My daughter had a 2009 Prius. (The car is gone now, as a large tree fell on it during a storm about 8 months after she got it.) During the height of the run up in gas prices, when the car was about 6 months old, the dealer contacted her and offered to buy it back. Seems they wated the opportunity to sell it again. I forget the exact amount they offered her, but it was a few thousand off the price she had paid. She said no deal, only to lose the car a few months later. Seems like a new low for a dealer.
Sure! When gas was hovering around $4/gal you would see new Prius for much more than sticker and used at or above what they were new. Very unusual. Also it is very cool. I have not seen anything like this from any other car.
I don't really have a problem with something like that. At least he's up front about what he/she is doing. Perhaps he'd hit on someone who wasn't really all that happy with their car and would jump on the chance to trade it in at only a small loss whereas they thought they were going to be stuck with a car they'd rather not have. That dealers want to make a profit isn't a low, it's the means they choose to do so, and for something like this it seems like an ok method. The owner can say yes, no, or maybe. The owner might be able to negotiate a trade-in for the full purchase price on something like this. I see potential up-sides for both sides.
Not unusual in my experience. I have seen Honda and Audi both do this, but as you should expect there are strings if you follow up on it.
FWIW, there are some more postings on this matter in this thread: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-main-forum/42364-toyota-wants-your-used-toyota-resell.html
I've heard of other car dealers do this. They want to buy your car for a certain price, so they can sell you another new one. Just another way for them to make money is all.
I honestly don't see this as a problem. Good, low mileage cars are always hard to find. A dealer can throw a figure out there. You can agree or disagree. It isn't like they threw your keys on the roof after coming in for an oil change or something. I have done it many times. In fact, when the yaris came out with 0% financing, I took in a bunch of 2008's and sold 2009's because of it. The kicker is, the payment for them went down. Yes, they paid more overall because they had already made payments on the car. I know this, and so did they. But they also got the warranty to start over and some even changed color because they didn't like the original. Some upgraded equipment and still had a lower payment. It was a win-win situation for most of them.
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner! I've had similar offers on both my older other-brand cars, one still here and one replaced by this new Toyota. But I keep my cars so long that it is clear they really aren't interested in selling them as used cars to someone else. They are more interested in selling me a new one to replace the used one they are so generously offering to buy.
Sure this is a classic way to drive traffic to your dealership, send out a mailer or do a call down for cars that are low mileage. Say "we are buying em back" or my favorite "the factory has told us we need to buy back cars" which causes the consumer to go in to see what is going on. Once you are in the dealer then all the standard things can happen, I once had the used car manager "lose my keys" which was the single most infuriating experience ever. When the sales guy came out to return my keys to me, and said "what can I do to get you in a car today" I simply told him, "give me my keys back and you can watch me get in my car and drive away".
But remeber guys, I am not talking about a dealer sending out flyers 2 or 3 years after you bought the car. This was a phone call when the car was barely 5-6 months old.
It makes no difference whether it is 5-6 months or 2-3 years. During the gas price peak last May, the Prius is practically sold out. Dealers are trying to find used Prius and offer to buy them, turn around and sell them at above new Prius pricing to make a killing. This is nothing illegal or un-ethical, just doing business to make money.
