Do they want us to think there is a shortage?

I have a nasty caution flag to throw your way:

Did you by chance buy a TRAC car? If so, it's not eligible for the tax credit.

TRAC cars are BOUGHT in the name of some dealers to be used as rentals, demos and sometimes for the personal use of their management staff. That is, they are REGISTERED in the name of the dealer ("put into service" to IRS). Dealers are committed not to sell them for at least 3 months, then may sell them as USED cars.

I doubt your is a TRAC (Toyota Rental something something) since it has only 220 miles. My first Prius was a TRAC, and they usually accumulate 2K-12K mi. before being sold. But the time frame (Oct.) makes it suspicious.

Chances are it was simply a non-TRAC demo that wasn't demo'd very much.

As for your main question, it's speculative. We all have to sit back and watch what happens with dealer inventories the next two months. How many of those Priuses were "reserved"? How many deals fell through? How many were "ordered" by people on multiple lists? We'll see what's left on the lots, say, Feb. 1.

 

still a shortage over here. the only time prii have spent any time sitting on the lot was for the week or so before new year's... people waiting for the 06 credit to take effect.

with that one exclusion, the rest of the time they hardly have time to get them off the truck and through detail before they're gone!

 

Will you post some of the dealerships in PA that have the cars. I'd like to check their inventory or call some of them to see if they have a car I'm interested in. I'll have to drive 9 hours north to get it though.

 

Glad to hear that. Now here's another curveball:

I learned the hard way about alleged "inventories" of Priuses shown on dealers' individual websites. In at least some regions, you'll see almost identical inventories
listed a several dealers. Turns out that's because those dealers are drawing from a "pool" of cars, some---or all--or which may not even be on their lot!

I saw this practice particularly in Texas.

 

Lancaster toyota / East Petersburg Pa. Has two 2005's and seven 2006's as of this morning my salesman is Eric Riley.

 

I picked up my 2006 on Dec. 4 after a ten-week wait (12 weeks was the estimate in late Sept.). The direct sales manager said that the waiting list had grown to 20-24 weeks. That sounds like a shortage to me.

Price is determined by supply and demand. It's one of the first things you learn in a college course in Economics. MSRP is only a retail price suggested by the manufacturer. A dealer can sell for anything above the internal cost (and sometimes for less given the right circumstances; see below).

As for buying a car at the end of the model year, you should pay much less than the price at the beginning of a model year. Basically, you incur a whole year's depreciation as soon as you drive off the lot. My wife and I bought a 2003 BMW 325i at the end of 2003 for $2000 below dealer invoice (due to dealer incentives from the manufacturer). You can't do that well with a Prius, but your price should be substantially lower than the going price earlier in the model year.

 

The dealer who just sold me 2006 Prius said that the average time for a Prius to remain on a dealers lot is 20 hours.

My car came in the afternoon of 12/30, I heard about it from an Edmunds.com query the morning of 12/31 and contracted to buy it at 11:30AM. The other car that arrived in the same shipment was gone by then, too (an inter-dealer trade, he said).

Sounds like tight supply to me.

 

oops

 

While Harrisburg is the state capital, it's not exactly a huge population center. Certainly not if you compare it to Philly or Pittsburg. It would not surprise me that there would be many Priuses sititng on dealer lots in more rural areas where the demand is not high.

 

I would have to agree with the starter of this post that in the south east there are lots of Prii to be had. I posted a comment on here about 2 months ago on how I was so excited to buy a Prius, but when I got to the dealer the salesmen would not negotiate with me and told me if I did not want to pay $2500 over sticker that I should just leave. I am very disappointed with the dealerships and their price gouging. The same dealership that I went to 2 months ago to buy a Prius has 8 of them sitting on the lot now and had 5 sitting there when I went to buy mine. There is a strong demand in some regions of the country - I will agree to that, but here in the south east the "good ole boys" like their trucks and moms like their suburbans. I was ready to buy 2 months ago, but the salesmen turned me away. Well long story short I went to a Mazda dealership and bought an RX8 for invoice and got $2500 off in incentives. I LOVE MY RX8! I wanted a unique car and when Gene Reed Toyota said no and they would not even work with me, I went with Mazda and the RX8 (it is also very unique). I will never pay over MSRP (it is supposed to be the highest dollar amount you should have to pay for a vehicle), no matter if it is hot or not.

Gene Reed Toyota - http://www.genereedtoyota.com/New-Inventory.aspx
North Charleston, SC - Rude salesmen, I guess they were just doing their job?

Congratulations if you got one for less than MSRP; you are a very privileged few. If you are looking for a unique car check out the RX8 - Yea I know it is a 1.3L gas guzzler, but I have had alot more fun in it than I would have ever had in a prius

- Justin

 

Maybe I was just lucky, but I selected mine one day and had it the next day!
Here's how I got my 2006 Red Barcelona this week:

1. Logged into Costco.com on Monday 1/2/2006. Selected the Prius
2. Got an e-mail from Costco with confirmation number, salesman name and dealership
3. Drove to dealership (5 minutes), asked for my Costco price ($500 below MSRP)
4. Picked a car, made a downpayment to reserve it.
5. On Tuesday the dealership called and said they had found an identical car locally so the deal could be closed during Toyota fiscal 05. By the end of the day the car was mine.

So I did not have to wait more than a day, got $500 off MSRP and exactly the car I wanted with package #6 and red exterior.

I love this car

 

Yes it is in a dealer's nature to make us think there is scarcity of Prius supply. Based on my recent observations, I think the supply-demand equation is quickly levelling out, and soon Prius will be selling below MSRP like other cars.

I'm in San Diego, some dealerships are still running a waiting list here, while others are not. To me that's the first signal that supply is catching up to demand. Also, my local dealer had 2005s going at $2k below MSRP in November, and had a few unsold 2006s on the lot just before Christmas.

I have also seen tons of Prius on the roads here lately. Excess demand for Prius is not infinite, eventually it will be met. I'm sure the new Civic Hybrid has also detracted some demand from the Prius.

 

now that the tax credit is in full swing, i think you will be wrong. besides, right now, only a few selected areas of the country has anything remotely resembling a semi-adequate supply.

 

My dealer (Thousand Oaks Toyota, Nirmal was my salesperson and he's great) tried to charge $3000 over msrp.. I basically told them to "make love to themselves" in short order and offered to pay "manufacturer MSRP". I wrote the check for that amount and drove home. Frankly, I feel that they put the mark-up on the car because there are enough a**holes out there who will pay it.

 

Unbelievable, frederic. Congratulations!

That's the best single Prius buying experience (because of walking into the Costco discount as well as getting exactly what you want instantly) I've heard in five years of hearing these stories.

 

I do not think there is a significant shortage of Prii. They are not in abundance either... but there are plenty around. I suspect that demand still somewhat attenuated because of the slightly limited supply... so even as production numbers increase... that there will still not be a lot on the lots. However, I think that you can get pretty much anything you want in a couple of weeks... at least here in the PNW.

I bought one off the lot on 12/15/05 ('06, Drifwood, pkg 8) as a gift to my daughter. I had the car home that night. The next day I called and told them that I wanted a 2nd for myself... but that I wanted to wait until Jan... and that I was only interested in a Silver pkg 8. It arrived yesterday 1/9/06. Three weeks for my first (and only) choice request.

I was travelling out at the Oregon coast... and I stopped in at a Dealer who had 2 in stock ready to sell... and offered to get me anything that I wanted by exchanging with other dealers in "a couple of days". I don't know for sure if he could really deliver... but I would not be surprised.

In any case... I agree with the original poster that supply is not as constrained as we are led to believe.

/Jim