Prius Prime - official prices paid thread

thanks for the suggestions, I'll def try corporate if they don't want to try to work with me. I'll give them a chance to make right.

They don't want me to go all George Costanza on them lol

 

This is somewhat surprising to me. I have had good experiences with this dealership over the years, always getting fair treatment without any of the usual nonsense, up until my most recent purchase last month. I tried going to Kidd's first, to trade in my '20 for a '21, but they basically told me it wouldn't make sense for them because they can sell new ones for cheaper than a used one, even trying to convince me by including the tax credit in the price (which the buyer wouldn't see until tax time, so you can't factor that into the purchase price!) to illustrate their point. I pointed out that the credit doesn't come off the price so you must still pay up front, but they mostly waved me away at that point. I still don't understand why their inability to sell a used car would be my problem.
I promptly went to another local dealer and they did the exact deal with me that I tried to do with Kidd, without any hassle at all. I don't know, maybe there's been a change in management or something there, but they seem to not be as good a dealership as they once were.

 

Where do I start? I live in Oklahoma. No deals around here. Family is in Bay Area and Central California so I could make a trip out of this. I need to figure out where to buy a Prius Prime XLE or Limited at the best price. Can I really get a limited somewhere for $26k? I am a registered Uber driver and my wife just graduated from college. Not sure if that helps any. I don't understand truecar and how that can help with my search. Will it hurt my search if I use it to look around? I don't want to be locked into a certain salesman or lead generation service if its not helpful. I am willing to travel or whatever I have to do.

 

Don't expect the OTD cost of $26k on PP Ltd. Most of the best final prices you have seen on this thread are after-tax credit of $4500 and state-specific incentives. If you do not qualify for the tax credit and state-specific incentives, your final cost is most likely higher than $26k on PP Ltd. You can learn from others who did the out-of-state transaction and see if that is something you want to try. It can be very attractive, but I think there are some risks, and due diligence is required on your part. I would try emailing some of the dealers mentioned on this thread as well as some you find online. Some dealers are better than others dealing with out-of-state transactions. I don't have any particular dealer to recommend, but right now New England Toyota dealers have the best rebate offer at $5500 off MSRP. And remember this rebate applies to any trim level, so for the LE model with a lower starting MSRP, the % reduction of the cost would be better than applying the same rebate on the higher MSRP Limited modes.

 

Your best best is to look in CA then if you have family there then. I'd start by looking at dealers websites in that area, some dealers have a way to unlock their "Internet price". Do that, see what the number is for each dealer. Then you can use Truecar and a zipcode for that area to get a price. Now you can work down from those numbers. I'm going to guess you have little to no chance ot get a limited for 26k. XLE...yes. Limited..probably not. But not unreasonable to think you could aim for 28-29k for a limited before the 4500 tax credit.

But just have to do some work and see what is out there. If you have family in the area that its easy for you to get to the final dealer in person, do it. read back a page for my experience on buying sight unseen in person. Goodluck

 

Make sure you put your wife on the title to the car since that way you’ll be able to qualify for any applicable college grad incentives.

 

Hey! I'm in TX, so not too too far from you.

I'll walk you through what I used to bring my price down:
1. Truecar is good, though I used Your Auto Advocate's Market Price Report tool. I paid $15 to have a month-long access to unlimited reports, but I'm not an endorser or anything. It's probably just as effective using the free tools, but this gave me data on how long the cars were on the lots. At this point in the year, they've mostly been on the lots for several months anyway. Dealers with stale inventory are generally more likely to wiggle in a negotiation.

Contact a bunch of dealers with that stale inventory and let them know you're an out of state buyer. You can get them into a pretty good bidding war. I was able to get a dealer discount of $3145 (misc. doc/dealer fees of $110), so the sale price for my LE PP went from MSRP $29474 (incl. all-weather floor mats) to $21439 (-$5000 cash incentives, -$3145 dealer discount, +$110 dealer fees). You can expect a similar price cut from dealers that will play ball with you, so the XLE should come down to the $23-24k range before TTL.

2. Consider shipping costs from the various states you're contacting. The New England area might have a bigger cash incentive, but there may be extra mileage and the route from their dealer to your residence might be out of the way. I'd look at southern California, particularly LA proper, to find the cheaper shipping rates since that's probably more direct than say Vermont. Check out uShip for some quotes.

I live in San Antonio, but I had my car shipped to my in-laws near Dallas which shaved off a few hundred in cost. (Total shipping cost was $1295, shipper was a friend of my father-in-law in SoCal.)

It's kind of a pain in the butt in terms of waiting and transit anxiety, but there are some benefits to having the car shipped directly to you, though. For example, you won't have to pay the other state's sales tax (you will have to pay your own state's, of course). This is good if you're buying from CA where their sales tax is something like 9ish% if I recall right.

3. This doesn't appear to be something we discuss much in this thread, but at the risk of overexplaining, consider securing financing ahead of time. Don't negotiate this part with the dealer until the sale price is agreed upon. If they believe they can make up some profit by agreeing to a lower price, they'll be more likely to lower it. Then once they do, boom, I've got my own financing bruh.

Consider your local credit unions which usually have more competitive interest rates. I was pre-approved for a 2.24% auto loan at one of our local CU's. Once the dealer and I started talking finance, I let them know I already had this loan pre-approved. He then offered to try and find a loan through their in-house financing and got my rate lowered even more. If you're not paying cash, getting your interest rate at or below inflation rate makes it virtually a wash in real terms.

To sum up, if you buy out of state, you'll have to consider the following costs:

a. Dealer sale price+fees (lower by getting dealers to bid low against each other)
b. Your state's TTL (lower by getting the sales price down)
c. Shipping (shop around using uShip or other similar options)
d. Financing (lower by getting outside financing pre-approved)

If you buy this year, the $4502 federal tax credit is available if your tax liability (what you're supposed to pay, regardless if you get a refund or owe at the end of the year) is at least that amount.

When people are buying locally, the OTD cost they quote in this thread is usually just the a+b items minus additional state and federal incentives they get. We may not be able to get quite the deals they can, but we can still make out way better than buying these things from our local dealers that don't have the $5000+ incentives.

 

Hi from Edmond! Yes, it's definitely MSRP in Oklahoma. saxtprime has good comments. Another thing about financing is that out-of-state financing can be more difficult and some dealers won't do it, or will require an in-person visit. We paid cash for our car to avoid this. If you're financing, I also recommend arranging your own financing in advance.

There's one more big thing about Oklahoma - taxes. Oklahoma collects 3.25% tax on registration and 1.25% sales tax, and does not credit against registration tax. If you take delivery of your car in California, you have to pay 7%+ sales tax to California and then another 3.25% to Oklahoma. On the other hand, Maryland charges tax on registration. If you buy a car in Maryland and drive/deliver it to OKC, there's only 4.5% tax. I believe New York and New Hampshire are also registration-tax states, but I didn't purchase there.

Also, Toyota incentives are regional based on location of dealership. For example, Southern California (zip code 90210) has $4500 in manufacturer rebates for May, according to buyatoyota.com. Northern California (zip code 94086) has $4000; Maryland (zip code 21740) has $4500; New York (zip 10028) has $4000; New Hampshire (zip 03103) has $5500.

I did not find shipping costs to differ that much to centrally located Oklahoma, so it's not as big a factor as regional incentives and taxes. And you're willing to travel, but are you willing to travel anywhere? Before going to truecar or individual dealer webpages, I'd decide that first.

 

Yes, a really good point I neglected to mention! So while my local CU said they couldn't directly finance an out of state purchase, they WERE willing to refinance at the aforementioned rate which would have been an extra hoop to jump through but would nevertheless get me back to that APR. It was still good leverage to negotiate for the lower rate and thus still worthwhile for me.

 

Didn’t realize I’d have to pay California sales tax. That may be a deal breaker. Found a few cheaper prices at a Vermont dealer. I wonder how it works there? I am paying cash. I forgot to mention. Trying to figure out tax and all where I should be shopping. If I make a deal on the east coast hopefully i can pay and just fly to get it. Like to get the $750 Uber coupon too since I’m a registered driver .

 

Looked it up and it appears like I wouldn't pay any California tax. Not 100% sure, but it looks like I just need a temp tag from Oklahoma and pay the tax here in 30 days.

 

Anyone know which dealers in SoCal are offering the best prices on LE/XLE right now? Not finding much outside the standard Toyota rebates.

 

Buying new out-of-state can be worthwhile, but it also introduces a lot of complexity.

Just bought a Prime from Southern CA for registration and use in another state, which saved me $7,000 even with the additional fees. Avoiding CA sales tax (~10.5% in Los Angeles area), titling, and registration requires the dealership to show proof of delivery outside of California. Delivery can be taken anywhere outside of California, and not necessarily your home state. If taking delivery in a neighboring state like Nevada or Arizona, it may be difficult to have a valid temporary registration.

If you take receipt in California, you'll have the additional hassle of waiting for the California DMV to issue the vehicle title. In a COVID world, this takes an average of 90–120 days. "Rush" title processing is available for a fee that gets the turnaround to 10–15 days. This may create hassles for having valid operating permits in Oklahoma.

If the vehicle is shipped, the dealer can order a MSO (Manufacturer Statement of Origin) that most states will accept to create its first title. This MSO can't be ordered until the dealer has a bill-of-lading from the shipper. It's the cleanest path available to avoid CA's sales tax, but there may be a delay between delivery of the car and obtaining the MSO.

 

Been looking around Maryland and New England and it seems like discounts are less than earlier for certain.

 

Update on my dealer situation. I emailed the Bill Kidds General and Sales manager near the end of the day on Friday May 7th. I have yet to hear back from either of them (I know, shocking). Have a follow up email drafted and will send it mid-day tomorrow further inquiring and asking for their help. I feel 2 1/2 plus business days is more than enough for at least ONE of them to at acknowledge a customers complaints. I don't expect much from them but will keep my fingers crossed. If needed next week I'll reach out to the regional office.

 

What would be a good price OTD for an LE in the Maryland area?
I'm sending a few emails out to these dealers. I'm also a recent graduate so I should be able to take advantage of that.

 

I just had a Boston area dealer tell me in regards to me flying out and driving one back to Nebraska. So now they don't want to sell to people outside their area?

"Hello,

Unfortunately, we are not selling vehicles so far out of New England.
The pipeline has been throttled to the point where we have to have enough vehicles for our local market.

Good luck on your search."

 

Maybe they're getting push back from other dealers via National?

Interesting though, as car salesmen are hardly seen as the paradigm of fair play. There are plenty of other dealers, so don't give up.

 

Duplicate

 

And just like that the 2021 deals are done. Congrats to all those who bought before May!

 

Darcars is your best option

Silver springs

Ask for Solorm or Luis

They have a 5k dealership discount on top of the toyota rebate

Tell em Jon sent you

I bought a LE off them recently