Any chance of 0% APR?

Edmunds does a decent job of tracking dealer incentives that would be currently available. FWIW, I believe my friend got 0% last December on his '12 Camry hybrid. In the northeast region, I haven't heard anything on 0% on the Prius yet this year. 0% is currently available on RAV4 and Highlander (non hybrid). Good luck.

 

Toyota website is your best bet. Also the local Toyota dealers websites. They do the 0% to clear inventory so it is situational and can be localized. Most likely opportunity is when they are getting close to a model change. From what I hear that is 2015 for the Prius. So best hope on 0% is likely local inventory situation. With gas prices falling, you might get lucky and the Prius inventory will get high enough.

 

Sometimes....you should spend more time worrying about striking a good deal and then getting a loan at a CU or community bank. Last time I checked, 2 months ago when I bought my last vehicle, the CU's and Community banks in my area were offering 1.9%.
Usually...when a dealership offers 0%, it with two caveats.
1. Well qualified buyer.
2. No other incentives, and usually at a reduced term.

OK...so if you're a 'well qualified buyer', then you qualify for the lowest rates currently offered by a real bank or CU. Like I said...for me, 2 months ago, it was 1.9%

On a $30,000 car the delta is about $1500 over 5 years (usually they limit it to 36-48 months.)
On a $20,000 car the delta is a little less than a thousand.
That's if the teaser rate is 0.0%
Usually...I can talk them down more than that. Sometimes, on cars like the Prius and in areas like the PRC, the teaser rate is better....BUT usually they don't offer it for cars that are already selling for MSRP+.
Why?
Because they don't have to.
Sharpen a pencil.
Do the math.
Usually? When they offer a teaser rate, you can negotiate an even better deal on your own.
Good Luck.

 

A couple of dealers in So Cal contacted me and informed me about 0% financing.

Also, Dianne offers it in her thread: Dianne's SoCal AUGUST 2012 DEALS thread for all things Prius!! | PriusChat

 

I bought my Prius in late June in Atlanta while Southeast Toyota Region was offering 0% financing for 3-years.

It's the reason why I bought my Prius at that time. I'm not sure if that same financing is still available.

 

Toyota is running this special in the Southeast:

In general, I understand the benefits of 0.0% APR, but what are the disadvantages?

 

^ Sometimes there are no disadvantages to the teaser rates....but not very often. Most times you have a choice of cash back or the teaser rate.
There's an easy way to figure all of this out.
1. Get per-approved for a loan through a credit union or a bank. If you've got good credit? You'll get something like 1.9 over 60. If you don't have good credit? You're not going to "qualify" for Toyota's 0.0 rate..........but they're not going to tell you that until they've already set the hook.
2. Negotiate with a dealer for the car only. Most people really suck at this which is why dealers get away with thousands of dollars worth of "non-optional" options, and three-figure "admin charges." If fact....most people actually wind up paying MSRP+ with out even realizing it.
Example: You want a G3-Three.
Go to some place like Edmunds and look at the MSRP.
Right.
It's about 26.3 with the destination fees.
Now.....go look at the sticker price at a dealership.
It's probably around 27-28.
So what you finally wind up doing is haggling your way back down to MSRP----IF they don't mesmerize you with the shiny bauble (0.0 percent.)
Now.....you need to figure out if there are any factory to dealer incentives, because they lower the MSRP.
Example: $500 cash back = new start point for negotiations at 25.8.
So....that $1,000 off of MSRP price that you're going to be bragging about in a few weeks should really be somewhere around $24,800 plus ONLY sales tax.
Period.

NOW...ask them about the 0.0 percent financing.

Of course all of this is predicated on you (1) knowing what car you want and (2) having good to excellent credit.

If you don't have good to excellent credit you need to stay away from the dealer for a little while, and if you don't know what kind of car you want you REALLY need to stay away from the dealer until you narrow it down to 1 or 2 flavors and then you need to go to the dealer with nothing but a driver's license if you have a hard time saying no.
If you're driving a car right now then you need to sell it first.

If you trade it in then you're helping them to confuse a
deal that they're already trying to obfuscate with the "teaser loan rate."

Good Luck!!
There are deals out there, and Dec 2012 is a pretty good time to buy a 2012. You'll notice of course that the factory to dealer incentives do not include the "Trial-Size" Prius. That's because there's still a shortage of them and people are still paying MSRP+++ for them.

 

Sorry, new to all of this. What is the difference between "cash back" and "teaser rate"?

 

A good source is CarBuyingTips.com - complete step by step car buying guide but to answer your question, cash back is a rebate that the manufacturer gives to the buyer of the car. Almost always this is applied to the final purchase price of the car.

The manufacturer's captive finance arm (Toyota Motor Finance in this case) offers below market rates on cars that aren't moving. The usual downside is that the car won't be discounted as heavily.

Just to throw out numbers, you may be able to buy the car for $25000 cash or your own outside financing or for $26000 with 0% interest. No one is going to give a car away and take a loss on the loan.

As stated above, you have to work the numbers to see which ends up being the better deal for you.