Dealer Selling Prius for Under MSRP

the car is already sold. their computer puts up their inventory of what comes in. but, everything is already pre-sold.

 

It seems to depend on your area. No one in my area is selling Prii over MSRP. I think that is insane to buy a car OVER MSRP.

 

I was @ Fitzgerald Auto Mall last Saturday, and they are not selling the 2010 Prius under MSRP. I was ready to buy one and ask them for availability, the salesperson came back to us and said they couldn't sell it for under MSRP because of the high demand, and Toyota might increase their invoice price on them. He said if I want, I can put down deposit and there is no guarantee on price. He said it can be couple hundreds over MSRP. I am not sure if that is the Fitzway to do business.

 

Last I checked even Carmax (Laurel, MD Toyota) was only $102 under MSRP. Around here most are at MSRP, though my dealer is advertising ~$750 off, and has sold a load of them since the CARS rebate went into effect.

 

Hi jay_man2,
May I ask which dealership did you go for your prius? I am still shopping around for one, I went to Darcars the other day, they are selling at least $100 over MSRP. I did check Carmax, but they don't have the model that I want. BTW, how do you like your new Prius?

 

Hi exbauer,
Does the Prius V comes with standard moonroof? I was told by the salesperson that it does, but when I look at the Toyota.com site, it doesn't say anything about standard on the Prius V. Please advice.

 

My brother-in-law is a salesman at a Toyota dealership.

He says that the Toyota mothership told dealers no more 2nd sticker markup and no more deals of any kind. MSRP only on the 2010 Prius. I've got no reason to disbelieve him but his boss(es) may be telling them that to enforce a rule of their own. Fits everything I've seen and read though.

Dianne, are you allowed to confirm or deny whether or not the Toyota mothership has said "MSRP only on the 2010 Prius"?

 

There's a serious possibility that Toyota's actions run afoul of restraint of trade laws & regs. My familiarity with this issue is a number of years old, but in a parallel situation, the mfg could only issue such orders to company-owned stores. The independent stores could set their own prices, and the mfg couldn't punish them by giving lower product allocations. One would think that Toyota would have already crossed this bridge, and maybe they have, but in the past, more than one large company has made this mistake. It can happen, for example, when the sales/marketing people issue such a mandate and aren't used to running everything through legal for review (yes, yes, I KNOW how frustrating it is to have to run things through Legal, but I also know that a lot of lawsuits and regulatory slaps-on-the-hand were avoided.)

Disclaimer: I am not an attorney, so take the above as a lay-person's recollections about similar matters in the [distant, given how fast the world is changing] past.

 

(any reason why this is in the Gen II forum and not in the Gen III?)

 

I like my Prius. I got it at Miller Toyota here in Manassas, VA. Sam Lee was the salesperson. I've done business at Miller since 1985.

They post their inventory online:

Miller Toyota: Inventory Search Results

 

Yeah, after talking with my dealer yesterday I'm pretty sure my brother-in-law's boss is just treating his salesmen like children and lying to them to get them to do what he wants. really lame.

 

Actually the MFG can set what is called a MAP or minimum advertised price for something. The supreme court recently ruled that to be fair.

What this means is the street price is MSRP. My un-educated (at least with Toyota rules) is that the actual MAP price of a prius is close to MSRP or MSRP - 750 or so. That way dealers can discount off of MSRP (slightly) and not run afoul of toyota.

And in this economy even with something as hot as the Prius it would be nuts to pay over msrp that is money that never comes back.

The one exception to this rule would have been in 2006 when CA was giving out carpool stickers and you had to have one. that would have made limited economic sense.

 

Yeah, I have a hard time being patient with people complaining about dealers that won't come down below MSRP. This car sells itself. Dealer's cannot keep it on the lot. Why would any dealership in their right mind come down off of MSRP when they've got people offering them more than MSRP to get them one?

The sense of entitlement some people have sorta baffles me sometimes.

 

I got my 2010 prius model II $500 under MSRP in Los Angeles. E-mail me with questions if you need details on the name of the dealer.

 

In May 2009, I bought my brand new 2009 Prius Touring for $5000 UNDER MSRP. I originally wanted to wait for a 2010, but my dealer told me he was going to get $6000 OVER MSRP on the first batch of 2010s and it would be a very long time before he could give me a deal on a 2010.

I am delighted with my 2009. Getting 50 mpg and it has every option except leather, which I did not want.

 

Dealers can sell a vehicle for whatever they like. There are no company owned stores. I saw a Prius come in on a dealer trade that had a $4,995 markup over sticker. If a consumer is willing to pay that, they can do it. Our dealership has always stuck to the pricing on the window. We will not mark it up $1.

MSRP = Manufacturers SUGGESTED retail price. Not Manufacturers MANDATORY retail price.