ABPU!! (all but pick-up...)

[canuckican]

In academia we have an expression/acronym: "All But Dissertation (ABD)". It is applied to a doctoral candidate student who leaves graduate school after doing all of his/her thesis research (the REALLY hard stuff) but without writing or defending a dissertation (the not-as-hard stuff). Well, I have happily passed through all the hard stuff in buying a new 2004 Prius and have nothing left to do but pick it up (thus the "all but pick-up" tag line) on Sat. morning.

The purpose of this post is two-fold, and neither of them is to gloat over those who are still waiting.

Firstly, I wanted to thank all the posters to this forum for providing a LOT of information which should help anyone make a reasonably informed decision. I appreciate that this is a biased group in that most everyone here is an enthusiastic Prius supporter, but even for that, problems and quirks of the car have been honestly and accurately reported I feel. I think I am ready for the pick-up (check that they haven't over filled the oil!) and the first 1000 km. So thanks to everyone for their time and intelligence.

Secondly, I wanted to relate my absolutely positive experience with my Toyota dealer, ToyotaTown Ltd in London, Ontario, Canada. I placed my order for a silver 2004 Prius, Package B on June 12th. As most of you know, in Canada we have only two packages, A & B, those being the base package A and the "fully loaded" B package. How the Canadian fully loaded package is not as "full" as the American package has been well documented in these pages and bears no further discussion. At the time of the order, my $500 deposit was taken and I was quoted a price of $34055, which is MSRP. This is $US25626. No negotiation is open, the price is pretty well fixed at MSRP. At the time of the order, they were estimating delivery at 8 weeks. I do not know if the deposit check was cashed or not. I think it was.

I was alerted the Prius had entered the country about two weeks ago and today went down to the dealership to finalize licensing and the car had arrived early! Total time from order (June 12) to delivery (July 28) was 6 and a half weeks! Needless to say it was the exact package/color ordered not someone else's car pawned off on me.

Tonight at the dealer we formalized the paperwork. No extra charges added, no extra fees added by the dealer. I was of course given the option of the undercoat, overcoat, extended warranty, stain guard, etc. in a very polite, no-pressure manner. I declined and was not pressured or made to feel bad or anything. End of discussion. The final bill of sale after taxes and an $84 registration fee (not Toyota's price but the province's) was $40325 or $US30349. I think this is a little more than the American version, but you must know that at least in Ontario, prices do not scale 1 to 1 after conversion on cars or personal computers. That is just the way it is.

So I paid MSRP, no more no less, had no hassles, not much of a wait, and the wait I did have was LESS than what I was quoted. All in all a perfect experience. As I said, I am picking it up on Sat. morning. truly we are very, very lucky here in Canada. I have seen some people speculating out loud about buying in Canada and then bringing a car over the border. You would definitely have to declare the new car at the border and pay the tax on the import. I have no idea how much this would be, but it would not be as easy as buying it here and just driving it over. Also, I have no idea about warranty issues or anything else. At any rate, ToyotaTown LTd. in London, ask for Ken Yates - he did right by me.

Now they just have to not mess up the last three days (like discovering something majorly wrong with the vehicle as they prep it, destroying the battery during charging, or something stupid like that). I am anticipating no problems.

i hope this post have been informative and helpful to someone. When I read about how poorly some (would-be!!) customers are being treated in the States, it makes my blood boil. Also, as an American, having just moved here two years ago, I commiserated because if I hadn't moved here, "there but for the grace of God... "

[daniel]

How did you get from an MSRP of $34055 and an $84 registration fee to an out-the-door price of $40325? Are new-car sales taxes 50% in Canada?

[tms13]

Originally posted by daniel
How did you get from an MSRP of $34055 and an $84 registration fee to an out-the-door price of $40325? Are new-car sales taxes 50% in Canada?

Eval: (/ (- 40325 84) 34055.0)
1.18164733519307

i.e. 18%

Where does your 50% come from, Daniel?

(Mind you, it always looks odd to me to see retail prices exclusive of taxes; here they're required to be inclusive of tax, although plates and delivery are generally not included)

[daniel]

I subtracted 34 from 40 and got 16, which is about half of 34. ops: ops: ops: I never was too good at arithmetic. I should have used my abacus.

[Marg]

In Ontario where Canuckican's car was purchased, there is a 7% Federal tax and an 8% provincial tax for a total of 15%.  Perhaps Canuckican's final total includes a couple of extra fees in addition to the taxes.  

I also wish sometimes that Canada's sticker prices were inclusive of taxes like in Britain. But maybe it's too complicated to do this because of differing tax levels in each province. While everyone in all provinces must pay the federal tax (we call it the Goods and Services Tax or GST), provincial taxes vary from 0 in some provinces to 8% in others.

[canuckican]

Yup, Marg is right. In Canada, taxes are hihger and separated into federal and provincial (GST and PST), the total being about 15%, as opposed to the all-inclusive "sales tax" in the US. So to be clear, I think it is easier to talk about pre-tax prices, since each province can levy its own taxes.

At any rate, it was a base 34000 with 1100 freight/delivery and about 5200 in taxes. That gets you up to 40000. There weren't any hidden fees or dealer added line items. The tax is just pretty darn high: 5200/34000 = 15% taxes, for the mathematically disadvantaged.