Houston Prius supply improving?

[ml194152]

A year ago April 6 I flew out to California to pick up my 2004 Seaside BC Prius, after being on the waiting list at Don McGill Toyota of Katy Texas for 8 months (and McGill STILL had no idea when I would ever get my Prius, but I was up to #2 on the list).

In the meantime my wife's 1999 Audi A4 1.8T is costing $30 per fillup every 10 days (needs premium gas). So I called Joe Myers Toyota in Houston this week (March 14) and they have 3 Prii available on the lot (asking "more than MSRP"): one pkg 5 and two pkg 2's. I wanted a salsa red pkg 6 at MSRP. They called back 2 days later and said they have a salsa red 6 coming in 2 weeks, at MSRP, but it includes pkg A ($860), which I don't want. Then they called back 15 minutes later and said they have a salsa red 6 coming in 3 weeks, at MSRP, with just carpets and mudflaps extra ($266). I took it.

If the 3 week estimate holds up, my wife's new Prius will be here April 6, 2005, exactly one year since I got my 2004 Prius.

[rafaelaustin]

Please keep us posted. I'm hoping someone here in Texas will have a favorable story. I'm getting a little disillusioned by what I've read so far. Maybe I'll have to go out of state.

Thanks!

[dbarry]

Fred Haas Toyota Country always seems to have Priuses in stock. We got both of ours there, no wait at all.... Interestingly enough we too were on Don McGill's waiting list for 10 months without even a nibble.

I guess it depends a lot on who's in good graces with Gulf States Toyota.

[shins]

I just bought my Tideland Pearl Package 5 with Option A today from Ron Carter Toyota. It seems like several of the smaller dealerships (such as Alvin, El Paso, Odessa) do quite a bit of favor-exchanging and exchanging to help each other.

I went in today, and the sales manager was able to pull up every Tideland Pearl Package 5 (my choice) being released to the Gulf region for the remainder of this month. He recognized some of the dealer codes of his friends in other cities, and called them up asking to trade. After doing so, he was able to change the port options to my liking.

I should be getting the car in 1-2 weeks at most. Very pleasant experience... but I'll let you know once I have the car physically in my possession.

[felton]

Please keep us posted. I'm hoping someone here in Texas will have a favorable story. I'm getting a little disillusioned by what I've read so far. Maybe I'll have to go out of state.

Thanks!

I am in Dallas and just bought an 05 Salsa BC from Ehrlich Toyota in Greeley, Colorado (MSRP). The Dallas/Ft Worth market is still largely hopeless, but in my calling around I was impressed with Red McCombs Toyota in San Antonio, which should be reasonably close to you. You can get on their list for MSRP or slightly less, according to what I was told, and they can delete the dreaded "port added options", i.e. added markup. They seemed very nice to deal with. Kenny Reyes is the Prius guy. I think it is helpful to get on several lists and just keep looking and you will find a reasonable deal somewhere (just not in Dallas)

Good luck!

[Ray Moore]

Call around there are plenty of them out there. We found several in Houston and surrounding towns. I found the package and color I wanted yesterday with one call to a dealer about 200 miles from home. My wife had called a couple dozen dealers in Texas but did not find the exact combination we were looking for. This will be our second Prius and the local dealers still have a long wait. There are too many people like me here. In looking for a dealership, think about towns where people are not likely to flock to the car. Think GM country. Think .... oh never mind. I was about to say something I might regret. I found the car in the town I grew up in and couldn't wait to get away from. I suspected I could find it there with one call and sure enough, they had two unspoken for coming in within a week. We deleted the port installed options and bought it for MSRP. Now we will be a two Prius family. Her GM family can't believe it.

[rafaelaustin]

Thanks everyone for the tips. My parents live in Houston (near Fred Haas) so I think I'll investigate that angle. Won't be ready to buy till late summer anyway, but I want to do my research early.

Anybody have good service stories to tell from Texas? I haven't seen any positive feedback on the Austin area.

[Ray Moore]

Champion Toyota has good Prius techs.

[TxOllie]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ml194152\";p=\"73650)</div>

A year ago April 6 I flew out to California to pick up my 2004 Seaside BC Prius, after being on the waiting list at Don McGill Toyota of Katy Texas for 8 months (and McGill STILL had no idea when I would ever get my Prius, but I was up to #2 on the list).  

In the meantime my wife's 1999 Audi A4 1.8T is costing $30 per fillup every 10 days (needs premium gas). So I called Joe Myers Toyota in Houston this week (March 14) and they have 3 Prii available on the lot (asking \"more than MSRP\"): one pkg 5 and two pkg 2's.  I wanted a salsa red pkg 6 at MSRP. They called back 2 days later and said they have a salsa red 6 coming in 2 weeks, at MSRP, but it includes pkg A ($860), which I don't want. Then they called back 15 minutes later and said they have a salsa red 6 coming in 3 weeks, at MSRP, with just carpets and mudflaps extra ($266). I took it.

If the 3 week estimate holds up, my wife's new Prius will be here April 6, 2005, exactly one year since I got my 2004 Prius.
[/b]

How did this turn out? Who did you deal with?

I am currently trying to buy a Prius from them. I went in yesterday, they told me they had a Black pkg 3 with option B at MSRP (I really only wanted pkg 3, but it's so hard to find them without anything added, so I thought this would be OK). I told them I wanted to see what I could get for my trade-in elsewhere. They tell me they will beat the any other guy's price to get my business, but would not give me a solid price for my trade until I was ready to make the deal then and there. So I come back the next day, ready to make a deal, but mysteriously the car I wanted is gone. "Fortunately", there are other cars available, but with much more options than I want, and not the color I want. So far a very frustrating experience.

[ml194152]

TxOllie, you are getting the same treatment I got from them.

After my posting here, I did not hear from Joe Meyers Toyota for 5 weeks, so I called them back and left a message for my salesman Rodney Feltus to call me back. He never did. I called again 2 weeks later and this time he answered and I asked him where the Prius he promised me was. He said it was showing up on the computer as still at the Port of Houston. Ha! This sounded fishy to me because I had heard from others on Prius newsgroups that Houston gets its cars by rail from California, not from the Port of Houston. Anyway, Rodney went on to say this was very unusual and in fact he had gotten several other Prii in during that time but not mine. He said he will check with his manager and call me back. As I expected, he never called me back. That was 2 weeks ago.

I am fed up with that dealer. Maybe I will just wait until the 2006 Prius comes out and hope for a better color than Toyota offers now (we want something a lot brighter than their current ugly offerings). We also may wait for the newly re-designed 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid coming in September. Honda claims its fuels economy will be "significantly better" than the current HCH.

In summary, for us, Joe Meyers Toyota has been a dealership that promises a lot and then hides and ultimately delivers nothing. They have been about as bad as Don McGill Toyota was for me when I ordered my 2004 Prius. In that case after waiting 5 months I finally accepted an offer from them for a color (tidelands) and package (3) I didn't really want, just to get a car (the one I was borrowing from a friend was breaking down) and when I got to Don Mcgill Katy, they said the price was MSRP plus $2000 (even though my sales "contract" specified MSRP for the package 9 I ordered). I refused to pay the extra amount and thats when my Dad in California let me take his place on one of the two lists he was on out there. Within 4 weeks the California dealer had the exact color and package that I had ordered 6 months earlier from Don McGill Katy. I flew out there ($99 fare) add drove back with a new Seaside BC Prius.

Texas Toyota dealers are the worst!! :cussing: