I admit that I have NO idea what this article is trying to tell us. The ranking appears based on something called the "Expected Average Savings". What the hell is THIS based on? See for yourself: The Best And Worst Car Deals: Independence Day Edition
I took it as it ranked as the worst car deal not because it was a bad car but because they are in such high demand that you can't expect to walk into the dealership and expect to get more than 1% off the MSRP. So you either pay the full price or you don't get one whereas the MDX you can expect to be able to wheel and deal and get around 11% (on average) off the sticker price. So basically they are saying the C is a hot little commodity that is getting asking price.
I'd guess it means how far under MSRP, which is the thinking that suckers people into buying things that are "on sale".
It's actually one of those "good news", "bad news", kinds of articles. The c is SO HOT right now, you cannot get the price discounted much! The cars/trucks that made the best car deals are the most discounted. In their minds, that was the determination of "best" and "worst" deal. Convoluted thinking and very short sighted! The numbers that I ran in the comparison data show that the Prius c is the lowest cost per mile car on the road today over 5 years! Bar none!
I gave up trying to get "deals" when I started buying Toyota products. I bought a Scion tC (my first Toyota product) and, of course, they have a fixed "no haggle" price policy. Then I bought a Matrix AWD. Now the Prius c. In-demand autos command high prices. We jumped on the Prius c like RIGHT-NOW because I think the 2013 prices will be substantially higher. BTW, we're in week #2 of ownership and not yet down to 1/2 tank on the gas THAT CAME WITH THE CAR! It looks like buying gas will be not much more than a once-a-month event for us now!
I saw that list earlier and all the worst deal cars are fuel savers and all the best deals are gas guzzlers.
They spelled "poor" incorrectly on the first page. I think they are just complaining about the law of Supply & Demand.
I got my uncle, the master of haggling, to deal with the sales ppl when I got my C1 (with nothing special, just the mats and bumper guard). Final price he got them to was $18,900. So I basically got the destination fees and extras knocked off the price they were asking ($20,041). Sweet deal if you ask me for such a hard to get a hold of car.
Getting insane MPG's isnt just about saving money for me. From a purely financial point of view, a used, low-mileage late model Corrolla would have been a "better" choice in terms of dollars spent per mile driven once you factor in the initial purchase price, insurance, depreciation etc. I could care less about that quite frankly. My #1 priority is to burn less fuel and I am willing to spend a little more money to accomplish that. We would have bought the plug-in version, but it was simply out of our price range.
