Buying a 2015 Four soon! Questions....

Hi! Brand new to forum - this is my first post. My beloved Honda Civic officially died and I need a new car ASAP - we knew it was happening soon just didn't think it would happen THIS soon. I should be getting a call this week about my new job in MD. I live in VA so we decided a Prius is the best option for my new 70mi daily commuting needs until we can move.

Test drove Prius' today and settled on the 2015 Prius 4. This is the first car we are buying brand new and financing through a dealership.... (33yrs old - have previously paid all cash for used Honda Civics - I've owned two since I was 17). I feel like I am a dirty cheater by switching to Toyota but the fuel efficiency just can't be ignored.

Left the dealership with a "rock bottom" offer. This was the first dealership we looked at so we knew we weren't purchasing without getting offers elsewhere. That being said, what do you all think about the first offer?:

$24,633 (if we do 0% financing for 60months)
$23,633 (if we do whatever interest rate we qualify for, so we get the $1000 rebate)

The price above includes the current $2,000 rebate being offered through end of July.

Processing fee: $599
Freight: $825

We didn't tell them this but we do plan to put $10,000 down on the loan.

How much lower do yall think we can do? Can we negotiate the service fee and freight fees? I am going to pursue the costco auto buying benefit and see what those prices offered to members are and how they compare to my run of the mill offer.

I was thinking of emailing dealerships in the vicinity where I'm willing to drive and seeing what their rock bottom offers are.

Any other tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

Thanks guys! Very helpful. We do have a little bit of time. I can borrow my in laws hybrid this week. Next week I might need to borrow my dads car.

Do you think there is any advantage to waiting until July 31 to make the actual purchase? Will dealers be more desperate to give me a good deal as I work to pit them against each other this week? But then keep walking away to show I mean business?

My hubby and I just graduated - bachelors for him, masters for me so we really need to try to get the best deal possible. Of course my husband is a server at a fancy steakhouse so he falls into the "seller/salesman" category ans convinces customers to make bad decisions for a living. But I am def a bargain shopper and patient.

I will def update with Costco pricing once I find out.

We should avoid all add ons right? I was very interested in remote start and an alarm for the car but not for $500 (remote start) and $360 (alarm). Hubby says we can do that aftermarket for less expense. Thoughts?

I plan to check out dealerships in tysons/falls church/manassas area but I'm also willing to do silver spring/Gaithersburg dealerships since my parents and my new job are in MD. I was also considering emailing a dealership near the beach in which we will be vacationing just to see what they might offer.

 

Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah I think I'm going to spend this week and weekend, getting offers from other dealers, and then see what happens.

I'm definitely ok with waiting until closer to the end of July to make my sale - I can be patient. and I'm ok with driving an hour or two to get a car for the best price :-D :-D :-D

 

I received the following email from the Costco certified representative at the dealership we went to yesterday:

2015 Toyota Prius IV
$29,485 MSRP
$27,983 Invoice
<2,000> Costco discount
<2,000> Toyota Rebate
$23,983 your sale price, plus, taxes, tags and Processing
now you just need to pick out the color you want ...

To recap the offer we were given yesterday from just walking into the dealership on day 1 of our search:

Still not sure I can combine the finance deal with the $2000 rebate.......................I think we were misinformed yesterday and they were trying to confuse us.
$24,633 (if we do 0% financing for 60mos) - kind of annoyed they wrapped the financing into this one. I would rather like to compare apples to apples than throw financing into the mix. sigh.
$23,633 (if we do whatever rate, get $1,000 rebate)
plus tax, title, service fee, freight fee.

I've located a few local dealers and looked at their online inventory, I've seen most advertised on the internet for $22,988 to $24,054. $22,988 being the lowest and only one 1 Seafoam. $24,054 being the highest and further away.

 

Thanks for the tips guys!

Going to go to a diff dealer tomorrow and maybe try to talk to the fleet dude.

Thanks for the tip on out the door price. I think I was getting hung up on all the itemization a and you are right, I want to look at the final bottom line price including fees taxes etc even tho salesmen try to make it all so confusing.

 

Thanks for the tips

Can u explain what the persona is? Nobody ever mentioned that option to us

Did you email a salesman or were u dealing with the internet manager? Or a fleet person?

I wonder if I could show somebody's invoice to a dealership to tell them I want that deal. Hahaha!

I would prefer to spend about 22,000 on a car with total OTD to be 23+