Priuses going for $5k above MSRP in the DC area

Prius prices are fairly sensitive to what people expect gasoline prices to do.

The year I bought my Gen 1 (a seven year old used car with 125k on the clock), I could have sold it three months later for $3,000 profit. (The reader will recall that in 2008, gas prices went to $4+ around June. I bought the car in March.)

 

That June of 2008 I bought my 9 mpg Ford Excursion at such a low price due to gas being at $4 that when I sold it 8 years later I still made $3k.

 

Holy Cow, just checked nearby Toyota dealership new car inventory: ONE new 2021 Highlander. That's it...

 

Tesla regularly makes changes to pricing, which is much more transparent than the manufacturer to dealer incentives used in the rest of the industry.

Tesla has been increasing pricing with this market. Because they can is only part of the reason. Tesla also doesn't want people sitting on a waiting list for a good part of a year or longer. Tesla was pretty much selling every car they made before pandemic issues. With waiting times for an ordered car growing, they've been increasing prices to reduce demand.

 

Tesla is definitely increasing prices, moreso on Model 3 but it is across their fleet. As was previously stated, it is very transparent and no negotiating. Tesla's buying process is amazing. Far better that any other car I have ever purchased. For example the Prius I just bought, I had no desire to drive/see the car, I was willing to buy it right away and they made me come into the dealership to do it vs over phone/email/internet. When I bought my Tesla I talked to a human being for a total of 5 minutes. It was great.

 

It is rather bizarre to drive by a groups of dealers and finding more cars available to buy on Tesla’s lot than other, more traditional, dealers

 

I also see ridiculous pricing in the used Prius market. I have been watching the used Prius market ever since summer 2021 when I was shopping for a new Prius for my daughter. It's just nuts...I'm darn lucky the Craigslist deal worked out great on the Prius C we ended up purchasing.

The insane thing about the used Prius market is the pricing on the Gen 3's...especially early Gen 3's that most likely are ticking time bombs with head gasket issues, etc... I bet there are going to be some pretty pissed off folks who paid far too much for a used Gen3 and will now have to deal with all the potential issues that come with it.