a surprise detour gets me my Prius today! Yippee!

my wife saw an ad in today's (04.10.04) san jose mercury news from fremont toyota (SF Bay Area, for out-of-towners): "Prius: 8 available."

i called my dealer to see if he knew anything about my order. "no info, maybe monday, if his sales general manager prints one out for him..."



called fremont toyota. nice receptionist asks what i'm looking for. #9/BC, if possible; silver, gold and red are my preferences, in that order, i answer.

"yeah, we've got one of those," she says.

wife and i jump into Camry and zoom over to the dealer. very nice, cordial, friendly folks; very professional. claim to be biggest dealer in the area.

"show me the silver one"? "it's the demonstrator, but it should be back in a few minutes." in literally a few minutes, it tools into the parking lot, and our assigned salesman lets us in for a test drive. just before we're ready to go, someone else comes up and complains that they were next in line for the test drive! we agree to let them go first, but before that, my wife turns to me from the passenger seat and says, "let's buy it." "really?" i check... "yes," is the answer. so i turn to the sales rep and inform him that it can go for the test drive, but i want it, ok? Sure, he answers, and we're signing papers before the car gets back.

a few dozen signatures and a large deposit check, and it's ours. Yippee!

i did have to "settle" for a "sports leather package" that they nicked me $4000 for, but i was willing, since lack of leather seats was one of my complaints about the option list, and i'd also scored some unexpected money in the stock market over the past few months, so the pain of a $36,000-out-the-door after taxes, fees, and everything else..., was diminished a bit.

it's in my driveway now, with all of about 50 miles on the clock. now i have to cancel a BC order with Stevens Creek Toyota in San Jose, so if they get "mine" in in the next shipment or two, somebody on the waiting list will be a happy camper.

special thanks to my wife for making critical adjustments to the Universe to make this happen! i HATE waiting!!!!!!!!

i also recommend Fremont Toyota for their attitude and helpfulness, over Stevens Creek Toyota....

photos and all that stuff to follow.
good luck to all, and cheers!

 

Whoa, Nellie!
Hear some more of the story.......
The finance guy said that the Internet/Fleet guys were getting all of the priorities on deliveries, and there was a major rift developing between them and the "regular, in front of the store sales people." they settled it by portioning out some of the shipments to the showroom guys, so that they wouldn't be hung out to dry without cars to sell.

second, here's the sticker detail: MSRP: $19,995.00 --- not exactly a ripoff in my book. BC option $5245, just what i exepected to pay. i didn't order a stripper model back on January 12, 2004, either; i ordered the BC option, and was going to add most of the other possible dealer add-ons anyway.

finally, as i said, the leather interior (two-tone leather on all of the seats) was $5995. sure, i think it might be worth $2000 or so, but i figured that if i wanted leather at all, i'd have to find someone to do it to the car after mine arrived, and probably pay that or more anyway. without the leather, the bottom line sticker price was $26,004.00, including rear bumper applique, which i was going to buy, and carpet floor mats and cargo mat, all of which would have gone on my car anyway.

and i'll be happy to tell you which stocks made me the extra $10k this winter, if you're interested.... (mostly luck, maybe a little skill...)

so i paid a price i was willing to pay. i don't feel ripped off at all. and i warned the dealer i was already working on my wife to be ready to trade her '98 Camry XLE-V6 on the hybrid Camry in '06 when it comes out. Bet that puppy won't go out the door for less than $35, either!

peace....

 

woohoo! such excitement! such strongly held opinions!
you want to chat about the Free Market or lack of it? let's take that "conversation" off-line and out of the general Forum here, please?
or go to my personal site at www.plusaf.com and /soapbox there, and you can really get torqued about my opinions! :lol:

as i said, the sticker said 19,995, which, i believe, didn't include the increase in the MSRP. so, did i save some money there? 1%? enough for about 15 tanks of gas? yep.

package 9 on the sticker was 5245 and the rear bumper applique was 65 and the carpet floor mats and cargo mat were 184. i wanted those anyway. i bought the wheel locks (WL option) on-line off eBay, and had the problems i've already listed on this chat site. Delivery, 515. total sticker 26004.... with taxes and everything else, i had expected to not get out the door for less than 30,000 or so from the dealer i had ordered from in January, and, as i said, i've got 10k in stock market gains in the past few months which more than covered the ripoff leather price.

the dealer informed us of the paint/leather/fabric protection package for the car too... the same one we paid about $500 for in '98 for my wife's Camry... except they'd found another vendor that does exactly the same thing, but a few hundred dollars cheaper.

i'll put some photos on my website at www.plusaf.com/prius/prius.htm , and show you the full two-toned leather treatment. i believe this is more than a 1-2000 job, too, from the quality and detail.

and i sold a '69 corvette and a '97 taurus and have been sharing one car with my wife since late january, as that money (about 15000 total) was my deal with her to help finance the prius.

i'm more than a little defensive here, because i don't really enjoy being without a car of my own, and i've "sacrificed" a somewhat quieter bigger, smoother taurus for the prius, as well as a 350 cu. in., 350 hp go-like-heck neck-snapping fun toy, too.

everyone makes their tradeoffs in life. Falk's First Law: "The Whole World is a Tradeoff" ( www.plusaf.com/falklaws.htm ). so i'm pretty clear about that.

i'm also a registered Libertarian, so you'll have to go a LONG way to convince me that high minimum wages and low maximum wages are the "solution" to a problem i don't agree exists. i don't think there are many people in the world who are really worth more than about $1M a year to ANY company, but if the morons on the Compensation Committies of their Boards of Directors think they're getting their money's worth out of them, so be it. i retired from HP (Hewlett-Packard) in '02 after 24 years there. ask me what i think about Carly Fiorinia. ukeright:

and as a retiree, i have chosen, for now, to enjoy retirement and live off cash savings until i can get Social Security (if it isn't bankrupt or they don't change the laws to disqualify me in the next year or so...), and later, on the money in my IRAs. which i'm trying to grow by making smarter investments in the stock market than i used to. now i even have more time to study the process. want to share ideas? i started "myowninvestmentclub" on yahoo groups. but it's by invitation only, not for stock touts, b.s., and the like.

ok, guys and gals, if you still want to "have at me", take it to plusaf at plusaf dot com.

happy motoring!

oh, btw, to answer one question... the demonstrator was a car that was refused by the guy who ordered it, saying "he was moving", which to me was a stupid choice, but hey, it was his choice. it had exactly 40 miles on the odometer when we bought it.

the dealer was probably ecstatic to have someone call, drive over, and buy the doggone thing right out from three other people who wanted test drives yesterday afternoon, because a 36k Prius IS a doggoned pricey unit, when the base is still close to 20k.

but it's in my driveway now, and i just got it programmed to operate my Genie Garage Door opener, and the GPS system is lots of fun to use. there's a chance my wife and i will drive cross-country in it this year or next, and the locator is going to be SO good for getting us to about ten friends, relatives and other stops along the way and back.

ok, everyone, please chill on me and the dealer, and all that, and go back to reveling in what a cool, hip, eco-friendly, FUN car this is!

 

<snif> thanks, guys...

now let me try to cork this puppy with the REAL numbers... sorry for my mis-quoting myself and others before...
(hope this lines up ok...)

Sticker: 19,995.00
BC Package 9: 5,245.00
EF Bumper applique 65.00
CF Mats 184.00
Delivery, etc. 515.00
Sport Leather pgk 5,995.00
====================
Sticker total 31,999.00
====================
CA Tax 2,643.63
License Fees 264.00
Tire Recycling fee 5.00
"Document Fee" 45.00
"Touch of Class" 306.76 (paint/fabric/leather protection)
(other) 73.50 (cargo net and windshield sunshield)
(btw, the PT347-47040 cargo net requires
drilling two holes for installation)
wheel locks 16.36 (off eBay, including shipping)
====================
Out the door Total 35,353.25

btw, the dealer says that the leather job is a pass-through, and they don't make anything on it; whether that's true or not, i can't guarantee, but the process is: a third party comes and takes out the seats and console cover, etc., takes them off-site for the leatherwork, then comes back and bolts them in place again. one screw was stripped by them on the console hinge, and Fremont Toyota replaced all of the screws at no charge.

ok, ok, so it wasn't quite $36000.......
oh, and by the way, though my sales guy at Stevens Creek wasn't available today, one of the other crew called to tell me that they'd refunded my $500 deposit..... so someone on their list will get a call maybe a few minutes earlier than they expected.....

done deal, guys, with all the gory... and now a lot more accurate... details.

ps.
my sales guy recruited me today, while i was waiting on the ToC, to talk to a prospective customer... :lol: filled his ear for about half an hour. he works at the NUMMI plant in Fremont and said that one of his buddies might be able to get him a "special deal." we wished him luck....