The Wait

[jkash]

I'm sure I am not the only one, but the wait is starting to get to me. With so little information available to the dealers, we are almost completly in the dark about when our cars will be shipped. Dianne from Carson Toyota wrote of how only 75 cars for the enitre Southern California region had been allocated for the end of December. It's not looking too good to get my car this month. Hopefullly by January, but at this rate who knows.

Just venting. I am sitting at school waiting for our evening winter concert to begin which forces me to stay late to take care of the audio-visual needs.

Happy holidays to all,

Jeff

I'm having to wait also...like most of us. I ordered (put my name on the list) middle of November. But I'm told it may be Spring before I have it. But, I knew this going into this so no problem. I wait patiently yet with anticipation. Dan in Indianapolis, IN

[jimvitz]

I concur. It's not just the wait, it's the uncertainty, the misinformation, disinformation, contradictory information and lack of information that is frustrating. When I ordered a BC silver (first pref. or just about any other color except black) back in October, it was a 2-3 month wait. OK I could deal with that. Then in November it was a 3-4 month wait. As of last week, my salesman said a 5-6 month wait. The salesman said last week I'm 1st on the list. Today the sales manager said I'm 3rd on the list. The national Toyota people said contact the regional sales people. The regional sales people can tell me nothing except the demand exceeds the supply (duh!), and repeat what the dealer sales manager says, and so on, and so on, . . .

As the Kung Fu master said, "Patience, grasshopper",

82 days and still waiting

[Prius3Q3]

My wife and I have had our names on the waiting list since November 17th and we are beginning to wonder when we will take delivery. I went so far as to write Toyota,who responded quickly, that they were surprised by the overwhelming success and raised their output to meet the demand. No component shortage exists as some has stated just not enough time to meet the great demand for such a great vehicle. I have received "the call" from one of the other Toyota dealers here in Indy when someone backed out on a car. It was the right color but wrong package for us.(AF but we want BC). Judging by what I am seeing on Yahoo's site looks like wait is a minimum of six weeks unless you are "lucky". I was quoted four months at time of ordering my vehicle BC-Z1-3Q3. I believe that Toyota will deliver but when is anyones best guess. :| Signed Jan B.

[tag]

..........It's not just the wait, it's the uncertainty, the misinformation, disinformation, contradictory information and lack of information that is frustrating. When I ordered a BC silver (first pref. or just about any other color except black) back in October, it was a 2-3 month wait. OK I could deal with that. Then in November it was a 3-4 month wait. As of last week, my salesman said a 5-6 month wait. The salesman said last week I'm 1st on the list. Today the sales manager said I'm 3rd on the list......

If anything, this is the kind of (excuse the expression) crap that, I suspect, drives some people to go out and buy a Ford, GM, or Chrysler product; a lot of folks won't put up with waiting ad infinitum without any hard information regarding when their vehicle will be delivered.

I mean, it's one thing to order a car for a customer and say it will be a couple of months but quite another to tell a customer it might be a couple of months or it might be 6-8 months.

But the main issue, for me at least, is the deal. I really don't mind the long wait but, in my opinion, it's just flat wrong to expect someone to pay MSRP after a 6 month wait. Put another way, I don't think it's fair to lock a customer into paying MSRP for a 2004 model to be delivered in June or July. At that time, Toyota may have ramped up production and there may be 04's all over the joint with a lot of people already having ordered 05's. So, if the 04's are selling at a discount, do these dealers expect those of us who ordered "way back when" to stick to those deals and pay MSRP?

[glscheil1]

:wink: I ordered my car right after it was announced, sight unseen. Wanted Option 9. When dealers got their first car to show in October, mine came in the next monday. Good service if you ordered early. :tomato:

[scott]

I just put 2 deposits down at the local dealer just to get IN LINE for a prius. He said that he doesn't expect me to get a car for 6-9 months!! Is the rest of the country like that? Are they allocating more cars to California? My dealer showed me a december allocation sheet and it only showed 107 cars or so for the month of december. Was that for NY only or the whole country?

thanks.

[efusco]

Scott,
The 107 vehicle allocation you were show was probably for the entire region that NY is in. Thus all the dealerships in your region will get some portion of those vehicles based upon previous sales history. If you are using a large dealership that sold lots of Prii in previous years he may get 2-4 cars out of that allocation (usually 2 allocations per month I think). If you're using a smaller dealership he may get only 1-2 or even NO prii that particular allocation.

Now, that is NOT to say that using a smaller dealership is necessarily worse than using a larger one. The larger one is also more likely to have a longer wait list and demand might be very low at a rural or small dealership boosting you to the top of the list quickly. But it's hard to know for sure.

6-9 months seems a little pessimistic, but I believe that's what the dealers are being advised to tell customers. Production will be boosted but will lag behind a couple months. I think most people are expecting a 3-4 month wait. If it starts to look like it really will be 6-9 months you might consider waiting to see what, if any, changes are being made for the 2005 model. Specifically, I'd advise waiting if an adjustable driver's seat is available. An EV button and XM radio may also appear--but that's all speculation. The main point is that the driver's seat could benefit a lot from being adjustable and would, for me at least, be worth waiting another 2-3 months to get.

Great car, be patient. If you have the time and gumption send out e-mails to all the dealers withing 150 miles or so of where you live. Tell them you're ready to buy, tell them what colors and packages you'd accept. Send that e-mail out once a week--I bet you get a hit well before that 6-9 month mark.
--evan

[scott]

Thank you Evan. I am flexible, so if the wait drags on, I will definitely hold out for an '05. As of now, I have just sent out a bunch of emails to various dealers and we'll see what happens.

Thanks again,

Scott

[Danny]

Well, I've just created the Order Tracking Forum for everyone to post their personal experiences and rant all they want about waiting for their cars.

Please read the Sticky post before posting your own thread.