hi, I am trying to buy a new Prius in Houston, TX. but i am confused by the skyrocketing prices and dealers cleverness. Toyota.com shows the base price 22,770 but the dealers base price is 25,000. Don't know what to do. Please help. How do I get the best deal. This is the first time I am buying the car. Appreciate your reply. Thanks, Rashmi arorapkj@yahoo.com
Welcome to the world of stealerships. Bring your own tube of K-Y Jelly along when you go, they won't even provide that for the screwing they'll give you. Get online and start e-mailing the internet person at any dealership in a couple hundred mile radius. Find someone that'll sell at MSRP with a reasonable time frame for delivery (3-6 months) and put down your money there....then stay in touch with that guy updating your status at least monthly. The Prius is a hot commodity and dealers are able to sell well over MSRP to many people who don't want to wait...if you're not willing then you need to work to seek out a dealer who'll sell for MSRP.
A very helpful thing is the Car Buyer's Guide published by Consumer Reports magazine. It is available in most libraries, or online at ConsumerReports.org - Car buying guide for new and used cars by Consumer Reports Prius are very popular now. As always dealers charge whatever the trade will bear, which means that Prius may well cost more than MSRP.
I know Dallas is not close to Houston but I got my Prius yesterday at Pat Lobb in McKinney. I felt like I received a good deal. I paid MSRP, I negotiated my finance rates below 5% and they sold me the 7yr/100k warranty for $800. I ordered the car in mid-May. They said the current waitlist is around 3 months. The salesperson (Randy) was in contact at least weekly. It was a good experience.
mckinney is a 5 hour drive from houston ; not too bad by texas standards, anyway. i like pat lobb toyota, i have a coffee cup on my desk with their logo ; they do a great job supporting the schools in mckinney , nice folks. another thought, if you keep your user id as your email address, you'll probably pick up a lot of spam email. the 'bots can strip off the address from your posts. something to consider anyway.
If there's a dealer claiming base MSRP without options is $25K, do the following: Call that dealer back and tell them you'd like to look at the the Prius in question. Take a digital camera with you and go to the dealer. When they show you the car, look at the window sticker. It will have the official MSRP on it. If the window sticker isn't there, something that a lot of sleazy dealers have been doing lately, especially the ones that are claiming different MSRPs, take out your digital camera and document that fact that the Prius is without the window sticker. Then remind the dealer that the Federal penalty for failing to display the window sticker affixed to the car is $10,000 per incident.
i got mine at Tejas Toyota in Humble (NE side of Houston). the internet guy there is very straightforward and gave it to me under MSRP just a year ago... sorry that I can't remember his name off-hand, if i find it, i'll post it here
I'm dealing with Tejas Toyota here in the Humble area as well. I ordered my Prius the 30th of May and have a week or two left of the given wait period. I had the standard $500 deposit down on the specific car I want and we have an agreement on sale at MSRP. I like my experience, I think they are fair but I had to be fairly proactive about my car. Not surprising they arent coddling me given the market for the Prius so that's something I just had to get over.
