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Getting Ready to Buy

Discussion in 'Newbie Forum' started by steevr, Mar 30, 2008.

  1. steevr

    steevr New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    36
    1
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    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Hi everyone.

    My wife and I are getting ready to purchase a Prius. We both have Lexus SUV's (love Toyota). I only live 2 miles from work, however, she's increased the number of days she works and is getting tired of putting $70 worth of gas into the tank every few days. We've got to sell another older car (by owner) before we buy the Prius.

    We talked to a few dealerships. We're looking for a Driftwood with Pkg #6. One dealership said they've received their last allotment and yet the '09's won't be out until Sep or Oct. Is this possible?? If that's so, they won't have any more Prius's to sell til fall??

    One dealership was $1,000 over invoice. We also went to another dealer that was affiliated with the Costco program and the Costco price was $500 over invoice.

    Anyways, hope we can sell the other car first so that we can try and locate our Prius.

    This is a wonderful forum!!!
     
    #1 steevr, Mar 30, 2008
  2. exbauer

    exbauer Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2006
    1,185
    100
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    Location:
    Washington
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    What dealers have you been shopping at? I think they are feeding you some bull. I was torn between the Touring with pkg 6 and the base with pkg 6. The colors I was looking for was Magnetic Gray or Classic Silver. But, didn't see a lot of Driftwood out there. The Touring with pkg 6 I paid $26,416 with carpet floor and cargo mats, rear bumper applique, and all season floor mats. If I went with just a base with pkg 6 and carpet floor and cargo mats I was able to get $25,700. PM me if you want to know which dealers.

    Don't forget about the IL Green Rewards program. It gives you $1000 rebate if you finance your car with an approved bank or credit union.

    http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-t...rebate-green-rewards-purchase-new-hybrid.html

    Alexi Giannoulias - Illinois State Treasurer
     
    #2 exbauer, Mar 30, 2008
  3. kazie60

    kazie60 New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 25, 2007
    56
    3
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    Location:
    Madison, WI
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    All dealers list their inventory online now. Go to toyota.com and find out the dealers in your area. It will list cities and states. Buy your car somewhere else and service it at your local dealer. What you want is out there but your local dealer might not be able to get another dealer to trade with them because they know they can sell it. That happened to me. The Madison dealer couldn't get what I wanted. So I went to get the car myself in Milwaukee. Good luck. You won't miss your Lexus. I rode in one and it gave me a backache.
     
    #3 kazie60, Mar 30, 2008
  4. nerfer

    nerfer A young senior member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2006
    2,507
    235
    28
    Location:
    Chicagoland, IL, USA, Earth
    Vehicle:
    Other Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    You haven't said who's going to be driving the Prius, but it seems to be your wife. Just keep in mind that if it is for you, you would not get good gas mileage for your commute. The engine wouldn't get warm in 2 miles and up to that point it will be consuming gas like a normal vehicle (I live 2.8 miles from work, and it's a struggle to get anything decent, particularly in the winter - in the summer I bike, so I can convince my wife to take the Prius more often, and then it gets great gas mileage or on longer trips). What people like us really need is a decent electric vehicle for our shorter needs when a bike doesn't work. Maybe in 2010?

    Making a few assumptions here, $70/$3.35 per gal = 21 gallons * 18 mpg = 380 miles/tank in the Lexus. The Prius would do about the same miles on a tank, but require maybe 7.5 gallons (depending on the speed she drives) = $25/fillup.
     
    #4 nerfer, Mar 30, 2008
  5. steevr

    steevr New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    36
    1
    0
    Location:
    Illinois
    Vehicle:
    2009 Prius
    Thanks to all for the great info. Yes, my wife would be driving it 3 days a week to work. I would drive it the other two days to my short trip to work. The one thing that would still be beneficial with me driving it to work 2 days a week is as follows: There are 3 of us that go out to lunch at work every day. We all take our turns driving and that equals almost 2 days a week per person. My plan is to drive to lunch on the days I have the Prius. Usually, the places we go to lunch are about 4 or 5 miles away, so that should help increase my mileage a bit more. Anything has to be better than the 14mpg I get now with my '97 Lincoln (daily driver). That's the car we'd be getting rid of.

    The one dealership that had the Costco price (they were the one that originally said they had received their last allocation) called and left a message that they received a Driftwood Base #6 today. Too bad we have to sell our other car first.
     
    #5 steevr, Mar 31, 2008
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