So occasionally I'll look at local dealerships to check out prices for their cars, and in this case, prius liftback. Though I don't intend to buy one just yet (waiting on gen 4, probably like everyone else lol), I've noticed something interesting. Sometimes the dealers will offer a higher end prius for a lower price. As an example, they have a couple of prius four models for about $25k-27k. In some cases they're actually cheaper than the three or even the two models. So it got me wondering, are they attempting to push out older cars that have been sitting on the lot for a few months? Is the dealership just trying to offer a better deal than their competitors? Are they going to tack on a bunch of add-ons that brings the cost up? Or do they just generally lower the price in August to get ready for the next model year? I would totally have bought a prius four for $25k if I was looking for one considering they usually go for $28-30k.
They do alter the price based on the time of month, how long the vehicle has sat, how nice you look when you walk in the dealership, and the phase of the moon to name a few. On top of that, a lot of used car dealers have no idea what package a Prius is. So you get them mislabelled either higher or lower and the price is all over the place. Then there are addons like the Blizzard Pearl colour could add a good chunk of change which could make a lower end pearl model more expensive than a higher end non-pearl model. Or some will have all the dealer add-ons already installed, others wont. It is all a big game of try to screw the consumer. Tesla is the only one that does it right.
Tesla sets a price. And that's it. No sales, no negotiations, no add-ons, no fees, nothing like that. They advertise a single price and that's the price you pay no matter where you live, no matter how many are sold that month, nothing like that. They say it will cost $X, you can take it or leave it.
I thought that's what you meant. I don't think it worked too well for Saturn, but then that was GM...............I've long advocated straight pricing like everything else we buy and was hoping the Saturn thing would have worked out better. I know people still get deals on other stuff, but nothing like the madness of buying a car. I actually think people would trade more often it weren't such an ordeal.
Sometimes a dealer might sell a car cheaply because it's damaged. I was recently helping a friend shop for a new car and we found one on a dealer website that was about $2k cheaper than any other dealer for a car with those same features. He test drove the car and everything seemed good. After completing the paperwork and being ready to drive off the lot we noticed that the front end of the car was damaged. It looked like the car had run into a wall at a low speed. Since we caught it before he drove off the lot the dealer was forced to fix it. They had to replace the grille and the entire front bumper. If he had taken the car off the lot I'm sure the dealer would have refused to cover the damage. I'm pretty sure that this damage is why the car was listed so cheaply.
