PLEASE HELP! My first car purchase. Used or Certified Pre-owned Prius. [SAN DIEGO]

Hello everyone, I'm a first time poster and a first time car buyer at the ripe old age of 28! After much research and looking at used 2001-2005 Subarus/Hondas around $5000 through craigslist, I decided I should just bite the bullet and purchase a used Prius. I will be driving quite a bit the next few years between LA to OC to SD, so I figured I'd put my money into car payments rather than at the gas pump/auto shop. I'd go find a Prius through a private seller and bring it to a mechanic for a checkup, but unfortunately at this moment I don't have enough dough to buy a used Prius outright. So I'm planning on going through the financing route with monthly payments at a dealer.

For the last 24 hours I've been looking around on the Toyota certified pre-owned website. The prices are STEEP for me. A 2010 Prius with around 50k miles has a price of about $22,000, which is only a couple thousand dollars under a BRAND NEW Prius! This makes me wonder if I should just bite an extra bullet and buy a new one... I thought used cars were MUCH cheaper?! Must be because it's a Prius.

So I went into check out my first Prius yesterday, a 2009 model with about 65k miles. The price was okay, but the interior condition was quite disappointing. A lot of marks and scratches--looked as though a giant dog had gone through trying to destroy the car. Unfortunately my APR came out to about 5.7%, and my monthly payments were a bit steep for me at $310 for 60 months after $2000 down payment. I walked out from my first dealer experience being harassed by the salespeople with their bully-like tactics. The original salesperson was great, but when I told him I would have to think about the price, he brought his manager and I felt very cornered. I was actually surprised with the questions they were throwing at me--made me not want to walk into a dealer EVER again.

I guess what I am looking for is REAL advice on how to strategically break down the dealer market so that I can find a RELIABLE, TRUSTWORTHY, LOW-MILE, USED PRIUS for less than $300 monthly payments for 60 months with a low-as-possible down payment under $2000. I don't know anyone personally who can advise me on dealing tactics and how to detect low-balling/overpricing from the salespeople. I am pretty damn fearless and have NO PROBLEM looking right into the eyes and making offers. I just don't know WHAT to say and HOW to go about it since I have never had a car before. I will continue to look around and read what people are saying, but I wouldn't mind some advice based on my current situation based on how much I'm looking to spend and where I am at (San Diego).

I keep seeing things like Costco Auto Program and Prius Group Sales. Are these things the real deal? Can I trust them and do they really work? What about non-Toyota pre-owned dealers? They seem to have BETTER prices on Prius, but are the cars trustworthy? I would appreciate any advice on ways to bring down my payments! Thank you in advance and I look forward to being part of the Prius community!

 

That's too bad. I wish I had the money to purchase a car a few months ago. I just moved out from Ann Arbor to California...

 

I definitely miss Michigan, but California is... well, you know...

So I'm looking at carfax report of these certified vehicles, some of them do not have ANY service record! Some have records and they'll say things like:
"Recommended maintenance performed
Maintenance inspection completed"

Does that include oil change, too? I'm trying to make sure that if I decide to go with a certified pre-owned vehicle, that it has been maintained well before I purchase it. Some of these don't say WHAT was done in the "maintenance inspection". Any clarification would be very helpful!

Also, I just found out that Toyota is offering 1.9% APR on certified pre-owned Prius right now. Waiting to see if I could get approved...

 

I just bought a certified pre-owned from a Toyota dealer at a KBB private party value... negotiated for about 8 hours. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!