Dead car and lucking out in Missouri

OK, just wanted to tell my story ..

I put in an order last week for a Black 2006 Prius, option package 4. Expected delivery time was 4 months.

This was to replace my 1992 Pontiac Bonneville / 212,000 miles.

Saturday, said bonneville started making a loud clanging sound from the lower part of the engine. General concensus was that something came loose and was banging around the engine block. In any case, a fatal problem.

I called up the dealer and told them my situation, they had JUST gotten in a 04 prius w/ 30,000 miles loaded and offered it to me at ~24,000 or so.

I ran the numbers and, while loaded, $4000 in tax credits (3150 federal, 750-850 kansas) meant I'd be paying $2000 more after 1 year for a car that has 30,000 miles and a few options I wasn't planning on using (no bluetooth phone, no need for nav).

Anyway, no deal.

I called around the state and managed to find 2 Pri's. One decked out package 8 for 28,000, and a package 2 for 23,000.

Anyway, I take delivery of my driftwood / tan prius in 3 weeks. It's got package 2, he only thing I really wanted was the side curtain airbags, but that's not a killer (no pun intended). Coming into Town and Country motors in Sedalia. No markup above MSRP or other weird charges.

Only thing else I'll share, I took the old pontiac to a local CarMax. They gave me $50. Not exactly a lot considering some of the repairs done in the last year, but there we are. I literally drove that pontiac to death .. 152,000 miles and about $3000 in repairs over 10 years .. I probably got my money's worth.

As far as buying the car, I will say that if I were buying a new GM or Ford, the experience would be quite different. I'd expect to pay dealer cost and no more .. + rebates and the fancy finance 0 percent stuff. Lets hope my first Toyota is worth it.

The last import I owned was a 1979 datsun B210 .. in an accident, that car would be (my) death on wheels.

Comments / suggestions on next steps?

Satsuke

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rfred @ May 1 2006, 06:46 PM) [snapback]248229[/snapback]</div>

I guess I might point out that the warrenty might be longer for a certified used one than a new one ,. but the length of warrenty you are actually able to use is not necessarily any longer. That and the open question of battery longevity makes a used prius, even if the tax benefits were available, a tough sell.

I had originally been working through Superior Toyota, but with the 4 month wait, they couldn't accomodate me. The other thing that was a disappointment was the hard sell on the used one, ususally their new car sales guys don't bother with used ones. I don't know why the difference, anyway. The hard sell was they were charging "Low 20s" ~23,000 +/- $1000 for a loaded 04 ,. under the assumption that "if you walk out of here, my manager will sell it retail for ~$28,000

i.e. a take it or leave it situation.

Originally I had ordered a package 3, than convinced me to goto a 4, than floor mats. Not a hard sell, but definatly trying to kick it up.

I am much happier with Town and Country motors so far, though I have yet to meet anyone face to face. Of course I'm taking what available on the truck rather than something specific.

As far as why they have shorter wait times, they scared me off initially because of their $1000 non-refundable deposit. Everywhere else was $500 refundable.

Other dealers in Kansas City, Superior had the shortest wait time of the local dealers. Several quoted wait times of over a year. I don't know if they had sold tha many or not, 1+ year seems a way to scare off people because they don't have the allocation to realisiticly fill the orders.

As far as charging retail vs above retail, who knows, it could be a midwestern ethical thing, though that wouldn't explain them charging full new retail for a used one.

This is my first Toyota, I hope it's worth it. If I bought something comperable with my previous ride I could have bought one with financing only $5000 or so (The big GM sedans I am used to lose their value like mad).


rfred: Could you post here what you had to do to claim the Kansas alternative fuel tax credit?

As far as the allocation process, from what I understand, Toyota has their delivery schedules mapped out 12 months in advance, such that they know exactly how many of x models will be available on date y up to a year out, down to the specific colors and options and extended all through the supply chain.

I guess technically, if you ordered a trim level / color that wasn't very popular, you could have it in weeks rather than months, or wait for months longer than normal.

The prius is probably the only domestic car that is handled exactly like the Japanese dealer model. Over there the showroom has examples of every model ,. you order the exact color and trim you want and it's delivered x weeks later. It's virtually unheard of to walk into a dealer and pick something off the lot.