The Angst of the Wait

[michaelmcgaw]

I ordered my Prius on April 28th. I expect delivery in early July, maybe late June if i'm very lucky. All in all, i've been dealing with the wait pretty well. Or so i thought.

Today... well, today i snapped and i've developed this intense urge to call my salesdude and ask, "John, hey... what's the status?" even though i know he'll tell me, "Hasn't been allocated yet."

How did you folk who waited months and months and months and months manage to stand it? *grin* Didn't you go crazy with all the waiting?

[paul16451]

Sorry you're in one of the non-priority regions of the country...But, think about what you'd tell your kids who are counting down the days until Christmas. Find new ways to occupy yourself .

[jaguaraja]

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

[heliotropehead]

Reading PriusChat helps... so does :icecream:

I waited 7 whole months! Your car will arrive in no time!

[tleonhar]

I ordered ours the same day, found out a week later I'm #5 on the waitlist. Specified any color except white (wife don't like) or black (don't want to wash the car 4 times a day), and any package. What's this about non-priority regions? Where does Minnesota stand in this?

[michaelmcgaw]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar\";p=\"90301)</div>

I ordered ours the same day, found out a week later I'm #5 on the waitlist.[/b]

On the day i ordered mine, i was #9 on the list.

[paul16451]

Toyota has been trying to fill backlog orders to minimize the wait for the Prius with the 2005, since it turned out immensely more popular than they anticipated. They look at areas of the country with the longest waiting lists and ship the most units to those areas first. This is from an article I read last year, my being in the San Francisco Bay area, where the wait list often reached 200+ at every Toyota dealer, caused them to ship more units to this area, now the wait for one here is about 4-6 weeks as opposed to the 8-9 months it was last year. Unfortunately, if you're looking for a specific list as to who is getting more Prii shipped to them, I'm afraid I can't provide one...I have no idea where Minnesota ranks. What I recommend is to call some dealers around and compare the wait times in your area.

[Jaguar88]

My dealer told me the wait list was the shortest for package 6 and that the wait for his dealership was about two months. I bought package 3 and had to wait about six months for my first offer but seven months to get the color I wanted. I started out in the low 500's on the wait list. I signed up mid September 04 and bought in April 11, 05.

[coloradospringsprius]

My wife and I waited five months the first time we ordered a Prius. When the car arrived in November, the dealer tried to overcharge us, so we cancelled the deal and re-ordered from another dealer. We then waited three more months.

The two waits were completely different. During that first wait, we were - like you are now - in an agony of anticipation. We were thrilled every time we saw a Prius. We talked about it at home.

Having been burned, we hardly dared think about the Prius during the second wait. When we saw one, we were irritated instead of thrilled - especially if it was blue, the color we'd ordered. Worst of all was seeing a brand-new blue Prius with the Colorado Springs dealer's plates just a few days after we'd cancelled the deal. It might have been the car we'd ordered.

But once your car arrives, you'll quickly forget the agony of waiting. And our long wait has made us appreciate having the car even more. Plus, we were able to make a much larger down payment in February than we could have made in November, so we saved on interest as well as on the retail price!

[kjb516]

<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. All in all, i've been dealing with the wait pretty well. Or so i thought.

Today... well, today i snapped and i've developed this intense urge to call my salesdude and ask, \"John, hey... what's the status?\" even though i know he'll tell me, \"Hasn't been allocated yet.\"

How did you folk who waited months and months and months and months manage to stand it? *grin* Didn't you go crazy with all the waiting?[/b]

Actually, I was crazy to begin with. Waiting 6 1/2 months for my Prius only made it worse. After 5 months, I was forced to either up my package level from an RW (2004 #1) to an AM (2004 #7) or wait an additional 6 months thanks to a total lack of entry level Prii.

For me, the hardest part of the wait was the last week. While the dealership told me that my Prius was on its way, they still claimed not to have a VIN, leading me to wonder if they were truly up front with me.

If it's any consolation, after 11 months of ownership I am still absolutely thrilled with my Prius (something I can not say about any other vehicle I've ever owned). So hang in there, the wait is worth it.