No Solar Roof Package in Texas yet?

I spoke to someone at Round Rock Toyota yesterday to get info from the new build sheet. For end of July, early August delivery, GST is getting four IIIs with SR, all with gray interior though. My ideal order is a III in red with tan interior, but they are getting 10 of the gold and 4 of the red with tan interior in the IVs in the same allotment, and I don't know if I want to wait 2 months or more hoping that they start receiving them with the tan interiors too. I can always buy cloth seat covers.

I'm going in shortly to get a trade-in evaluation and probably place an order. Still can't decide between red and gold as my first choice though!

But, for those of you with more patience, GST is starting to get IIIs with solar. Hopefully they will ramp up production on them soon...

 

GST (Gulf State Toyota) may be to blame. I never buy Toyota's in Texas, because of that. GST rips off every Toyota sold in these parts of the country. They signed a contract a long time ago with Toyota, making them the sole importer of Toyota for "LIFE". That's right for life. So, every vehicle that comes to the dealership already comes with GST added options, and that's why Toyota's in Houston always costs at least over $700-$1K more than anywhere else, then plus other dealer markups.

 

People, I had to go to CA to buy my Prius. There are plenty to choose from. From pkg II - Pkg V. although pkg V with AT options are little hard to find because of the higher cost approaching $33K. Go to cars direct.com, place an order with a CA dealership, even with shipping, you might still save some money. Or just fly SWairlines up for $99, and drive it back, you'll still save.
GST is simply greedy and BS, the have complete control in their best interest, it's not you the motorist. The Enrons and Madoff of the car industry.

 

People wake up, GST is playing games. They may only be ordering a certain type of pkg so the can add the rest of options themselves to "MAXIMIZE" profit before hitting the dealership. Since they have total control, they also have the complete ability to create any situation and circumstances to drive up prices, like limiting the quantity of Prius available, making everyone having to order it as oppose to sitting on lots for you to bargin drive-out prices. It's the "Internet" age, look else for solutions, it's full of them.

 

At what point should a dealer in Texas know if a car is "mine"? Is it when it gets on the boat in Japan or while in transit? I have a Red/Bisque IV with Solar ordered since June 2nd and I'm hoping end of July or early August maybe????

 

You didn't have to go to CA to buy your Prius--you chose to. Yes, most GST dealers add a bunch of crap on the cars so they can make more profit and that does suck because it amkes it difficult to find what you want with ordering and waiting. However, there are a few dealers in Texas will place an order for you for exactly what you want.

I just placed one this morning with Round Rock Toyota, and the salesman admitted he is one of a very few who will do that. He showed me June and July's allocation build sheets for GST so I could see how many were being delivered to GST in each level and factory option, and let make my own decision on whether I wanted to wait a couple of months on an order for a III with solar roof (as I said earlier, July is the first build sheet with these listed for GST, and there are only 4 for a 5-state area), or go ahead and order a IV with SR, which is already being built and delivered to GST.

I went with a Sandy Beach IV (with bisque interior) and added the solar roof. There 10 of those in the June build and 10 more coming in the July build. The only port-installed options will be the carpet mats, bumper protector, door edge guards, and cargo net (and that only if I can get the vertical rather than flat one), and no dealer add-ons at all. No "owner package", no vehicle shield package, or other crap I don't want. I will probably to the VIN etching on my own and get aftermarket window tint.

He's been very forthcoming, informative, and nonpushy, and he hasn't told me anything that I found to be false, so I believe that he does order the cars as the customer wants them, with no extras. He also gave me some very good advice on selling my current car privately, if I decide to go that route instead of trading in.

Given that 20 are coming in the next month or so, he thinks there is a good possibility that I will get one of those. I'm hoping he is right on that too, so I can be a Prius owner in a few short weeks, hopefully just a month or so at most!! :cheer2:


If you had looked around more, you most likely could have gotten what you wanted without the trouble of going halfway across the country.

 

I can't remember what timing my salesman told me, other than after they will know it is mine about a week or so before it is delivered to them. I think that is after the cars get to the port of entry, but I could very well be mistaken.

As for your red/bisque IV with SR, there were only 4 of those for the 5 states in GST in the June build and 4 in July's build. That's why I went with the Sandy Beach on my order--there are 20 of those total for June and July--but I did list red/bisque as my 2nd choice.

They are getting delivery in a couple of weeks and again at the end of July/early August. I hope one of those 8 June/July ones is for you. Good luck!

 

It appears that GST is only making available the horizontal cargo net. All of the cars I saw at Round Rock Toyota have them.

Also, Toyota has put a "stop sale" notice out for the vertical cargo net. There have been reports of the upper anchors for the cargo net pulling the inside panels out of place. Hopefully they have stopped selling the cargo net in order to work out a fix for the problem.

 

Yes, I saw the thread on that issue, but I'm not expecting to get my car for a couple weeks to a month, if I'm lucky, so I'm hoping it will be resolved by then. My salesman said he had only seen the flat ones, but I showed him that the vertical one is in the 2010 Prius brochure and said I had heard of others getting it, so he said he would check on it for me.

If he can't get it, no big deal. I have one from my CRV that I might to rig up myself. Thanks for the warning though.

 

Hello all, newbie to this forum. I just went to Round Rock Toyota and was only offered the Package IV with the SR/Nav. The salesman was very nice but told me it will be months if we order one with the SR/Nav option. He suggested to put a deposit to order the car based on an agreed price. So, I offered to pay $1k over invoice but the sales manager kept came back with MSRP so we walked. I wonder if it would be cheaper to order from a dealer in AZ than dealing with unwilling dealers here in Austin. Any advice anyone? I am not in a hurry and willing to wait til this fall or November to see if they are more willing to deal. No way I would pay MSRP.

 

Stklee, if you've the posts here, you know people all across the country are paying MSRP, or very close to it. If you're willing to wait several months to save aome cash, that's good because that's what it will take. Some of us aren't so patient.

 

heck, i'm paying MSRP + 1/2 shipping for a car to be shipped to me in Texas! You might want to seriously look outside the state

 

If my dealer doesn't have one allocated for me by the end of this month, I'm going to start looking at more places too. Quantumslip, do you mind sharing how much the shipping is? PM me if you prefer.

 

Was at my dealership this morning and they had 6 2010s on the lot and aI think 3 or 4 had the solar roofs...maybe time for a road trip...

 

I was quoted $675 from the dealer to have my car come from the west coast (LA area). If you look in the Dealer forum you should be able to find the dealer I got mine from (Manhattan Beach Toyota) and see what they have.

 

I haven't looked at both the sites you mentioned, but some dealers include the destination fee when listing MSRP and some don't. So a destination fee of 805 (for GST) + 200 for the special color might be the 1k difference...

 

Thanks, Quantumslip. If you're only paying half that fee, I'd say it's worth it, versus waiting several months... I'm definitely going to look into that. My dealer was supposed to let me know at the end of last week about an allocation, and he didn't (I emailed him Sat morning and he didn't reply back yet). Grrr... Is it really that hard to do what you tell someone you're going to do?

 

We are moving to Austin in a month, and (thanks to this thread) picked up a 2010 IV with SR here in Jersey and are driving it down...