Rate your buying experience/dealer for the preorder.

My approval with the dealer was smooth, though I couldn't get them to shift below MSRP. The sales manager called me to take care of the approval process, was a few minute phone call and that was it.

 

Considering how I worried I wouldn't be quick enough to get an order in at all, mine went very smoothly, thanks to Dianne at Carson Toyota. What I didn't know was that the confirmation notice would come through email, so I lost a few minutes between Dianne's submitting her part to Toyota and me going to the site to finish my part. I read about some people having trouble signing on and getting their orders in, but I didn't experience any problems in that regard. Smoooth going all the way!

 

My experience with my dealer was 5 out of 5 stars so far. The only thing negative is when I was struggling with my browser issues I called him on his cell for advice and he didn't pick up, excusable. But when I switched over to Google Chrome the Toyota online system worked like a champ, then when I had my online part done I called my dealer and he picked right up. He just had to log into the order system, we were completed in 5 minutes total. All I had to do was drop off my deposit and get my receipt.

 

David Short, New Car Manager of Larry H Miller Toyota here in Spokane, WA really came through for me. We got the order confirmed by 9:16. The email notification that he had approved the order was a hang up for us, too. It added a couple of minutes while I stumbled with the Internet pages and he figured out a work around.

What a relief to learn that the "sold out" notice was a glitch. That hit me at 9:06 and I (wishfully) just ignored it. I clutched up inside, though.

 

I have been pro-active talking to Joe Baechler at Desert Toyota in Tucson, AZ periodically since the middle of August. I firmed up my price with him and gave him my deposit yesterday. I give Joe at the dealership an A+ rating.

The Toyota website ordering was a real fiasco. Error, after error. The bogus "Sold Out" sign came up several times while trying to log in. It took me 45 minutes to get logged in to configure my plug-in giving me numerous errors and error messages; Then, another 30 minutes delay later when I tried to log in and then "Find" the "Confirm Order" button. That was a terrible process. I rate Toyota's order website a "D minus". The only reason I don't give that process an "F" is that I was finally able to log in both times.

 

Dianne Whitmire at Carson Toyota- AWESOME!!!

 

Patrick Coleman @ Jim Colman Toyota, Bethesda, MD was on the ball. He was on the computer at the time waiting for orders to come in. Very efficient and a pleasure to work with.

 

I second Pat Coleman at Coleman Toyota in MD. I've been in contact with him for the last few weeks and he has been very professional and extremely prompt in getting back to me through email and today for the order process. All the delay today was due to my stupid racken-fracken flip flargen browser not letting me log in.

Fortunately I did not have to go in to give a down payment as he was more than happy to take a credit card.

 

my dealer is clueless. he has been accomodating enough, but has to learn how to do everything. doesn't know anything about the car or the process. i think mine is their only order.

 

I have to give good marks to First Team Toyota in Chesapeake, VA.

They called back within 10 minutes of submitting order and stayed on phone to confirm my confirmation.

I'd say they're a good addition to PriusChat dealer program.

 

Geweke Toyota in Lodi - very good. Was on the phone with me and processed the confirmation right away - I got #556.

 

My experience with Carson Toyota (Dianne Whitmire) was disappointing. After 9:00 I ordered fine, with number 217. After the order, I stayed on the order screen for half an hour waiting for an email from Carson or Toyota saying to complete the order, but it never came. After half an hour I thought my staying signed in might have prevented something from happening, so I signed out. I then kept the computer on waiting for the return email for another hour, and nothing came by about 10:30. So I decided to sign back in, and at that time read that my dealer had contacted Toyota, so I confirmed, signed the contract online, and got the screen that Dianne said would show my order was complete. Then I signed out and in again, just to see if it would stick, and it was different, this time not stating a time period with an estimated production schedule, so I was concerned.

I then asked the live chat if my order was finalized, and after waiting 15 minutes with no response, asked for an email response and signed off. Response never came.

That evening I sent Dianne an email asking if I was finalized, and she quickly responded that I was OK.

All in all, very unsatisfactory.

 

I am still waiting for something meaningful to happen from the dealer. We've been on the phone three times but going nowhere. I'm about to panic, the clock ticks.

They said that can't price the car until they know how many orders they will get.

I may end up being a 2013 buyer.

 

I was finally able to order the car after struggling with the website for 3 hours. But I have to agree with crewdog that First Team Toyota's Becky Richmond is awesome. She knew exactly how everything worked and I was able to finalize my order within few minutes of ordering the car.

 

My dealer was a bit clueless. I heard nothing back, so I had to pay them a visit and "nudge" them. I had already paid a deposit and agreed to a price with them about a month before. That process was also a bit disjointed with different people involved everytime I visited.

They claimed that they did not originally close the deal because they had no pricing information from Toyota but when they saw my order confirmation with the pricing information included they relented.

They said they were getting lots of calls. I felt bad for those folks.

This dealer was very proactive during the Gen II release in 2004. They held training seminars for folks and included Toyota reps for Q&A. They lost their mojo somewhere along the way.

I bought my 2004 Prius from Dianne and have some regret for not going that route again. I ended up paying close to MSRP and my experience was not the best. I hope they do a better job of closing the deal, especially since I need to trade in my 2004.

 

UPDATE: After I emailed the dealer, I got a call and its a done deal. He said they had over 900 orders and I was one of the eleven that may get a car.

Should this be read that this dealer will only get eleven cars?

When should we find out if we are on the "For Sure" list?

 

I am not sure what your dealer is talking about. Once you order the car from Toyota's website and both of you have agreed on a price and confirmed it( you do it via the website), you are good to go and your car is guaranteed.

 

Mossy Toyota in Pacific Beach (San Diego, CA) was terrific! They followed up with me to be sure I was able to get my order submitted OK. After that they also let me know when they had completed processing the order on their end. It was very smooth and went quickly. Thanks Mossy!

 

Craig, I gotta say, you were probably one of the first ten or fifteen orders I confirmed, but with lots of orders flowing in and back out, there was no time to respond to everyone individually.

After 10:30am, I began to email everyone who was still OK'ed by ME but they hadn't yet sent back their final OK ... and was very surprised to hear thsat lots of folks THOUGHT they were OK because they had a code did not realize they were NOT ok because the FINAL confirm screen was not yet done or signed.

I wish there was a show of hands here from folks that I did help - folks I walked thru order changes and car color changes and problems with their sign ins and passwords and cancelling accidentally.

If you were not a problem and were confirmed, then you didn't need my help.

I wish the National folks had done a better jon on a video showing you what to expect (like our dealer training one) and what exact actions to take. I spent MANY hours on my phone helping folks who needed it.

It's a shame you felt slighted, and I am sorry for that.
I did my best with what little trraining we had on both ends.

By the way, the website actions omn Toyota's end are what generated the emails... I had lots of clicking here going on with two assistants thru about 11am and I believe that Toyota's mail system may have gotten a tad choked up in the SoCal area.