So, ... Priuschat.com members ... I thought I should pass this on and I definitely don't get anything from this other than relaying good info: I FINALLY met a good sales person from Toyota of Berkeley, California and spent a good hour talking to him while I had my 04 baby serviced. Name: David Burrill ([email protected]) (510) 845-2530 Got to see and touch their 04 Salsa AB (with leather) demo that was on the showroom and basically talk shop with him. He is the first dealer (Never met Dianne yet though.. ) that actually told me the truth and was very upfront and I'd be willing to buy from when the time comes. I'm thinking of changing my Highlander Hybrid wait list from Toyota of Walnut Creek to Toyota of Berkeley because of that and since he says they sell the most Prius of any dealer in the whole US. With the 517 allocated this month in the entire Northern California, they sold 60-70 Prii (out of the 65 dealers.) --That is just truely amazing percenage and makes sense of why there are so many here.-- I guess Toyota allocations love Berkeley! Now he also says that he is selling them at MSRP and that is all. He is aware of some dealers that change out wheels or other things and then jack up the price and he seemed very angry that dealers were doing that. Ultimately this seems like a good prius chat kinda guy. I saw the order list and they have about 400 or so on order but he is saying right now that quoting a 120-150 day waiting list to get a Prius. He of course told me all the positives experiences (as any good dealer should) about how people got exactly what they want, but I assume there were a few that had to compromise color or package. Anyway, I told him about this site and that we are all a bunch of priusites (Prius-nuts? What are we?) here and would love to have another dealer in our mix. Sounds like they don't need the shout because of the number of pre-orders, but I thought it would be good information for us in Northern California. It seems the classics are selling really, really quickly and at top dollar as well.
Well, I'm somewhat heartened by this. I ordered from Berkeley Toyota on Jan 5, and am now at 71 days and waiting patiently
I finally picked up my Prius from Berkeley Toyota today. I paid MSRP, no mark up. I'm somewhat of a unique case, because I didn't need the car right away, but I knew that I wanted a silver 2006 Prius. David Burrill was my dealer, and he's top notch. I think he's been promoted, so I'm not sure if he'll be selling cars anymore. I hope he does. The guy is so honest - he even discourages you from buying worthless add-ons if he thinks it's a rip off. You gotta wonder if that makes him a good salesman, but when we walked in the Toyota dealership the first time, he was the top salesman. I guess honesty pays off. I also like that he's friendly, clever, and he does his research. He can answer pretty much any question you throw at him about the car, from random to technical. Supposedly he's only worked at the Berkeley Toyota dealership for about 2 years, which is pretty impressive. The only problem I had with him is that he's pretty hard to catch when you call him because he's always busy selling cars I guess. I probably chatted as much with his answering machine as I did with him, but he also calls you back pretty quickly. I started shopping for the 2006 Prius before the model came out - in August 2005, to be precise. My fiancee and I went dealership hopping, and frankly, we could've chosen any dealership, but Berkeley Toyota was the one we felt the most comfortable with (Oakland was the shadiest - it took us half an hour to finally get a quote from them, and they tried to mark up $5000 above MSRP. Their habit of joining you in the back seat of the car as you play with the display model is also way too aggressive and intrusive for my taste). So we signed up for a 2006 silver prius in August 2005, and we picked up the car today. We picked the most basic option, and no leather seats - David warned us that this will delay our delivery a bit, and he was right, but time wasn't really an issue for us anyway. When we picked up the car, we met another couple who signed up ($500 deposit required) in January for a silver prius, but had to opt for a white one instead. The average wait time is around 6 months I hear. I guess if you want your prius sooner, you might need to compromise your choices. A 2005 Silver Prius was actually available and offered to me in December 2005. I declined, because I knew that I wanted the 2006 model (and again, time wasn't really an issue for me), and I'm so glad that I passed that offer. I totally love the back-up camera (I hate parking) and I'm looking forward to using the MP3 player function. My fiancee is 6'4", and he swears that the 2006 model has more headroom than 2005. He fits in comfortably. I'm already addicted to my MPG display. I see myself driving slower (hmmm).
!!!! Well i'd better share my experience with people here. I was actually on the market for a Prius in late Feb. I honestly had no preference as to what Toyota Dealer i went to my only condition is that i could get it right away. (Basically i didn't have a car) Well after checking out Toyota @ Hilltop (Hanlees Toyota) (which didn't have any at the time) i went down to Toyota of Berkeley which actually had a car on the lot at the time (Here is where i got my first drive in Prius!) Well, basically i took the car up to the Lawrence Hall of Science for the test drive and it was a pretty 'ok' test drive. However, i had BAD experience with them. Let me explain... Initially i was prepared to buy the car on the spot, however the dealer (and i forget his name but he was a talk caucasian guy with white/blondish hair (slightly balding)) who seemed like the 'lead dealer' or something. He told us that the car we'd driven was basically a Package #7 (because someone had ordered it). We enquired about the price but did not get a definite answer from him. After he went and 'talked' to his manager he came back to say the the car would have to be 'installed' with a leather interior and be sold to us at the price of a Package #8. We said we would forego the leather and wanted to take the car off the lot right then and there. The dealer insisted that it was 'out of his hands' about the leather and that the Prius was 'really hot', so it would be sold either to us or the next people that came in tomorrow. That was the last line... i felt he was taking me for a ride with the 'buy it now or regret' mentality and promptly disengaged and left. I totally felt like the leather interior was being forced on me and didn't like the tactic of price-jacking done by the dealers. (Cost difference would have been about $2000+ for the leather interior) [UPDATE: Oh, and i forgot. They added 'Extra' Costs like a 'Clear' protection covering for the hatch (basically a thin sticker of plastic that would 'help' protect the rear hatch loading are from getting scratched. NOW GET THIS: Same thing on ebay is 20++ plus shipping and they were charging me $90++!!!)] Well at anyrate 1 week later i was called down to Hanlees Toyota (Hilltop) and walked off with a Seaside Pearl '06 Prius. Heh i was desperate by that time to get myself a car so i didn't mind the color. In all honesty i might have gone and got a Black, White or Salsa Red if it was up to me. Sighz, oh well! (They're too many Blue Prii around!) Hope this helps anyone. Please please please... BE WARY OF BERKELEY TOYOTA (Can't say much about the servicing but if it follows their sales tactics i wouldn't bring my car there)
