A unique positive experience buying a Prius (actually twice)

We have a dealer north of Charlotte, NC that does not have a lot of people on their waiting list for Prius', and they do not whack you badly with premiums (other than a 600 documentation fee); which is much less than the other toyota dealers I have heard have charged. If you are interested, contact Allan Horton at Lake Norman Toyota. His phone number is (704) 875-9199. I have now bought two Prius' from this dealership and the experience has been excellent. See below:

I probably have one of the more unique experiences buying a Prius (actually effective today two). Most of posts I have read have spoken about how long they had to wait for a car. I have literally had the opposite experience ....twice!

The key is to find a brand new Toyota Dealership. In my case, Toyota of Lake Norman in Huntersville, NC. This dealership has been operational for about a year. I had my name in at several of the Charlotte dealerships and was told it would be a year or a year and a half before I 'might' get a call. I was driving one afternoon back in March and went by this dealership. I called them up and asked to speak to one of the salespeople. He took my name asked me what I wanted in the Prius, and then told me that he does not know how many they will be getting and that he would call me as soon as he got down to me.

A week and a half later (yes!) he called me on a Tuesday night at 7:30 and told me he just got his allocation and did I want a Silver Package 4. I told him yes and he told me that he also called several people on his list and the first one showing up got it (cute trick on their part). Unfortunately I was in Detroit on business, but was able to get my wife on the phone and she raced over. She ended up being the first and we got the car two weeks later.

The thing that I really appreciated about this dealership is that they did not pad the price. We did have a documentation fee which was a little high in my opinion, but no where near the 1-2 thousand that other toyota dealers were socking the customer with.

My wife really loves driving the car and wanted one too after about 6 months. I called the salesman back and asked him to put me back on the list for another Prius. A week later he called me and asked me if I wanted a Black package 4 (2005). I told him I wanted a lighter color and he said he would call me back when one came in. Two weeks later he called again and we just went down to the dealership to sign the paperwork for a 2005 driftwood pearl package 5 Prius!

If you do not mind a suggestion, make sure you do your homework on warranties and pre-paid maintenance before you go. They were going to try to charge me 1,600 for the 7/100k maintenance, but I brought in Troy's and Danny's post about $985 and they matched it. Also, Southeast Toyota has their own prepaid maintenance and it does not look like they cover the major maintenance (although they might.. the documentation is ambiguous). I would recommend checking the local toyota dealers by you to ensure that they will accept the Toyota premium prepaid maintenance. I will be calling Troy Dietrich up today to get that coverage.

Sorry for going on so long, but my Prius-buying experience has been quite a bit different that many of you. Hope you can take advantage of this information.

Dave