The Angst of the Wait

[chappyfade]

Ordered my #4 May 12. I'm waiting impatiently as well. #7 on the list, and because I'm not picky on color, my 2-3 month wait should be much shorter, unless no one ahead of me passes on one. Checking PriusChat daily (hourly) to get my fix.

Chap

[hdrygas]

Well being here will help. Then go to http://techinfo.toyota.com/ and for $10 a day you can down load the owners manual and commit it to memory. Then down load Prius New Car Features and that will get you more detail of how the car works. The next step is down loading the service manuals all three volumes. You also will find directions there to get the paper copies of all of these. You may suffer sticker shock for the hard copies though. After that it is long runs and cold showers and more PriusChat! 8)

[jfh3]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(michaelmcgaw\";p=\"90288)</div>

I ordered my Prius on April 28th. I expect delivery in early July, maybe late June if i'm very lucky. [/b]

It may be sooner than you think - I ordered mine two days after you and I pick it up tomorrow ... I wasn't expecting it until end of May - mid June at the earliest.

[Spanky1]

Hmmm, I was told 3 months here in NJ. Is that wishfull thinking or was the salesman pulling my leg to get the deposit?

[kkister1492]

We joined the waiting list here last April - wanted package 7. Here, they were only selling 5,7 & 9. Shortly before we were to get ours, we called and asked to be upgraded to include the navigations system and were told that we would have to go to the bottom of the list for changing the package. We argued that since we were just waiting for the next car to arrive that shouldn't change where we stood on the list. Especially since the dealer had indicated that they had no control over colors and packages arriving and that's why they couldn't give us a date for delivery. I figured that the lists are fairly fluid anyway since someone might reject one car and wait another week for a different package or color. So that means that someone lower on the list might suddenly be moved up. They finally saw things our way and kept our place on the list. Ironically, we ended up buying from another dealer after a 45-day wait. Much beter!

[tleonhar]

As I was shopping arround, I found out that pretty much everything comming was either package 1, 4, or 6. If you wanted a specific color and package, be prepared to wait, many of the dealers would not take an order however without specifying a color and PKG. The dealer I ordered from (Hienz Toyota, Mankato, MN) took my order based on what I would not want (black or white), as I mentioned earlier I was 5 on the waiting list.

Weeellll, as I got home from work tonight, as I'm relaxing watching the evening news, my dealer called, they have a Salsa package 4 on the way for delivery no later than May 31!!!

Selling price is MSR+ tax, license, etc. Now, talk about painfull wait, week and a half yet.

[dreichla]

We ordered ours on Feb 5th 2005 here in Connecticut.

We waited until April 14th before we just couldn't wait any longer.

We called our salesman and got the same song and dance about allocation, dealer preferal treatment, the necessity to wait 4 to 6 months, being 2nd on the list, etc. etc. It became apparent this dealer couldn't (wouldn't?) tell us anything about his future allocations or when we were going to get a car. We got the feeling he was simply waiting for the dice to be cast and if a car that matched our preferences was somehow delivered to him, he'd give us a call.

Feeling antsy, we called around to other dealers in Connecticut, and found some of them were charging $3,000 to $4,000 ABOVE MSRP! Not good!

So. . .

We called out of our Toyota regional district down to North Carolina to the highest volume sales dealership there. The salesman there found us a car within 3 days. He located the car on the ship enroute to port, traded one of his allocated cars for that one, and it became ours at MSRP.

Lesson learned. . .

1) Find the highest volume dealership that sells the car at or below MSRP

2) If you live in a Toyota region that doesn't get good allocations, try another region.

3) Find an aggressive dealer who is willing to go the extra mile to find a car for you.

4) Make sure your deposit is refundable. I would run from a any dealer who would refuse.

The cars are out there - it just takes some work to find the right match to the right buyer. And in our case, a willingness to drive 14 hours to get one. Call us crazy, but we have the exact car we ordered.

[michaelmcgaw]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paul16451\";p=\"90292)</div>

Sorry you're in one of the non-priority regions of the country.
[/b]

Strangely, there are Prii out on the lots. Where there is an available Prius there also tends to be an extra $6,000 (or more) tacked onto the price of the car. My very first quote (on a Prius available "overnight") was $37,599 (#6, plus leather, plus beaucoup port options (thank you, Gulf States)).

So i ordered mine through the dealer allocation process. Longer wait, sure, but i'm getting the car for MSRP. I can wait - it's only my sanity which is suffering. *grin*

[michaelmcgaw]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jaguaraja\";p=\"90294)</div>

i waited 9 months
I survived by reading John's website http://john1701a.com/
[/b]

*nod* That's what i've been doing too. I just "lost it" today, but i feel much better this evening. Really. *grin*

[michaelmcgaw]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(heliotropehead\";p=\"90296) </div>

Reading PriusChat helps... so does  :icecream:  
 
 I waited 7 whole months! [/b]

Seven months! Seven months! My goodness, there's a potential there for a lot of :icecream: for sure!

What was your delivery day like for you?