Question about buying a Toyota Prius?

Question

I am looking to buy a Toyota Prius either in Southern CA or Las Vegas in the next month or so...is there anything i should know?

Is there currently a waiting list? If so how long?
Do dealerships sell them whatever the MSRP is or do they increase the cost?
What is the exact cost for a new 2006?

Answer 1

The gov used to give a rebate if you bought one (around $8,000 if I remember right), check to see if they still do. A Prius is very much in demand. I'm not sure it Toyota has been able to produce to keep up with demand. There very well could be a premium the dealership charges (over and above the sticker price plus tax, license, etc).

The worst place to buy one is a metropolitan area like SoCal or Vegas. My daughter bought a Honda Odessey a few years ago. ALL dealerships charged a premium because of the demand. She ended up buying in Merced, CA. She paid sticker price, but didn't have to pay the $5,000 premium all other dealerships were charging. I'm not sure about a waiting list for Prius, but there used to be one. (My daughter's Odessey was 6 months.)

I would estimate the MSRP at around $26K to $27K. That is based on the MSRP for an '02 (about $22.5K) when I last looked at them.

One thing you didn't mention, and it is a HUGE problem. BE CAREFUL when driving in a metropolitan area with a lot of pedestrians around. These cars are very quiet. People will step off the sidewalk into the street without looking because they can't hear them coming.

Answer 2

For pricing:
Go to http://www.toyota.com/prius
Go to "Build and Price your Prius" and enter your ZIP code.
You'll see the option packages available in your area and the MSRP of each.

Note that Southern CA and Las Vegas are two different Toyota regions, so one may have different option packages available as compared to the other.

Wait times vary depending on dealership (how many other orders they have ahead of you, if your dealer is willing to put the effort into inter-dealer trading to get the right Prius to deliver for their list of waiting customers), and how picky you are for colors/options.

You should not pay above MSRP, nor pay for any added accessories or any items not available at the above toyota web site, unless you really want them. (dealer profit items, "market adjustment", etc.)

Some dealers have been known to offer less than MSRP, but they are rare.

BTW: the US federal income tax credit will lower on Oct. 1, 2006 for the Prius, so the earlier you can take delivery, the better. http://www.toyota.com/prius/tax.html

For more info, I'd suggest checking in with other owners / owners-in-waiting:

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota-prius/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Prius-2G/
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/2006_Prius/
http://www.priusonline.com/
http://www.priuschat.com/

Answer 3

My husband and I bought our Prius in January.
We paid about 27k for our car. We had a ten day wait.

You can access
http://www.toyota.com
Using your zip code, you can build and price your car there.
We did this, the price was almost on the nose.
It looks as if prices have dropped since January.

Although we live in another state than you, I would recommend that you contact a dealer in the Central Valley of California.

My reason for this? We live along the Front Range of Colorado. Dealer mark-up here is $500-$800. Last summer we contacted a dealer who is about a three hour drive from us and not located in a large city. He was able to trade with another dealership (as it happens, in S. CA) to get our Prius, less than a month later he was able to do the same for a co-worker of my husband.

The estimated mpg is pretty accurate. We live in a VERY hilly city. Our average in town mpg is 45. However, if we travel to Denver or down to Pueblo we get closer to 60mpg.

The person who warned you to be careful around pedestrians was on the money! LOL We discovered this in a Sam's parking lot. My husband was driving and nobody was moving out of our way...one couple walked in front of us! My husband tapped the horn and that worked.
While this is mildly entertaining (okay, I enjoy it quite a bit) it does mean you have pay more attention to the world around you.
I've found that warning people that I'm going to pull out and not make any noise or sounding my horn work well.
DO NOT rely solely on the camera and screen for backing out, but don't disregard it, either.
It is a big help, but the radius doesn't cover more than the rear ends of the cars on either side of you and happily any children who may not have heard you.

What else..? Shell gasoline works best. I read this at http://priuschat.com/ I decided it was worth a try. At the time I was getting about 39mpg around town.
I used regular grade and have been getting my current mileage since then. Tried the two higher grades, but only increased my mileage to 47mpg. Not really worth the difference in the price of the fill-up. Gas costs about $3 a gallon here for regular unleaded, $3.20 for highest grade, this makes about a $3.00 savings for...well, you can see the difference.

Running out of gas...you'd have to know my husband to understand this. It must be the engineer in him, but he had to know what happened if he ran out of gas. LOL
Apparently you feel a "click" in the car, this is the tank registering empty, and then...you keep going without, as much power but certainly enough to get you a gas station, as the engine goes from hybrid to battery only. The idiot light for gas comes on when you have about two gallons of gas left in the tank.

I can't think of anything else you might want to know about the Prius.

Hope this is helpful and good luck, to say nothing of having fun. ; )

Answer 4

- Not all dealers are charging a premium. AKA: addendum sticker pricing, ADM (additional dealer markup), ADP (additional dealer profit). Just call around and ask. Every Toyota dealer has an internet manager, 9/10 times THIS is the guy you want to deal with, ask for that person when you call. They will tell you the straight dope for that dealer and that area.

- Wait times vary by region, and by dealer. The larger the dealer, the more of an allocation they get. It also depends on how picky you are. If you have to have it in a specific color, with a specific package and you don't offer any alternatives, you can expect a 4-6 week wait time....unless you get lucky.

Toyota dealers don't "order" the car per se from Toyota. In otherwords, they don't call the factory and say, "I want 3 blue Priuses w/_______, ________, ________ and _________" What happens is, Toyota builds x number of units in a given period. They pretty much build them the way they want to, and every now and again they do allow dealers to specify certain colors and packages, but each dealer gets only so many of those. Next, Toyota sends them out to the distributors based off each distributors demand and sales. They in turn divy out the cars to the dealers based off the same criteria. These allocation periods come about every 2 -3 weeks. So, you may get lucky, and catch them at the beginning of an allocation cycle, wherebye they can swap with other dealers before the car even gets off the boat, a "swap at sea". But you just have to call and find out.

- The exact cost depends on which package you request. They start at about 22k, and go up to around 30k if you want leather and navigation in addition to the other goodies that come with package 9. BTW, the car comes with a very long list of standard features, including a/c, pwr/w/l, cd, cruise, and keyless entry. So, the 22k one is a pretty good car. The difference is if you want side air bags, the HID head lamps, Vehicle Stability Control, upgraded radio, rear view camera, smart key, leather, and/or Nav. Check out Toyota.com and it'll break down all the packages for you. Or you can goto any Toyota dealer's website and under new cars somewhere you can find a downloadable brochure which will break down the packages, but not the costs.

- Don't worry about the batteries. There's a 100k mi warranty on them, and Consumer Reports tried to kill them, but gave up after 375k. In fact, w/ 100's of 1000's of Priuses sold since 1997 (first in Japan) there is STILL insufficient data to determine average battery life.

- Don't pay over sticker. There are plenty of dealerships around the country that don't do it, and I work for one of them. It would be cheaper for you fly to Florida and drive back than to pay 5000 over sticker.

- The tax break was never 8k. It used to be a 2k deduction, but this year it went to ~ a 3k CREDIT!!!! However, it was based time based but since the US G'ment dragged their feet (go figure?) they have extended the deadline into the 3rd quarter. Check with your local tax authority (H&R Block or attorny to see if you would still qualify). Just consider it gravy if you get it, but don't depend on it. There are still many benefits besides the milage including car pool lane privilages with no passengers in some areas.

Answer 5

as gas prices increase, prius prices will increase and toyota will start making more. However, theyre still very hard to get and somewhat of a gamble. if gas prices go down, the value of the car will decrease sharply and you will have ended up overpaying.

Answer 6

Check out edmunds.com. They'll tell you about the MSRP, cost of ownership, etc. . .

For a list of preferred hybrid dealers in California, you might try hybridcars.com.

Good luck.

Answer 7

Sorry, but "No". The car dealership is in the business of selling cars, not in taking them back. In their position it is no longer a new car. You bought it and the registration documents have been sent to your DMV for processing. It's now a used car. The Prius now belongs to you and the finance company. Enjoy it, it's yours.

Answer 8

those cars are a rip off you would be better off just getting a corolla they get about the same "actual" mileage not "sticker" mileage and youll save a lot of money. the amount of gas youll save with a prius doesnt warrant spending 6000 more for a car the same size as a corolla 6000 bucks still buys a hell of alot of gas

Answer 9

The exact cost varies but it's probably around $23,000 if it's new.

Answer 10

Researh edmunds.com/kbb.com/nada.com

take all your research with you to the dealer..

i recommend any of the Gold coast Toyota dealers..all i believe have them in stock..they dont sell much up here (central coast)