No Test Drive

I went to the local dealer here in Ogden to see what the waiting list looked like time wise and also hoping to get a test drive.
They have a 2 month wait which they say is the shortest in Utah but because of Toyota's "Turn and Earn" policy they dont keep any Priuses on the lot as they get to order new based on selling inventory.......anyone hear of this? I can come in to see one when one comes in but since its preordered, no test drive is allowed.
Also was told I could get on the list but I couldn't order a specific model as Toyota dosent allow this?
This all begs the question , what is Toyota's return policy like since I'll have to order and take delivery of a Prius just to test drive it. Can I bring it back if for some reason it dosent work out?

I would suggest going to a different dealer. Sounds like you are being given a load of hooey to me.

Return policy? No. Once you sign, it's yours for keeps. You can sell it on your own and probably make a few bucks profit in the end, many people are willing to pay more rather than wait, so dictates the American "instant gratification" tradition. Lemon laws will allow return of a defective car, but check your state's laws on that one for specifics.

You should be able to drive the car after it comes in but before signing any paperwork. It's not like they're going to have a hard time selling it if you refuse.

You always retain the right to try something before spending $25 grand on it and if your dealer won't allow you to do that, I say find someone who treats you better. Dealers have to earn their business and it's not sounding like they should earn yours. They can let you drive the car before you buy it, it's the least they can do!

Now. We ordered a Package 5 and that's about all the info we got from the dealer. Sounds similar to what you're going through. I was holding out for them to get a Seaside in, but my car died so I took the next one they had in any acceptable color (acceptable to my taste that is), which turned out to be my second choice Black. We still waited 4 months even with settling for 2nd choice color wise. Many people are waiting even longer...

Most dealers only know week to week what is coming in on the truck. So they can't really guarantee you'll get what you want down to the last detail. This is still a demand>supply kind of car. Apparently pkg 5 and 6 are produced at the highest rate since they're the biggest moneymakers, at least that's what we were told.

Hope that provides some answers to your questions. Don't take any smack from dealers. It's your money and you can always take it elsewhere... make sure they know you feel that way, and they'll do what it takes for you to spend your money with them. If they're worth dealing with.

I got a similar spiel when I went to the major dealer here in Raleigh NC, where they quoted me an 18 month wait list...They said I *might* be able to drive one around the building if I happened to stop in on a day when one that was sold was waiting to be picked up. I happened to be on business in the Philly area, where the wait lists weren't so long, and was able to do a standard test drive, and confirm that the Prius was indeed the car for me.

In the end, I bought mine in the DC area (4 hours away), exact color/package I wanted, and had to wait 10 whole (agonizing) days.

Good luck!

mouztrpd, why not phone the Toyota dealer in Moses Lake Washington and see what they tell you. From what your saying I wouldn't deal with your local dealer. Call around they are sitting on some dealer lots right now waiting for buyers. 25-50$ on phone calls and a bus or flight to some other town and drive it home. 4-18 month wait? no way.

Thanks for all the input.

A two month wait seems okay for us, we were just hoping to get one before the summer is over.

Not knowing if the 06 would bring any changes, balanced with the 2,000 dollar tax break changing to 500 next year, barring rumors that it may go up to 4000, were our most pressing concerns.

When youve been driving an old bucket of bolts Buick for the last few years like me a new Prius would, I'm sure, drive like a dream. However our driveway has about a 30% abrupt transition from street level and we wanted to be sure the bumper wouldnt be ripped off pulling in out of it.

How is the clearance on the Prius on this sort of thing?

Hey! Bucket of bolts Buick to new Prius! That's exactly what I did! I haven't had any problems with grades or bumps. I hit speed bumps at around 5 mph and haven't heard any grinding noises or anything.

Time to visit another dealer, or better yet, several others. I've been in contact at least by phone with no less than 9 dealerships and have visited 6.

A two month wait is not unreasonable in most areas of the country, but it does vary greatly dealer by dealer depending on their volume.

Don't expect a "return" policy. I imagine if you put down a refundable deposit and the car came in and you test drove it BEFORE you signed on the dotted line that you could walk away from the deal and get your deposit back.

I've had resistance from most dealers regarding getting a test drive as they carry none in stock. I was only permitted to just sit in one at one dealer as it was already prepped for delivery. That helped as at 6'1", I was concerned about headroom, legroom and overall comfort as well as how the thing handles.

I finally managed to get a brief test drive at another dealer on a car that was prepped for a specific customer although the salesman told me they really weren't supposed to do so. It's sort of a catch-22 situation. Would you want your newly arrived and prepped Prius to be test driven by others? Frankly, I don't. That and the fact that this dealer was very pushy, and was insisting on a NON-refundable deposit, I ordered elsewhere, in spite of their claim to be the largest volume dealer in CT. Call and shop around and get a test drive wherever you can get it, but that doesn't mean you have to buy from that dealer.

The biggest concern I can see with this dealer is that they won't let you specify exactly what you want. I had one dealer try to pressure me into giving them a list of color preferences, which I refused to do. There is also no way I would accept anything but a BC Package #6 (NAV/Bluetooth). Your dealer is demonstrating that they don't care about what you really want, only their ability to push through as many cars as possible.

Although you didn't mention it, beware of two other things: dealers charging a premium above MSRP and/or dealers trying to make a deposit non-refundable (the legality of this apparently varies from state to state).

RE: steep transition from street to drive...the car is low, so low that the air dam underneath gets caught on those cement things in parking spaces. My friend's drive has a similar transition and I just approach it on the diagonal and have no problem scraping.

Regarding a test drive before ordering, I would be very suprised if you can't find some dealers with a demo. Also some dealer have a Prius or two in their rental fleet. That's what I did when the short prescribed test course I was offered didn't answer all my questions. I rented for a day and tried it up and down the mountains.
The result was I ordered (and have since gotten) my 05 - TO REPLACE A BUICK PARK AVENUE !!!

Regarding clearance at drives to avoid dragging the air dam, I had mush worse problems with my Buick PA and my wife's current Buick Century than I have with the Prius.

You know, for all the time and effort I see some people spending, fly out to Boston for a weekend and drive one back, as they seem to be readily available out here. I had 0 wait, then again, mine is a slightly used '04, Ira Toyota (a huge dealerships with three branches) is currently showing 6 in stock (and that's at ONE branch).

Granted, my experience with them wasn't the greatest, but it does show that they seem to be somewhat plentiful here in New England. Also, that's only ONE dealership, I'm sure there are many others around here who have them in stock...

So if you don't want to wait until summer...

:mrgreen:

FWIW, the Herb Chambers auto group (another huge dealership here around Boston), also has 6 '05's in stock... www.herbchambers.com

252214 2005 Toyota Prius $22,860
252231 2005 Toyota Prius $23,976
252255 2005 Toyota Prius $23,967
51681 2005 Toyota Prius $23,001 TIDELAND PEARL/BRN/IVORY
51689 2005 Toyota Prius $23,839 MILLENNIUM STL/BURGANDY/DK GRAY
51691 2005 Toyota Prius $23,250 DRIFTWOOD PEARL/BRN/IVORY

6 Vehicles Found


:mrgreen:

Three showing at Woburn Toyota (1/2 hour from the airport) :mrgreen:

2005 Toyota Prius Hatchback Black CALL
2005 Toyota Prius Hatchback Seasidepearl CALL
2005 Toyota Prius Hatchback Seasidepearl CALL




That's a total of 15 without trying too hard....

IMAGE: Baseball game condiments vendor

"GET YOUR PRUIS'S HERE!!! PRIUS'S GET 'EM HERE! GET YOUR NEW PRIUS'S!!!"

:mrgreen:

One more for kicks.... Copeland Toyota out of Brockton (about 2 hours from Logan):

2005 Toyota Prius 4DR GAS/ELEC $21,777 Hatchback 4 Dr.



2005 Toyota Prius 4DR GAS/ELEC $22,925 Hatchback 4 Dr.



2005 Toyota Prius 4DR GAS/ELEC $22,974 Hatchback 4 Dr.



2005 Toyota Prius 4DR GAS/ELEC $26,890 Hatchback 4 Dr.





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:mrgreen:

Hey wait a minute! I could've gotten an '05 for 21.7?????

ukeright: ukeright: ukeright: ukeright: ukeright: :cussing:

Plentiful in Boston perhaps, but not all of New England. Waitlists are anywhere between 2 and 8 months in Connecticut.

Are all those in-stock Boston dealers charging only MSRP? I found two dealers in Connecticut that were fulfilling their current waitlists but had closed them as they were going to start stocking and charging premiums to the highest bidders. I walked, of course, because that is completely unnecessary if you shop around some.

We were lucky.

We ordered our Tideland Pearl #4 in late November '04. I requested from the dealer (Central Maine) that if one was available to test drive to call me (All locally ariving Prii are "pre-purchased"). One '05 was cancelled by the buyer in late December and available to test drive since the dealer hadn't called the next on the list and the car had arrived, but "Please keep the miles below 10?". We were the exception.

"Our", Prius came in late March, but at the beginning of the month we claimed it as ours. Actually it was someone elses Prius, same option package, different color (Seaside Pearl). They requested deferment on the waiting list until winter ended, so we got theirs. Not bad, a 4 month wait, but we were flexible with everything but option package. FWIW, we had set that up with our dealer, we were flexible with color but the options were inflexible.

Try to test drive one locally, and that pretty much isn't an option unless a buyer backs out. Locally there are no Prii waiting to be purchased, they already are promised to owners long before they arrive and are not available for the dealer to loan as demos. That doesn't hurt sales since they can sell all they can obtain W/O test drives. We bought ours on the strength of what I read on the 'net (I'd researched for months), our test drive was just gravy.

I am of the school that the dealers have been screwing us for so long, I wasn’t going to take any bunk from them this time. I went to my credit union, I got pre-approved for a $35K loan, and I was given a bank draft.

I found my package 6 driftwood at my local dealer and told them that I would NOT pay the required 3K over MSRP, and I would NOT wait on any list. They of course balked. Then I told them that I wanted to buy it there because it was local to me. However I had no qualms about traveling out of the city, county or state to get what I wanted. I told them it was up to then. I have this check here that I would like to trade for that car there.

The Sales Manager told me that if it didn’t sell in the next 24 hours, he would call me back.

I got what I wanted. When I wanted it, and without paying over MSRP.

My local dealer had no Prius to test drive, wanted $1000 over sticker, and an undetermined wait time. I went 300 miles south (the closest dealer), test drove and ordered one. Of course I did have to wait 6 months, but it was the principle of the thing.

Really now, what is the point of a test drive?

Has anyone EVER driven a car that they couldn't stand? Think about all the cars you have rented. After a day or so you feel so comfortable with it you know where the lights are at night and the wipers during the rain.

If you are 4' 5" or 6' 4" I can understand your concerns, but most of us are within the bell curve and every car fits us.

The test drive is really the sales guy's best tool. It's like walking through a model home and the real estate agent asks what color do you want the roof and will it be standard or wood shingle.