Dealers Must Be Getting Deserate

How much was the trade in worth?

 

um, were they just extending your loan term?

 

With a trade-in involved the original invoice amount is meaningless. You can't really draw any conclusions from a price based on a trade.

 

What was your out-the-door price incl. tax, fees?

 

if they were 'deserate'?? they would of offered 0 % - 4.9 % apr on the prius like they did in feb 2007

 

Without Toyota backing 0% is a no go. The world financial crisis is causing a huge problem with lending institutions. I have read recently that GM cannot offer 0% financing anymore because no banks will back them. These 0% loans were the only reason GM continued to sell well the last quarter or two.

Our local dealer has 5 slightly used Prius on the lot in addition to the new models. The salesman, when he understood I wasn't buying, told me that many of the people who pre-ordered are not picking up their vehicles.

 

Well, two sad but true words "credit crunch".

While this is hardly a good thing, it does make perfect sense. Not only are banks unable (or unwilling) to lend, people are pulling back on major purchases. Those things don't make for strong sales numbers.

I think the best we can hope for is that we work through the current crisis as quickly and efficiently as is possible. We're likely beyond the place where "magic bullets" are going to help and we just have to go through the process of healing the markets. I think that Toyota will take less of a hit than some of the other makers, but this is likely to not be pretty.

 

Deserate ?? wy to sell a prius? i dont think so

 

there are alternatives on the horizon... electric vehicles... the new honda insight in march.... they want to get you into a prius before you find out there's something better available... I'd wait til april and see what the future brings.

 

I'm sorry, but your the kind of customer i hated when I sold cars. You bend over backwards for the customer, give them a sweet deal and then they don't buy the car anyway. I pity your salesperson.

 

since pretty much everyone on the planet puts car salesmen up there with realtors and lawyers, I'm sure no one really cares about how hard you "tried" to bend over backwards with your BS trips to your managers office, your secret hidden fees and all the other crap you lie to customers about.

 

Obviously this argument has roots in some other thread...either that or several posts are missing.

 

FYI, Toyota Financial (monetary arm of TOYOTA) will soon be running a 0% finance offer this month (OCT) in response to the dismal SEPT numbers.

Unfortunately, the PRIUS will not be part of the (9) cars qualified for the offer.

 

The Prius sells well due to the low fuel use, whether deserved or not. It's a perception thing.

Car dealers are in a tough spot right now. They can't get financing for their stock, they can't get financing for their customers purchase, and customers are worried so are delaying purchases. So nothing moves, and moving new cars onto the lot then selling them quickly is how they make money.

I suspect a "cash deal" would be welcome, with appropriately low price. I doubt we are yet in the times of dealers loosing money on sales, however.

 

As a salesman you surely have customers you love and ones you hate. What you call a sweet deal may be something else to me. Many customers today are extremely well education on the products they are planning on purchasing.

Four months ago you could really get a sweet deal on a new Prius. You might only have to pay $2000 to $5000 over invoice. Isn't that a great deal. "These baby's are going fast. In fact another couple was in this morning and they were coming back later to buy it. If you wanted it right now I could sell it to you for only $500 more than they were willing to pay."

Buck it up and stop whining. There is an art to the sale. (btw: no art in the previous example just typical sales speak) Even when you (in your mind) do everything right sometimes you lose.

 

Wow! I have no ideal what you meant to say with that. The $2,000 to $5,000 over invoice would be a great deal for dealers, depending on the model and package. Ones I have been seeing coming in lately have a markup of between $1,600-2,800, far less than they were a year or so ago.

 

Some people don't know the difference between "invoice" and "sticker",
often using the terms interchangabley,
so it's hard to tell if they really know what they're talking about.

$500 over invoice for a Prius is good anytime.

I wouldn't pay 1 cent over sticker, ever.

 

Those numbers were just that. Although when gas was approaching $4.50/gal some used Prius were selling higher than the price when new. I don't have a problem with that. Quite honestly that was a good time to sell one of these cars. With the good times come the bad. I was merely joshing with a former salesman to stop whining.