I bought my Prius last week, rather than a month or two later, because of the Prius production shutdowns in Japan. I used the Costco program. As we were doing the purchase, my salesman told me that his dealership is cancelling its contract w/ Costco as of the end of the month, because of supply/demand issues related to the Japan disaster. Just one more bit of info that might help somebody's purchase planning.
According to this thread, the same is happening with AAA prices: http://priuschat.com/forums/dealers...ash-over-dealers-refusal-price-guarantee.html
The USAA buying program is in the same situation. Six weeks ago, I could have bought a Prius for $1000 under invoice from one dealer and $500 under invoice from another. About 9 days ago when I bought the Prius, I got it for $500 over invoice, and the USAA site then said "check with dealer" instead of giving the details of an offer. Yesterday, numbers were back, but they were dollars off the MSRP as reference rather than invoice. The average was about $900 off MSRP. Just checked today. Price is now $269 to $369 off MSRP. If this continues we are going to see prices above MSRP even through buying programs. Another indicator: six weeks ago, in my area, cars.com showed 197 2011 Prii within 30 miles of my zip code. When I bought mine, cars.com showed in the mid 90's. Today it is showing 53, most of which are Prius II's.
Camelback Toyota was the only dealer within a reasonable range that had the model/color combination I wanted. This is the salesman. Great guy to deal with. He's also a mechanic, so he knows more about cars than the average salesperson. Jason Fleming Internet Sales & Leasing Consultant Camelback Toyota 1550 E. Camelback Rd Office 602-200-5546 Cell 480-246-9882
Yeah, thats where i bought from, too. I was in there last week, and they only had 19 Prius left. They usually have about 100. I keep in touch with their inventory person periodically as I still have my name on the waiting list for an iQ. At that time, he only had about another 20 cars allocated, and was not sure what he would be getting after that. 95% of the cars they are getting are package IIs, so its good that you bought when you did and got exactly what you wanted.
Dianne, There are always exceptions to the rules. After all not all Prii owners are tree hugging lefty liberals, just the good looking owners are.
Like I said in another thread, it's a Crap Shoot! When I first thought about the car in March 08, the closest dealers salesman said $2000.00 OVER invoice, was the best he could do... A week later, next closest dealer, different salesman, $2000.00 UNDER invoice was the best he could do..... Who do you think I bought the car from. It's a Crap Shoot, Salesman are all different, Dianne however, is a Lucky 7, WINNER!
What I don't understand is y r ppl payN full msrp??? Do these ppl know how much they are giveN 2 the dealerships??? shhheezz!
I believe that in English, you're asking why people are paying full MSRP. Because the demand is far outstripping supply. And, people are weary of $80-100 fill ups at the pump and see no end in sight of that. There's not that much profit between invoice and MSRP in a typical Prius. I personally resent your inference that someone who pays MSRP for a car is stupid. If the car is worth it to them at sticker, then we as comsumers will pay it. I paid MSRP for my 2005 and I'd do it again if the circumstances were the same. Dianne
A non-white II is $22879 at invoice and $24K at window. That would be wonderful if we had hundreds. No one's exactly getting wealthy selling Prius at MSRP. There's perhaps 5% markup on a II or a III.
So you are saying that this is the actual price the dealer pays for the car?? What about holdbacks, dealer incentives, discounts?
Holdback is 461. That's it. What discounts? On Prius, 0. No incentives. If we don't make some profit somewhere, we cannot service you or anyone else properly. Can't you see that? Expenses are high. Medical insur, utilities, staff, even the simplest things like plate frames and gas cost. If we can't turn a profit, we won't be around long, any of us. If every day you walked thru the doors of your business and assessed your inventory, and every day folks dropped by to try and get it for less than what you paid for it, without regard for the cost of being there FOR them to be able to walk thru the doors and visit, service their cars and drink your coffee and eat your donuts and use your internet... it would become quite tedious. If you walked thru the doors at your own workplace and the boss asked YOU to write a check for the privilege of working there, you'd get the heck out fast. In my opinion, every time someone wants me to sell a car for under invoice, that's what they want my owner to do: subsidize their car needs.