What else will they try to sell me ???.

You'll take what they give you and pay what they tell you.

 

Know what you are willing to pay before you go in. Don't ever pay more than MSRP. Stink to it. Hopefully you'll pay less.
If you have a trade-in, you're at a disadvantage already. Should have sold it yourself. But don't accept less than book trade-in value.

After you've negotiated the price details / trade-in with the saleman, Make sure he hasn't added a price markup, paint/interior protection, alarm or some other non-sense like that. Reject everything. If he trys to act like it it's customary, tell him it's not.

Next it's onto the Finance guy. If financing is the way you'll pay, make sure you getting an interest rate appropriate to your credit standing.
He will try to sell you and extended warrany (which you can buy here cheaper), prepaid maintenace pkg, gap and payment insurance. Reject everything.
Warranty price in negotiable(see above), if you so desire one. Decide that before you even go in for the deal, and stick with your decision. It's a form of insurance, but remember the factory hybrid component warranty takes you to 80,000 miles anyway, so the extended part only goes 20k more.
Say no to the rest, and if he/she presses you, tell them they are about to lose a sale, and don't give him any other chances. Get up and walk.

After he calculates the payment, do it yourself and compare. Many dealers will give you false payment numbers, by adding money on the back end, hoping you won't notice and sign off on it. This is where even the most savy car buyer get taken. An extra $10-15 dollars added to the monthly payment will go unnoticed by you, but will put many $100's in the dealers pocket. Download a car payment calculator to you computer and take your laptop to the dealer with you, or have it on a home computer and call someone at home to run the numbers before you sign the dotted line.

Don't ever,ever,ever talk about a "monthly payment" with him. You will get taken every time.
If you negotiated a good price for the car, and good financing, the resulting payment will always be the best. If he tries to talk monthly payment, shut him down, tell him what I just said.

Bring a pencil, paper, calculator(or laptop), And printouts of the Prius dealer cost and your trades value. Work with hard numbers.
If you walk in empty handed, they already know they're dealing with a chump.

They are not your friend, they are trying to take your money.
Don't even smile when you deal with them. It's a business deal for you too.

You should plan and reherse this routine in your head before going in. Make sure you have eaten before going in. They do this stuff everyday for a living. You don't.
You lead the show, and never use terms like "can I have......etc.'' Will you do....etc." Is it ok if.....etc."
Say...."I want........This is the only thing I'll accept...........". Be in charge.

 

Reject everything.
No need for Gap insurance as the vehicle has low depreciation.
No need for extended warranty, its one of the most reliable made.

 

Surely you're not serious.
That kind of apathy is what the dealer feeds on. The buyer should always be in the drivers seat.

 

The only real legitimate charge (in addition to the cost of the car) is the destination charge. I believe this just recently went up to somewhere a bit over $700. This is what Toyota charges the dealers to transport the car and it's usually impossible to get the dealer to wave it and, moreover, it's one of the few charges that is actually sort of "fair." What I don't know is if this is usually included in the MSRP or if it's added on. . .

Most other things are BS. Window etching, undercoating, any *additional* destination charge the dealer tries to push, etc. Also, don't fall for the trick of the pre-printed form that has some of these overcharges on it. Some people just assume that this is a usual charge. I'm ashamed to admit that I'm one of them; three years later and I'm still kicking myself for paying for "Window etching."

I also don't think that most packages include floor mats, so that's something the dealer may try to charge you for. I suppose that's "legitimate," but you can usually find perfectly adequate floor mats elsewhere for much cheaper. On the other hand, if you want your mats to say "Toyota" and "Prius," you might want to spring for them.

Take heart! The final purchasing experience may be a little stressful but, in the end, the car will be totally worth it!

 

It's also worth pointing out that many dealers will adopt an attitude that these additional charges are completely "normal" and that you're being completely unreasonable by suggesting that they shouldn't be fleecing you. Don't buy it. Stick to your guns. This is a standard way of getting people to cave and you should remain adamant that you're only paying the reasonable cost of the car, plus any extras that you want; not the extras that the dealer wants to sell you.

 

they will also probably try to sell you the paint protector/wax coat and the windshield stuff. we fell for it and its literally nothing. dont do it.

 

Reject everything. Don’t have a trade in. If you do, try going to CarMax first and see what they will give you. Get your loan ahead of time, try Capital One, especially through Costco. See if the dealer can beat the interest rate. Only extra you may have to pay on top of sticker is a doc fee, which is also ridiculous. Then again it depends on the market, you may be stuck with what they give you. I had to try 10 different dealers in the Phoenix/Tucson area before I could find a Prius for MSRP without useless add-ons.

 

yeah, tell the dealer three things:
1) i have 3 years and 36,000 miles to shop around and decide whether or not to activate the official toyota extended warranty
2) the maintenance for the prius is basically an oil change every 5,000 miles and a tire rotation and new filters @ 30,000 miles and thats really low and $xxx divided by 11 is a lot to pay for an oil change
3) i plan on keeping the car for 5 years, and i have a lot of time to shop around and to decide on all these other extra add ons too

 

car dealers like to assure you that you have to purchase all this crap at the time of purchase, and that is a complete lie. even something like gap insurance can be added on later. heck you might even be able to score free gap insurance from your insurance company, some do offer it for free.

oh yeah and remember that until you actually take delivery of the car you are free to walk out at any time

 

They will try to tint the windows and chrome the wheels.

 

Here is a thread with the sheet they presented to me.

TAKE NONE OF IT!

http://priuschat.com/forums/newbie-forum/53057-options-presented-pick-up.html

 

I think it's very important to make it clear to your salesman NOW that you only want factory-installed options, and you will be very unhappy if they try to pressure you to take more. It's especially important to make this clear because otherwise they may request a bunch of port-installed options, then tell you that the car came with it and they couldn't do anything about it.

Remember that Toyota does extensive post-sale surveys, and these dealers want to get a good rating. So it would also help to mention that your survey feedback will be strongly influenced by your buying experience.

I was treated very well for both of my Prius purchases - from CarMax Laurel Toyota (MD) and Thompson Toyota (Doylestown, PA), and both of them told me that the survey is a big incentive for them to make sure I did not walk out feeling raped. CarMax put nothing extra on my car at all, and did not pressure me for an extended warranty or anything else. The car from Thompson unexpectedly came with the first aid kit and cargo net, but they charged me the price that we had originally agreed upon, so it was a freebie as far as I was concerned. Apparently they knew these were on it at the time they quoted me the price.

 

The finance / business manager's goal is to sell -

* extended service plan (warranty) You have up to 3 years to purchase an extended warranty. I let them know I knew that and did not buy it up front.
* prepaid maintenance
* gap insurance / finance insurance if not putting much money down
* extras like paint protection, underbody / fabric protection, lo-jack, and a host of other accessories.

If you are financing, definitely want to have a couple preapprovals for the amount you may need to borrow before doing your car's contract. Check credit report. Dealer showed me my credit scores.

Know how much you are going to put down, then figure how much the car may cost out the door with additional plans / access.

If borrowing, figure out how much your monthly payment may be at home.

Focus on the out door price of the car plus accessories with the finance person. They will try to focus you on the monthly payment.

You want the payment to be manageable, but it's best to be able to pay much over the monthly, to get it over with, get the title and call the car your own.

 

I don't believe any of the packages get the $199 carpet floor mats (CF). They are nice and custom cut to the Prius floor layout. I don't know if any aftermarket companies make custom cut mats.

Buying is stressful. I must have stood up, paced and sat down ten times. The business manager threw a tiny pity party when it looked like I'd reject the extended warranty and prepaid maintenance. Ended up getting 3 yr. prepaid maintenance. You know the car needs maintenance.

 

Although not part of any package, virtually all of the cars come with floor mats as a port installed option (PIO). PIOs are part of the factory sticker and virtually impossible to get the dealer to delete them. In general you should include them in your negotiation for the bottom-line price. Look up their invoice cost for the floor mats, and try to get them for as close to that as possible. Like others have said, they are nicely made, though expensive at list price. Don't forget, though, that they include a mat for the cargo area, which you are not likely to find in an in-store aftermarket offering. If you REALLY don't want the mats, you might be able to sell them on ebay or Craigslist.

 

2008, Package 3, comes/came with them.

 

I just priced a Touring HG Prius online and it came to $26,000-roughly. Then I went to the dealer and he said they cannot remove the PIO floor matts and trunk matt so it would be around $26,500. I'm on the fence on pulling the trigger and writing a $500 check to order a Touring model.

My question: Can I order the Touring HG model without the PIO matts and just wait the 3 or 6 months for the car to come in? With that said, if it took 6 months, I may just cancel my order and buy a Honda Insight... Don't get me wrong, I love the prius and have been salivating over the car for years and now I'm ready to buy but.... this haggling over prices is turning me off.
thoughts...