How much did you pay for your 2010 Prius III?

[Adryth]

Hi all,

I bought my first-ever Prius yesterday. It is also my first Toyota, my first hybrid, and my first experience with buying a new car. Thus far I seem to be quickly growing into this car, so I'm feeling pretty sure that I've made the right decision in buying it (I was considering other cars as well). But I am curious as to how well I did insofar as negotiation...

The car is a Prius III that came with carpet floor mats and wheel locks, and retailed for $24,017 (before tax and BS dealer fees). With the help of a couple friends, I badgered the dealer down to $22,653 (before tax and BS dealer fees)... a difference of $1,364. I was unable to talk the sales manager into dropping the $200 doc fee (the largest of the BS dealer fees), however.

So, I'm wondering... how did I do? How many were able to get their car for a better price?

[Rhino]

22653 is really nice. When did you take delivery? Which state do you live in? I wouldn't mind going to your dealer.

[Adryth]

Originally Posted by Rhino

22653 is really nice. When did you take delivery? Which state do you live in? I wouldn't mind going to your dealer.

I took delivery on Halloween. And I live in Rhode Island.

Be warned that I didn't particularly like the sales staff at this dealership, when all was said and done. They tried to feed me a lot of BS, but I just kept calling them out on it. Then again, perhaps that is par for the course... as I mentioned, I'm new at this.

I'd also note that it took over 3 hours of badgering, with my friend and I playing a kind of "good cop / bad cop" routine, to get the price to that point. And that's not counting the time it took to research / compare the Prius against other cars so that I could convincingly argue that it is overpriced.

[herrberg]

Picked up my Black 2010 III on October 20th.

Had to search for a black one with the JBL non-NAV stereo upgrade (pretty sure it's an upgrade).

With the delivery I was stickered at $23900. They didn't dicker on price, but we did end up with the bumper to bumper 5yr/125k warranty for only $1100. Our company had previously paid $1600 for the same coverage from an Illinois dealership.

My car before this was a pretty loaded Chrysler 300C. What a difference. I'm not yet ready to say that i love the Prius, but i am highly impressed with the technology and fit/finish that Toyota puts into their vehicles.

For a guy that likes to customize his car, this one'll be different. I took the wheel covers off, and ordered up some chrome center caps. Getting the windows tinted as well. I figure it'll look good being all black with tinted windows. Might have the tail lights tinted as well.

Make it stand out.

BTW - PriusChat has caused me lost sleep just trolling around picking little gems of knowledge about my new car.

thanks.

[Rhino]

I tried to buy using a buying club. I am waiting for an response. It seems the out of the door price for a base model III is $23400 + $750 delivery + sales tax.

I don't plan to by the extended warranty, or anything. Not even mats.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

I hope to do better but I don't know.

[Rhino]

I am getting an out the door price of 24000 for a package III 2010 model with nothing added.
Plus a licensing and tag fee of $400
Plus sales tax.
What do you guys/gals think?
Good price or I can do better.
And the dealership looks nice.


My previous low was 24150 so I guess it is $150 cheaper. Not significantly different.

Can't get a good price on this one.

[Adryth]

Originally Posted by Rhino

I tried to buy using a buying club. I am waiting for an response. It seems the out of the door price for a base model III is $23400 + $750 delivery + sales tax.

I don't plan to by the extended warranty, or anything. Not even mats.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

I hope to do better but I don't know.

edmunds.com lists the invoice price for a base 2010 Prius III as $22,161 including the $750 delivery charge. If you're a member of AAA, you're eligible to buy a car for a fixed price of 3% over invoice at participating dealerships.

If you want to try the route of negotiating, I'd offer several tips from my brief experience:
1) Bring friends with you to the dealership for moral support. It makes it much harder for the salesperson to wear you down or mislead you.
2) Shop at the end of the month. Dealers receieve bonuses based on how many cars they sell each month... so as the end of the month approaches, they'll be more eager to cut a deal in order to make their quota and earn the bonus.
3) Before you walk into the dealership to negotiate, you should already know exactly what car you want (and which colors / options you will find acceptable) and at what price you'd be willing to buy it. Be well-prepared to justify your price -- you have to be able to convincingly argue that your price is what ought to be considered the fair market value of the car.
4) Most importantly: BE PREPARED TO WALK AWAY. If the salesperson sees that you really want to buy the car, they'll use that as leverage to get you to pay more for it. On the other hand, if they see that you just aren't willing to buy a car unless they meet your price (and you've convinced them that your price is reasonable and fair), the leverage is all yours.

Hope this helps.

[randalll]

I got mine 3 days ago. The dealer would not budge a cent from MSRP on the car I test-drove, he said he usually sells them for above MSRP. We went down the street to another Toyota dealership to see if this was true. They offered a $500 discount from MSRP on a Prius I didn't want (different color ext/int), but they were able to do a dealer trade for the one I wanted up the street. So yeah, only $500 off MSRP, I'm not a skilled negotiator. I could have payed you $500 to negotiate for me and still buy it for less.