How can a dealer do this?

It depends.

Respectfully speaking, I'm a computer consultant, but that doesn't mean that I'd have any way to know that dealer inventory systems are flawed.

If their system worked properly, a presold vehicle wouldn't get listed on a website as being available. I wrote car-comparison software used by Toyota dealers (BuyAToyota) all over the US, and I must say, not all car websites are equal; some are particularly awful.

Unfortunately, not all businesses (not just auto dealers) conduct business with the same level of ethics that you clearly do. Having bought a car years ago from a lousy dealer, I was soured on the car-buying experience for many years. However, my local Toyota dealer has been superb in the 5 years I've had my '07 Prius.

Just for entertainment, I just clicked on the link for those PIP's. I saw a phone number for "more information" so I called, what the heck, I have free nights and weekend minutes.
I got transferred around until I got a salesman who could barely speak English. He said NO they don't have ANY PIPs . "They are getting them next month" and "would you like to leave your name and Ph. # ?" to get one when we get them next month...
I laughed at him, and told him I already have one.:rockon:

My dealer told me it is a few day away for me to pick it up.

I guess it is a bait in switch on steroids for that Downey Toyota dealer.
I think every one on here already knew that.

whatever software that the bulk of the Nissan dealers in norcal are using has this problem. (or at least had, as of about 9 months ago.) loads of leafs would show up on their respective websites and disappear over the next few days, mine included. only a handful of the VINs were truly orphans.

if the the dealers are even cognizant of this bug, they've probably realized that if it causes someone to pick up the phone and call them, then the bug resulted in a sales lead. so they probably are not terribly motivated to fix it. plus, pre-sold cars are probably the exception and not the rule...

You're right, they WANT leads; however, it's a turnoff for me when a company advertises that which it can't supply.

My experience has been that a lot of dealerships seem not to adequately support their websites. Toyota's better than most because BuyAToyota.com is available to them, but so many that I see are simply awful--noisy, cheesy, overly crowded, poorly designed. In fact, I place their cheese factor on a par with most of the NFL team sites, including my beloved TN Titans.

Bob

Hey there are 36 Plugin Priuii on cars.com, on 3/18/2012, for sale.
Most are probably sold, but still listed though there a dozen priced over 40K so those might really be for sale.

As the number of already sold but still listed cars on cars.com grows the pundits will say its a sign there are lots of cars for sale (as they did with the Volt) so the Prius PHV is not selling as well as it should. When I bought my volt i called dozens of dealers that had listing but not cars.

And none of them is a dealer I'll ever use. Luckily there was one honest local dealer that said he had none, so when I found one out of state and brought it home, he gets my business for all service.

I called them last night, they DON'T have ANY PIPs for sale there (at Downey)...
is there any other way to say it?
NONE

nothing to see here, lets move along