Prius Prime - official prices paid thread

can I ask what state you are in, where you couldn’t get the dealers above $22k? I’m in a similar position. I have a 2020 XLE , but bought in Nov 2019. 18k miles on it. Magnetic blue w/black interior. KBB says average value is 24-26k.
I was debating getting into a 2021.
Haven’t approached a dealer yet.

 

Checked Greater NY region and Southern CA region. Toyota extended current offers in both of those regions. NY for $5,000 and CA for $4,500 cashback.

 

Faith Toyota in Westminster, VT ships.

 

His profile says MA. When I sold my 2020 PP LE end of last year, I had several dealers offering around $20K for 10 mo old with only 3K miles on the car. I ended up selling to Carvana for $21.5K which was the highest bid on my car among all other dealers I contacted. Was not going to buy a replacement car at that time, so the sales tax write-off was not an issue for me.

 

Here's my situation, if anyone can chime in with advice on the numbers. I've never traded a car in before, and don't want to get fleeced.

I have a 2020 PP XLE, blue magnetism w/black interior, door guards, all weather mats and cargo mat.
Just under 18K miles, bought in nov 2019.
Original numbers when bought:
Retail $30,918
$500 delivery fee
Dealer disc: $2,864
CD Rebate $1,500
Uber disc: $750
$26,163 + Taxes, title, etc on top of it.
I got the extended warranty for $1800, so that's additional. (BTW, are these even worth it? I was afraid of the cost of the large screen, so I got it.)
I have it financed currently through a Credit union with $21K balance. (Originally through Toyota, then refinanced.)

I see a 2021 XLE with retail at $32K, no discounts listed from the dealer.
What should my target dealer discount be? I'm guessing they're pointing to the manufacturers cash back and saying that's it?

-Do I tell them I have a trade or a potential trade? Does that reduce my chances for any dealer money off?
-My state's tax rate is 7%

-If they offered me say, $23k for my trade in, I'd pay off the current loan and have $2k left.
$32,000
-5,500 CB
-750 Uber

anyone care to jump in with what's a decent deal?

 

I found in my area, that they are not budging much from MSRP on 2021 PP. I suggest checking with several dealers who still have the inventory of 2021 models. It is possible that once they start having the 2022 PP models, dealers who still have 2021 models sitting in the lot get motivated to move them out, but I did not find that to be the case in our region. The new cars are just coming and gone as soon as they reach the dealer. They are not sitting on the lot for long.

Do you qualify for the full tax credit of $4,502? If not, it is hard to replace your current 2020 PP XLE which you still owe $21K on balance with a brand new 2021PP XLE without paying more for it even if you get $23K for the trade which I think is too high of an expectation on the trade-in value with a dealer. But if you decide to sell the car instead of trading, you have to pay the full sales tax on your new purchase. That is if your state allows writing off the value of the car traded in for a new car purchased for the sales tax calculation. For a $32K car, that is $2240 in sales tax at 7%. If the trade-in was valued at $23K, then your sales tax would be 7% of ($32-23K) or $630. Your saving is $1610. But this only works for a trade-in. If you sell your car to Carvana or anyone else beside the dealer your are buying the new car from for $23K, then you will not get this saving passed on to your new car purchase at a Toyota dealer.

 

I qualify for the $4500 tax credit. I got it on my current PP.
Wouldn’t the cash back also reduce sales tax owed ?
My state does allow trade ins to reduce the amount of tax owed.

 

No, sale tax is based on the list price.

 

To be clear, sales tax is based on the agreed sales price of the car, not on the MSRP (or sticker price). At least that's the way my state does it as far as the sales tax goes. In our state, we also have an excise tax that is separate from the sales tax and collected annually by the municipality that handles the car registration. This excise tax is purely based on the MSRP of the vehicle regardless of the price paid for the car. So, as far as the sales tax goes, if the dealer discounts the sales price, that will reduce the sales tax, but the manufacturer's cashback and most other types of after-sale rebates are after-tax events, so it will not reduce the sales price of the car or decrease the sales tax on the car.

 

Traded my 2020 LE for a 2021 LE this weekend in upstate NY. Old one had 11k miles. Same color we had the grey.

New msrp: 29474
Sale price: 28974 (-500)
Trade in: 23500 (CarMax was 23k and carvana was 24.8)
Diff: 5474
Rebates: 5500 (5k Toyotacash and 500 NYS)
Doc fee:75
Tax and fees totaled to under 600 to make the trade. The rebates are taxed but NYS does allow you to save tax on the trade.

Motivation was only for Android Auto but nice to get safety sense 2.0.

Should get an additional tax credit next year which only makes this decision easier.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

If you're doing a trade in, does that go towards reducing the amount of sales tax charged? I'm in RI. I thought it did, for the trade in

 

Varies by state. In Connecticut we pay sales tax on the selling price minus trade in, ergo: the amount to buy the car. Also why it often does not help us if Carvana or other source offers a higher price for our trade-in (not subtracted from our taxable purchase price unless applied directly against purchase). Gotta' work the numbers.

 

As commented above, it varies by state. Someone from CA commented here that they don't let the trade-in value offset the sales tax on the new car purchased. In my state, trade-in value would be subtracted from the car purchased from the same dealer. But again as already commented by @pghyndman, it has to be traded at the time of the purchase from the same dealer to get this "discount". Otherwise, yep, the state will take a chunk of sales of a vehicle's full value every time the ownership changes (except the case of a professional dealer buying your car).

In my last transaction, I decided to just sell my 2020 PP, since I did not need a replacement car at that time. So, Carvana giving me the highest bid of $21.5K was my choice. But had I needed to buy a new car at that time from a dealer, even a dealer who would have given me only $20.5K for a trade-in would have been a better deal than selling the car to Carvana at a higher price and using the proceed to purchase a new car at a separate dealer right away.

Instead, what I did was I put the proceed of the sale in my investment account. For the last 8 months, that $21.5K has grown to ~$23K, plus I just received a $4500 tax credit on 2020 purchase of PP. Plus I have saved ~$1K on the insurance and excise tax while I did not own a car. The grand total is $28.5K just enough to cover the price of my new 2021 PP Ltd before tax and title. Yes, I did have to shell out ~$1500 additional cash for the tax and title but when I get my $4500 tax credit next year, I am $3K ahead. In essence, it is an 8 months delayed trade-in of 2020 PP LE to 2021 PP Ltd for a net profit of $3K. Even if I just put the sales proceed in a checking account forgoing the $1.5K capital growth, I still have made a net $1.5K profit on this deal. I can't think of any better way to switch a car to a new and improved one for a profit.

 

very cool way to get into the car you have and save a bit of $$

 

I am in Massachusetts. Salamander_King is always changing cars!!

Dealerships notoriously offer TERRIBLE trade in. I've been low-balled with $16K trade in.
I would suggest getting online offers from Carvana, Vroom, TrueCar, CarMax, etc. It's pretty easy: enter plate, enter State, answer few questions about your car (mileage, options, condition, etc) and boom you get an instant offer. I selected Carvana because they offered the most, scheduled appointment to inspect and pickup car from my driveway (they sent a tow car with a bed) and the funds appeared next morning in my account. From my experience, Carvana gave best offer for new cars with low miles, Vroom gave better offer to relatively new cars with 20k miles and above. CarMax is similar to Carvana but $400 lower and Truecar very similar to Vroom. My hunch is you should get between KBB 24-26K.

I opted to sell my 2020 XLE and buy 2021 Limited outright targeting a $0 net car trade.
I considered 2021 XLE and would've netted around $5k. But as I plan to keep car for a while, the bells and whistles of the Limited were more enticing. So, I think you will come out on top going from 2020 XLE to 2021 XLE.

Presently, dealerships are selling cars at near MSRP and not budging because of chip shortage and supply and demand.
I used AAA online Auto Buying Program which led me to a dealer offering $600 of MSRP and worked from there.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you!

-Opt1mus Prime: "Autobots, roll out!"

 

I normally get a Carmax quote to use when negotiating the trade in value. Sometimes a dealer will "match" (roughly same money taking into account tax differences of trade vs no trade), other times not. Either way, it's easy and doesn't cost anything.

 

I was going to wait to buy a car until I really have to have one. And when I do, I wanted to switch to a BEV or longer-range PHEV like RAV4 Prime. But looks like I will need a daily driver sooner than later, and for now, I am not finding BEV or RAV4 Prime deals that are as attractive as PP. Yeah, if Toyota offered some rebate on the Rav4Prime or the current $7500 tax credit on BEV (or RAV4Prime) is a refundable tax credit, then I would have skipped the third PP. Heck right now, there are more Rav4Primes in stock than Prius Prime in most of the dealers I have checked. I will see what kind of cars and deals become available next year. If a great deal like the one on PP shows up, then I will make the switch again.

 

can an extended warranty be transferred over to a new car purchase? If I trade in a used car where the warranty still has another 6.5 years to go. is this worth anything in negotiations, or was that just money I eat?

 

I don't think so. It can be transferred to a new owner, but you can't transfer it to a new car. But you may be able to ask for a portion of the money back. This is another reason an extended warranty is a bad idea when you don't know how long you are keeping the car. In essence, you just gave away $1800 to the sales mgr. You haven't owned the car long enough to be able to use it, it only kicks in after the manufacturer's basic warranty expires in 3 yrs or 36Kmiles. Read the small print on the contract to see if you can get money back by canceling it now.

 

Congrats, Salamander_King!
HUGE jump from LE to Limited !!
HUD, BSM, JBL, Fog Lights ... etc