Pushy Salesmen

Don't go into the dealer without a neg. qoute. They try to do that to suck you in. I bought mine by talking to all dealerships over the internet and neg. prices before I even went in.
I got my 2008 Prius #2 for 22,000 + tax. Alot of people seem to be getting them for that price but you have to do your homework first on dealing with Car dealers.
GL!

Natty

 

+1. Make sure that you already know what you want in a Prius. Look around your area and feel free to jump from one dealership to another if you are into that...most importantly...have fun negotiating.

 

I would skip that dealer if they refuse to give you an online quote. There are plenty other dealers out there that have internet teams that will give you online negotiated quotes.

I think the price someone will pay for a Prius varies greatly according to what part of the US you are in and how high demand is in that particular area for them.

I know I have been watching them in the Chicago area for the past month. The demand is high for them here and they are literally flying off the lots faster than they are coming in from what I have seen.

I was also watching the Carmax website for new cars, and they had 10 brand new Prius's that were fleet vehicles they bought from Toyota, some of them had up to 6k miles on them already, 2008 models, within a week all of them were gone, sold, that fast. This was within a 500 mile radius of Chicago.

I also noticed that some dealers have very limited stock, 1 or 2 in stock, they are less likely to deal I think because they don't really have the stock, the dealers that seem to be more into dealing have larger stock of them.

I bought mine from Elmhurst Toyota in a suburb of Chicago, and they had 21 in stock when I went to pick mine up. Although I did not do any price negotiating with them. I HATE car salesman with a passion, I hate the pushiness and the way they lie to you. So I went with a program my Federal Employees union had where they have an agent work for you, they contact 6-8 dealers in your area and do all the price negotiating for you and then when they find the best deal they give you the name of the dealership and contact person. The price they negotiated is the final price, if you like it, you continue with the sale, if you don't like the final price then you can continue looking on your own. I did this, just because I really really do hate car salesman, and since I am woman and they are mostly men, I just don't trust them,, never have.

Anyway, I did get about $900 off the MSRP. Could I have gotten a better deal???, Maybe,, but at this point, I am so happy with my car, and I realize that the price will vary from State to State depending on demand in that area. I have already seen that many others on this message board that have the same package as I do, #2, paid much less for their car, but they also live very far from Chicago as well.

The agent that worked with me told me in the very beginning that the Hybrids are pretty much going for sticker price all over because of the high demand, especially the Prius, and he could not promise me that he would be able to get anything lower than sticker, but he would try his hardest, I just did not have it in me to haggle with a salesperson.

That said, I would still recommend staying away from a dealer that will not give you a negotiated price before you walk in the door.

Good luck in your search!!,
I love my PRIUS and have only had it 6 days!!!!!!

 

OH, I forgot to comment on the last portion of your question,
Yes, I still think there is very high demand despite the economy. The people that are in danger of loosing their homes are not the ones looking for new cars at this point. Many of those people are in over their heads, bought a house they could have never afforded just on their regular income were it not for those crazy teaser rates and jumbo mortgages.

However, there are plenty of us out there, that have very good stable jobs, we are not in danger of loosing our jobs anytime soon, have homes that have regular affordable house payments and we are not really being hit with the worries of loosing our homes and feeding our families.

I don't know about the private sector, I will never work for them again, but in the Federal government there are millions of families that have secure jobs, we don't worry about loosing our jobs when the economy gets bad, the Federal government just places a hiring freeze and does not hire new employees, those of us that are already in permanent jobs are here to stay. Our salaries don't go down, and we have no fear of loosing our jobs. This is very fortunate for us, we are in pretty good standing when it comes to keeping our homes and such.

Now that gas prices have already hit $4 per gallon most places, those of us that had the big SUV's and gas guzzlers are the ones that are trading in our SUV's and buying the Prius, so demand is high and I think it will stay that way for a while.

I know when I went into carmax 2 weeks ago to have my SUV appraised for a selling price, the guy brought up the days computer printout of all the people that had come in to get quotes on selling their cars and all the people that actually sold or traded in their cars. The day I walked into Carmax at 5pm that afternoon, 45 cars came in for a sales quote, 35 of them were SUV's, and out of those 45 cars, 29 of them were actually traded in that day. The guy told me that has been happening almost everyday. This was just one carmax, I wonder how many all over the U.S. are also experiencing this same trend.

I think the Prius will remain in very high demand, nobody can beat their MPG and quality of the car.

I would move on to another dealer that actually has an internet team that will give you a negotiated quote, dealing over the internet is less stressful than dealing with the salesperson on the phone or in person..

 

BamBam, I reckon if I requested a quote and the salesman told me that the prices change daily, I'd ask for today's price. Nothing too complicated about that.

 

What is the quote from the local dealer? Check the DMV sites or call to determine the taxes & fees related to your purchase. Interest rates are low so also take into account the cost for the fuel economy difference.