If you bought a new Prius lately, can we talk?

We went to a dealer in Pensacola today, looking for a Prius.
Their website showed 3 on the lot.
When we got there the salesman thought one of those might be left.
He couldn't find it and learned that it had been sold and delivered a couple of hours before.
"How about a Camry hybrid?"
No thanks.

The story:
They didn't have one on the lot we could look at.
You can't 'order' one from the factory with the color and options you want.
They get 5 or 6 a month.
As is.
Most are pre-sold before the truck even brings them in.
They just have to take whatever's on the truck.
Most come with fairly high end options because they'll sell, no matter what.

There was ONE coming in next week that hadn't been pre-sold.
For 28 grand and change, it's ours.
I said I'd like to at least SEE the damned thing and drive it some.
Won't buy a pig in a poke.

What was your experience?
Anything like I was just offered?

Thanks.

:)

Good luck!

Unless, of course, if you commute is in the city (no highways). In town you will have better gas mileage with the Prius.

My husband commutes 100 miles/day in his Civic Hybrid, and he (at 75 mph on the highway) averages about 43 mpg, and a single tank will last him almost 500 miles.

And I do about equal share of city/surface road and highway driving. I get upwards of 70mpg on the highway and at least 45 on the surface roads.

And I KNOW that sounds...Rich Guy Snooty...or something.
But that sure ain't me.

We have a 4 year old Dodge Caravan that we use mostly for road trips.
But the bulk of our driving is around a small town and within the county.

Sometimes we go weeks without driving the Dodge and I go drive it around the block just to keep the battery charged.

My mom drives only surface streets and gets like 42 mpg.

Not 60/50 as you claim.

...but I'm still getting 52-56 on every tank by driving carefully. I'm still in the 60/50 pocket.

I'm not dissing the Civic hybrid, though. I would drive one if there weren't Prii, and my wife looooves her hybrid Accord.

In my opinion, that's what makes the Prius superior. The hybrid technology turns off the gas engine completely when it's not needed. The Honda engine is running all the time, even at idle.

And had a similar experience, the dealers only order certain package combinations and they were all spoken for before we even got to the lots. We ended up with one only because one dealer (and this is in the Boston area with many many dealers) had one available because the person who had ordered it lost their financing.

But it also put us in a good bargaining position in a way, it was a 2006 model and they were very keen to get it off the lot, but it had a higher end package than we needed and was originally more than we wanted to spend. We were in a position were we could walk away and we did when we heard the price but because they wanted to get it out to make room for the 2007s I guess they came down to my price (well an acceptable price, whenever a salesman asks me what I Want to pay for a car I say "zero" ;) )

Love it.
Same here.
I don't 'want' to pay a damn thing.
I'd like for some rich relative to just give me one.
Dumb question.

The base model is $22K - and most *do not* come with a bunch of high priced options - sounds like they have a bunch of 2007 loaded option Priuses to unload (on you).

Did you go to Sandy Sansing or Bob Tyler???

Bob Tyler.
Does Sansing have a Toyota dealership?
Didn't see it online.
No, the one they had had were '08s.
No '07s there.

She was able to drive it home immediately - but she HAD to get a silver one because that was the one on the lot with the features she wanted. Got a pretty good deal, I think.

and call it even.

They had one on the lot. It was loaded with options I didn't want, but I test drove it. The dealership called around and found another one in the area with the features I did want. I had to wait about a week to get it. I suspect that with the price of gas going up, they're more in demand now than they were in July.

I knew I wanted a Prius as long as I could fit in the damned thing. My local dealer had a pre-sold one that they let me test-drive, and I was sufficiently pleased at its roominess and peppiness. So I got on their list on a Monday in February '05, hoping for a fully-loaded one in red. They gave me the standard ETA of 4-6 months.

The following Saturday, I was getting itchy, so I contacted another dealer, who had one on the lot, a fully-loaded sand-colored one. I was about to go put some money down on it when the first dealer contacted me, because someone didn't want the pre-sold that I test-drove. So I got the gray one, after only five days.

As I understand it, they're making more Prii nowadays, so you shouldn't have to wait long. It seems likely, though, that you still can't really pick the exact package and color without a looooong wait.

Try another couple of dealers, and you'll be sipping gas much sooner.

Seems to be a bigger selection in and around Boston.
And it would be a good excuse to visit our daughter for a few days.

In retrospect, I would have gotten the upgraded stereo that allows the iPod to be plugged in, however.

I called all the Toyota dealers in the Austin area looking for a blue one with just the stereo upgrade. Nothing fancy, but I wanted that mp3 imput on the stereo, LOL. I got the run-around from one, the "promise her the moon" from another, but then I called the third dealer, and the salesman directed me to the stock manager. He located just the car I wanted, in transit to Dallas. He said he could have it diverted to his dealership if I would come in and put down $500 to hold it. I did exactly that and picked it up three days later. I had arranged my own financing in advance, so it was truly a "no hassel" experience. The downside? I paid sticker price, just over $25,000. And I just love the car!! It was exactly what I wanted.