A little help finding my future Prius?

Hello everyone,

I hope to be a Prius owner by the end of the month, so I have officially joined PriusChat. Now, I could use your help finding my car. After careful consideration, I have decided that I want the following:

• 2012
• Prius IV
• Nautical Blue
• Bisque interior (would accept light gray)
• No Accessories (would accept mats, even though I'm going with WeatherTech)
• No Packages

The short version of my question is:

Is there a website or a P.C. member that can find a Prius matching these features anywhere in the mid-Atlantic region, or even on a boat headed to this region? I am ready to sign, but I just need to find the car itself so my dealer can DX it.

The long version is:

I test drove a 2012 this weekend and got within about 10 minutes of signing on the dotted line for a Prius to be DXed from nearby. It had a handful of accessories that I did not need and didn't want to pay for, but I successfully got the dealer to eat the cost for those. In fact, I was about to get a really great deal overall, IMO.

While the manager wrote up the contract, I asked the salesman to show me what the lower body molding accessory looks like. It was an item included on all of the Nautical Blue Prii in the area. As much as I tried to tell myself I was being petty, I really didn't like the look of the molding when I saw it on a Winter Gray and a Barcelona Red Prius. It makes the car look sporty, but I much preferred the look of the molding-less Nautical Blue III that the dealer had on the lot. I just couldn't go through with the purchase if the car was going to have that silver stripe along the sides, so I broke the news to the manager.

Now, I'm waiting for the dealership to find a blue 2012 IV without the stripe and without solar. Everything they've found so far has one or the other. The salesman's ability to search inventory seems limited to checking out the dealership's mobile website on his iPhone. When I questioned him about this, he said he would ask the managers to do a better search every day for me. Thanks, but isn't there a better way?? I've seen posts here listing what cars are in transit, so I feel like the dealership should have access to a more comprehensive database. If somebody knows how to tap into it, please let me know! The longer it takes to find my car, the less likely the dealership is to honor our handshake deal.

Thanks!

 

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. Unfortunately, AutoTrader, Cars.com, and the Toyota web site results all have the lower body molding or the solar package. These seem to be the way Toyota is cranking them out at the factory. Interestingly, one of the Carmax stock photo for the Prius is of a Nautical Blue without the molding. Tease.

I did check the individual pages of various dealerships, and I did find some sites that seemed to provide spotty lists of what cars are in the region. I found one matching Prius north of Philly. That's a few hours away, but maybe it's worth it. That same site did not show cars that I know to be sitting on some local dealers' lots (cars not matching my specs), so I'm not willing to give up on the possibility that there are more cars closer. I was hoping to learn of similar sites that folks know to be reliable.

I am willing to accept the light gray color, but I think the factory default for Nautical Blue is the Bisque interior. I didn't think my list of requirements is all that long: 2012 Blue IV with no options. I admit, I liked that my Stellar Blue 4Runner was somewhat of a rarity. I guess I'm finding the same is true for the Nautical Blue Prius.

Lastly, I'm apprehensive about attempting to remove the lower body molding. I'm a handy guy, but this project seems like it will result in a lot of damaged paint. I imagine the adhesive they use is pretty strong.

 

True, true cycledrum, but a bare blue IV seems to be a rare breed. Maybe they changed the name from Blue Ribbon to Nautical because tsunami water washed away most of the drums of blue paint!

 

Update:

I put down a deposit on a Prius IV this weekend (Nautical Blue + Bisque, mats only)! It's due at the rail yard on 3/14, then it goes to a dealer in Northern VA, then it gets DXed to my dealer. I'm happy with the price I negotiated ($27,168 + $200 PF + tax/tags), but I also recognize that there are many opportunities for the dealer to renege between now and the final paperwork. Supposedly, it's not possible to officially reserve a car until it's assigned a VIN upon clearing customs. Can anyone on here confirm that?

I never found a site that I thought could reliably tell me what cars were in the area or in transit. I was sometimes able to use buyatoyota.com in combination with cars.com and Google to track down a vehicle, but it was spotty. In addition, the manager at the dealership was never completely forthright about what he saw in the system. He was reluctant to DX too far because it would rack up miles on the car he was exchanging. He also indicated that certain dealerships would not exchange with him. So, despite finding three matching cars through buyatoyota.com, none was available through "my" dealer. Since I was able to figure out which dealership had at least one of the matching cars, I was ready to engage with them directly until my dealer found the one in transit that he could exchange once it gets here. Now, I just have my fingers crossed that this car makes it from the boat, to the train, to the VA dealer's lot, to my dealer's lot without incident or price changes.

I guess the best answer to my original question is to be patient and to look for a dealership that is responsive when asked to look for matching cars in their system. I think buyatoyota.com would be especially useful if it just linked to the actual dealership where the car can be found. Right now, it allows you to request a quote through your dealer of choice. In my experience that just doesn't seem to yield results.

Next up: ordering WeatherTech mats and reading PriusChat threads as though I'm an official owner already