit you in the long run. :nod:

 

Sigh. No ordering yet.... Come on Toyota!

 

Patience, grasshoppah!

 

That's the first rule when it comes to Prius. layball:
.

 

Dianne: Homelink mirror was a topic a few pages back. rogerv said that is sometimes and option at port or dealer installed. Can Carson do that and what is the cost? Thanks

 

In my dealer list of options, I see no EC mirror available.

Toyota Prius Plug-In Accessories

It may be offered later. Who knows! But, no idea what can be done right now.

 

My daughter took delivery last night of a 2011 with level two trim, and the dealer is ordering and installing the Homelink mirror. Retail cost is $349 installed if you are buying it after the car purchase. This dealer is in Ohio. The plugin is basically the same car, so I expect that the wiring harness will be the same, and a dealer will be able to install the mirror, just as mine was done back in '03.

 

Is there anything else the HomeLink mirrors provide other than auto-dimming and a garage door opener button?