Screw toenails, I'm ripping someone's friggin foot off!!!

I feel so bad for you. This could easily happen to anyone. I know when I put a $500 deposit down last October my check was niether cashed nor acknowledged with a written sales agreement. I live in a small town and this is just the way we do business. It could have bit us in the butt though.

I'm really sorry your dealer has gone over to the dark side.

 

I am disappointed to hear this. This is where a few of us on Prius Chat recently got our cars at MSRP. If they, like BigBaldCuban's dealer, have now decided to gouge people, I will find that personally disappointing because I liked them and referred people to them.

On the other hand, I'd like to think that for people already on their list, especially those who have waited faithfully based on the terms that were given to them when they got in line, even Advantage (if they are, in fact, price gouging, that is) would not do what these horrible "bean counters" in Texas have done, by pulling the rug out at the last minute!

I think you have good cause to fight back in any way possible, and I wish you the best of luck.

 

I think that is the coldest thing I have heard of. Since it is kind of "iffy" as to whether you had a legal contract; and, because they are returning your money, your "loss" is limited to your time, anguish, hopes, etc. I don't know if the legal system can help you here.

I think, in times like this, that the press is your friend, and I would make every effort to bring them in. It is amazing what public pressure and bad press can do.

Pressure on Toyota Corporate might get better results, as a lot of people might be "deadened" by yet another story of "car customers getting screwed" - because this has been happening since the inception of the industry.

I wish you all the best in this. Had it happened to me I think I would have lost it altogether.

I would almost be tempted to go outside Texas, find a dealer and even pay a reasonable amount over MSRP, grab your ankles, so to speak, get a car and move on. If you keep a car 10-15 years what the hell is the difference anyway.

Larry

 

Manny, Sorry to hear about your incident. I just saw the post and I must say that if it was me, I would have rampaged through the dealership looking for vengence. But as others say here, keep your cool in public and keep your hopes up even if you go to another dealer. As for the Plano dealer, that is outrageous! Plano, especially that part of town, has a demographic of average household incomes around $85,000 per year (no, I do not make that much myself). I know because I live and work in Plano. Please do not let the dealer's reputation tarnish the image of this master planned city. Plano has been ranked among the top city to live in among other cities in the nation. My first stop on my way to purchase a Prius last September was this dealer because I wanted to help businesses located in Plano by shopping first in Plano. After only a few minutes, I got a bad taste in my mouth. After half an hour, I left in disgusts. I promptly stopped by a neighboring city (Richardson) and it was like night and day compared to the Plano dealer. The sales rep I had, really gone above and beyond the call, on my purchase. If you need info from the Richardson dealer, let me know and I can recommend the sales rep to you. I do not know if he/dealer will charge a premium above MSRP but at least it will a be another decent contact. Good luck. Tony.

 

Manny asks:

My uninformed guess is that it would depend somewhat on the content of the message. Does it say something like, for example, "These days, we're selling Prius package 9's for $25,000" or is the message more like "The cost of the Prius you ordered from us will be $25,000"?

The latter is a more firm commitment than the former.

 

I sure get the feeling that Toyota just doesn't care, and all the babble about "thanks for being so patient" is just self-serving crap. They've got us by the cojones and they know it all too well.

 

Yeah, but you "came first" -- back in January!

Ack... need to rephrase that....

 

Manny,
I would suggest giving up on the urban dealers, most of the ones I spoke with here in the southeast were uncooperative and had a high incident of price gouging (West Ashley Toyota wanted 31K for a used 1600 mile base model 04!). The rural dealers seem to be less likely to do this, maybe because their demand is lower.
We bought our tideland #9 from Griffin Toyota in Hamlet, NC for MSRP and not a dime over. They were very friendly and cooperative and even gave us Blue Book retail for our trade in. At the time they had no waiting list for prii. I found the car by daily searching of the inventory pages of all the dealers within reasonable driving distance. Found ours due to be delivered in a few weeks, called them, put a deposit on it and drove home in it the day it arrived.
Maybe we were just extra lucky.

 

Cars do just pop up on the lots available for general sale every once and again. We actually looked at 3 other prii at other dealers before we bought ours. All were at the two dealers here in Charleston, the first we did not buy because they would only give us 12k for our trade in valued at 20k at the time. The second two were both at the same time and place oddly enough, this was the West Ashley dealer. The new package 9 seaside they had on the lot they wanted 35k for! Yeah right. We promptly left.
So anyway, my point is you do not have to be on a waiting list to get one. Just patient and persistent with the internet and the telephone.

 

i think that to a certain extent toyota is basically 'throwing up their hands' because they can't keep track. what with people placing multiple deposits, traveling hundreds of miles from home, putting them up on Ebay, they just can't keep track and they are admitting it.

prius - the cabbage patch doll of 2004-05

 

One other thing. Toyota Regions have been known to Allocate cars to specific dealers for specific people before in situations where something really bad has happened.

It's possible that a nice exchange with Regional may result in them sending a car to the dealer and saying "Give this to him at MSRP and tell him we're very sorry for the confusion."

It's happened before