There seems to be excess supply of new 2011 Prius II base models in Southern California. We purchased ours over labor day weekend for $21,995 at a Southern California dealership. This is our first Prius and now my Sprinter Van and Lexus GS 430 sit in the driveway while I rack up the miles on short trips around town. In purchasing the car, I used truecar.com to establish a price then went with the saturday paper and said I want the ad car.
$3000 over MSRP is really ridiculous for any cars normal people buy. I suggest use TrueCar or AOL Auto to get the online quote first. At least you get an idea where the price should be. I own a Prius but it is not worth it if you couldn't get it below MSRP. 1) The gas price is going down. 2) Other cars are more affordable, better equipped, and also have good MPG at this price. 3) You have many other hybrid choices. It is no longer as unique as it was 5 years ago.
I am just starting to look at buying a Prius 2011 or 2012. I don't see much action on this thread. Are people using this price quote service? How is it going? I am interested in the lowest hassle, best price (priority in that order) method of finding and purchasing a car. Thanks.
What part of California are you in? South or north? I know Dianne Whitman has been posting some inventory for the Prius cars in the Carson area and maybe she can give you some rough numbers. she has been posting in the Prius v, Prius c and Prius Plug-In areas for current inventory, and could probably answer some questions. Also, what are you looking for in regards to what you want to do? Long or Short Range travel, commuting, versatility? The Prius is pretty much their all around standard sedan type. The Prius v is a mini-van/wagon type, slightly lower mpg than the Prius. The Prius c is a compact version of the Prius, but higher mpg than the Prius. The Prius Plug-in is the Prius, but has a bigger battery pack and takes advantage of being plugged in so it reduces the amount of gas it would use in favor of using the electric motor more. The Prius Plugin will be higher cost than say the normal Prius due to the battery.
Hi all, buying my wife a Prius (she must have it!). We have test driven it and looking at the 'two' (dont need the extra frills). A lot of the dealer stickers are ADM=$3k-5K above MSRP, LOL! I know they are in demand, but PLEASE!!! My local dealers don't seen to be flexible. There are two within a 2 hour drive that have given me prices of $23417 and $23868 (with the delivery, processing stuff) + dealer fees of $699 & $499 respectively. The invoice is $22.6 or low $23K I believe. Can I get a better price somewhere else? I live in nortest Florida. Glad I found this site and thanks upfront for any info you can provide. I hate the back and forth bs....
Check out CarWoo.com for a similar service, but with even better results with less hassle. CarWoo keeps you anonymous through the buying process so you don't have to hassle with salesmen. They've already built a huge network of dealers so you can get the best price without having to do a lot of searching. And the best part is that the service is free! If you don't believe the hype, just do some Googling... these guys are legit. Galaxy Nexus ? 2
AAA has a car shopping service as well. I have not used it yet, but plan to do so when I start shopping. It sounds like the AAA rep basically gets your info (what you want to buy, if you have a trade in, etc. - essentially acts as a salesman), and then shops around for you. If you are a AAA member, I can't imagine it would hurt to check it out on their website.
Just got my Prius about 3 weeks ago; leased it for $275/mo. with $2500 down. 3yrs/36K miles, yada-yada-yada... Dealers: I know a lot of you follow this thread, did I get an average deal? Did I get a steal? Or am I overpaying? Fyi $2500 down was out the door. Doc fees, taxes, 1st month payment, etc. all included.
Using it? I assume not because the links are broken. The BEST quote service is https://www.truecar.com My method, and I'm still in the process of buying is to use the above service. and in addition you can use the toyota web site to find all the dealers within so many miles of your zip code. Do that then each dealer will have a web site. There you can check dealer inventory and email the "internet/fleet" salesman and tell him what you want. Price quotes will come back, wait 24 hours. Then call the ones with the best deals and verify the quote is "real". Even if you call and verify some sleazy dealers will make a low quote then when you get there try and tell you why you can't have the car at that price. Walk away. No RUN AWAY. And go for the second best. One thing not to do is show one dealer another dealer's quote. Make them get you a "real" quote. The best dealers d not want to see another's quote and will refuse to bid if you ask them to bet a written offer you show them. The WORST thing you can do is go into a deal without knowing what a good, bad or fair price is. That is another reason to look at TrueCar. They will have the prices paid for each car at your location and tell you the average, and low and the high.
I bought my prius this last sunday (11/25/2012) for $26, 600. I got that protective shield on my doors and low jack installed already. I shopped around to a lot of places and one place gave me a price for $26,200. The place I bought it from pretty much matched it because they get paid by how many cars are sold.
I have been looking for a Prius for abut 6 months. Difficult to get one with the options I prefer and the Prius model I am interested in. I started using services like the one Danny posted about, and there are a lot of these type of services. I used CarWoo, TRUECar, and several others, but the local Toyota dealers were not taking part in this new and very popular service. One did work with CarWoo, but the savings was zero. One of the negative aspects about using these types of services is you have to know exactly what you are looking for. I still am some options that I am unclear on and I would want to test drive the car and a few other areas I would want to talk about, but you pretty much (at least with the programs I worked with) have to know exactly the model and options you want. with the Regular Prius, I am still not 100% clear on what comes with the 2,3, Persona, 4, and 5. Just my experience with this type of service I have had so far.
Several Prius owners can help once they have an idea what your buying parameters are. What is your driving pattern, mostly highway, mostly in town, how many miles a year? New or used? How much do you want to spend? You should have a fairly large search area around Louisville.