Tips for buying a Prius C Two?

You should take your trade to CarMax and see how much they will give you. No need to buy a car from them, now you know how much your car worth.

You can talk about the out the door price to make sure they don't add anything on the price you willing to pay.

 

Always haggle with them about price first... get it on paper on in an email. Then mention you would like to trade a car in. $20k is an OK price for a 2 model... but then it depends on where you live. If KBB says $8500 I would bet you will be forced to be ready to walk to get your $7500.

 

If you need tires and you truly need calipers... then yes, you will be lucky. But I have been working on cars for over 20 years and have only ever seen 2 cars that really needed calipers. Usually it's pads or rotors. The calipers are very hard to kill (and if you accomplished it in under 35k miles you need to take it back). I know the ice and snow will affect them, but not this badly.

 

Carmax will give you the best trade in possible, even if you don't buy a car from them. You can sell it by yourself for more, but that is time consuming.

 

Have you checked inventory online? I only found 1 in the color I wanted, had to go an hour away.

 

My dealer went and got my car 400 miles away and brought it to me.

 

Nice, I didn't wanna wait and I don't have a go-to dealer.

 

I had been talking to all of the dealers in my area through email. I refused to talk to them on the phone... too much pressure. This one gave me the lowest price and said they could have the car in 2 days.

 

Buying a car is simple no matter how complicated the seller wants to make it.
You did well to get the invoice, the reasonable price (20,114) to buy. Don't hide the fact thast you have a trade-in; dealers always assume you do even if you deny. Look up the WHOLESALE value of your trade-in, being accurate on condition. Subtract that value from the 'reasonable' value. Thats the difference you offer to pay. Hold firm !!!
Now add the tax, tags, license, and title fees. You can negotiate that 'sales / transaction 'fee' but few dealers will . They've gotten used to the 'added dealer profit'.
If you need a loan to nuy the new car first find the loan payoff from your loaning institution and if your trade-in value is less than the payoff. you need to add the difference to your new loan. More later. Multiply your loan value by 1.25 to get the new loan value with interest and divide by 60 to get monthly payments. If you lease after getting the loan plus interest value subtract the 'residual' or value you can buy the car at the end of the lease or if you don't want it whart the dealer will put it on his inventory plus any trade-in costs.
Now take the difference between the total loan value and residual and divide by the months of the lease.
Here's an example:
You agree to buy a car for $20,000; you have a tradein that your oayoff is 8,500 but the tradein value is $10,000. That means you owe $20,000 - 10,000 + 8,500 so you\r loan is $18,500. Add the 8%, the tax, tag, and title fees and thatrs your total amount. Subtract any cash value you have, say $1000 and your loan is 17,500 plus tax, tags and license. Now add that 'dealer added profit', say $500 and your loan is now $18,000 plus tax, tags, license, title and 'transaction fee'. Lets sat it totals $20,000.
For a 60 month loan multiply the $20,000 x 1.25 and you get $25,000. Divide by 60 months and your payment is $417 a month.
On a lease, lets say 3 years with 15,000 miles a year you now multiuply the amount you're financing by 1.18 to get $23,600. Subtract the lease residual of $10,500 and you pay $13,100 over 36 months or $363 a month. Assuming you don;'t violate the 15,000 miles a year you can turn the car in free of concern or buy it for $10,500.
No matter how complicated the seller tries to mistify the purchase and financing thats all there is to it. Those multipliers for interest arefound in most finance tables and of course can vary depending on your credit rating and how much interest the seller wants to extract froim you. Its almost always better to finance thru your bank or credit union. And no those repair insurance add-ons are not good for Toyotas and Hondas. reference CR.
That help?

 

Excellent choice - that's exactly what I got

I paid $21,000 for a blue 2012 c2 with carpet mats in January 2013 in Northeast Ohio, including tax, title, license, whatever fees, and after $1,000 college grad discount and trading in a crappy car that hadn't run in 4 years. I could've done better, but I as a bit pressed for time, and the dealer drove about 100 miles away to get the color I wanted.

So, depending on where you live, you should be able to do a bit better, or at the very least get them to throw in some extras (extended warranty, etc.).

Here are other "how much did you pay" threads:

• How Much For a C2? | PriusChat
• What did you pay for your Prius C | PriusChat
• C 3 Good Price? | PriusChat
• Dealers & Pricing | PriusChat

 

The Conquest cash is money you apply as down payment toward your purchase. I recently helped my nephew lease a Corolla (cheap while in college) and found the $500 online coupon for him to use. Dealer used it as part of the money needed to get into the lease. I think it's worth the 110 mile drive even if just to find out what they will give you for it. Then if your Toyota dealer doesn't give you the same, tell them you will buy after you sell your car yourself (they don't need to know about the CarMax dealer). My guess is once they hear that, they'll meet your price. If not, you have the option of going back to the CarMax dealer to sell it. Always be the one in control of the deal and buy on your terms.

 

When I went to buy mine they had a $1000 off from Toyota if you bought a 2012. Mass emailed all the dealers within 50 miles to find the color model and options you want. Mine came with mats and door guards which I didn't want. They dropped the options off the price when I said. "Love the color but dealer x has one without the options in another color I really don't like"

Play Dealer against Dealer by email to get the price down some more. I then went to the dealer closest to my house showed them the numbers on paper from the lowest dealer and they "will beat any price by $500"to sell the car. It also helps to go at the end of the month when they need to meet there quota's.

 

Look for a New left over 2012 C2, I got mine for $17998 plus tax tag title last month MSRP $21600.

 

"Out-the-door" price means that if you were to pay that price in full right then, you'd owe nothing more. It includes tax, title, all miscellaneous dealer fees, etc.

As for the trade-in, I'd recommend was jhinsc and R Scneider said. Get quotes from Carmax, dealerships, anyone else you can contact, and try listing it on Craigslist for like 10-20% more than your highest quote.

 

Email quotes from a bunch of dealers is the way to go. It is very stress free. Tell them you are not haggling, just taking the best price that is offered. I got mine with a $1,000 college rebate, tax and interest charges included for just barely under $20k. The only place I could have done better was when they asked me "how much do you want to pay per month?". If they ask this, give them a low-ball amount and hopefully they will just give you a low interest rate to try to meet that low payment. If you are looking to get a rebate, there is usually a caveat that says you need to do the financing through Toyota.