I have seen many dealers offering newspaper prices, saying X amount of cars at a certain price. I am wondering how a dealer determines if a car is worth more than the other if they are all the same model and trim with no extra options between them? Example: I see 5 cars at $19,500 sticker. These are base 2010 Prius II. None of them are Blizzard Pearl, which I want. The Blizzard Pearl 2010 Prius II starts at $23,500 sticker. $4000 mark up for white paint when Toyota wants $220 for white paint? I am just trying to understand dealer psyhe before I go in to neogotiate...
This is the good old trick the car dealer preys on you. When you walk in they will tell you that all x number of Prius advertised were sold and you will have to pay the regular price. If they do not say only x numbers, then it would imply all of their inventory are on the sale price, get it.
Yeah, I figured it was a trick to get you in. What I was wondering is, what is their defense when you present to them that the cars are physically the same with the exception of paint. There may be a few more miles on one or the other due to test driving but not enough to make a $4000 difference in price.
guys, A dealer (non-Toyota) here in Ct who does a 1/2 hr info-mercial on Sunday nights after the 11:00 PM news, ran some sale a couple of months back where he offered 2010 brand-X cars (I can't remember which brand it was because he owns multiple dealerships selling different brand new & used cars) for sale at $9,999 (no quantity specified). I looked at his on-line inventory & all the cars of that line & model were in the $19,000 to $21,000 price range. I know he can't take a $9,000 to $11,000 loss on those cars, so I figured that the cars at that price had to be used or off-lease or ex-rental cars (the ad never said "new", just 2010 model year). At the auto auction I work at, we typically sell between 3,500 to 5,000 cars per week (a lot less these last 2 weeks though), & it's not unusual at all to run 2010 models through the auction even as far back as 10 months ago. Heck, we even had a fair number of 2010 cars for auction that only had between 7 & 50 miles on them (usually Mitsubishi's, but also some GM's once in a while). Well, do you want to guess who I started noticing at the auction in my lane (one of 20 lanes)? Yup, the guy who was selling some of his 2010 cars for about 1/2 price, so it's totally likely that he had been getting some good deals on some used/off-lease or ex-rental cars & passing on the savings to the public selling some of them for $9,999. Ken (in Bolton,Ct)
The defense is it is an advertising promotion sale and only limited to a small number of vehicles. Sorry that you didn't line up over night in front of the dealership before it opens in the morning.
At least in Massachusetts they had a great deal of problems with consumers claiming bait & switch so the law now requires the dealer to have identified specific cars at the price - in many newspaper ads they actually list the stock numbers of the cars being sold at the sale price. Now as for why dealers pick specific cars to put on sale - most likely they are cars that have been on the lot or are an unpopular mix of color and options. In your case OP, I would hazard a guess that the blizzard pearl is a popular color and they have no issue with them sticking on the lot. So to the dealer there is a very big difference beyond the color - one sells quickly and the other needs to be discounted - it is not like they have marked up the blizzard pearl to stick it to you, rather they are discounting cars that they want to get off the lot.
No Prius has a MSRP of $19500 so it must be a sticker for a "used" car. Around here your car's AAA price is $20907. Any car is worth what someone (who can) is willing to pay for it.
