Hat's Off

I have to compliment Toyota, especially Toyota of Fort Worth and my salesman, Guy Blankenmeyer, for bending over backwards to get my Silver Seven. I was really struggling with the allotment delivery policy, and through several iterations of "where's mine" or "I ordered first" they were terrific in assisting me to get my Prius, and more than that, they helped me understand the delivery policy. You don't have to like it, but understanding it at least gave me relief.

As most of our PriusChat readers know by now, Toyota predetermines the production and allocation schedule before the first vehicle is even built. The popularity of the Prius blew away all expectations for the company and it's distribution centers. Customers and, in fact, even Toyota dealerships do not have any direct order program. The delivery policy is all based on market predictions for a given geographic area. Typically, a customer can go into their local dealership and request a specific package. The dealer will then go into the inventory and try to find it for you. In most cases, that works acceptably well. However, the popularity of the 2004 Prius generated an abundance of requests that simply exceeded the demand for all geographic areas. The result, as we all now know, is that the cars showing up as part of the predetermined delivery schedule are not arriving in the order that we requested them. Secondly, there is no other dealer available to trade for a customer's specific request - they are all swamped with requests that can't be met right away. Toyota has for the first time increased production to 47K copies from 35K. This was a significant step for Toyota, and I for one, applaud this effort.

All I can say is to find a dealership and salesperson, like Toyota of Fort Worth, that explains the process to you, so you feel informed and wait for the most significant instrument of change the automotive industry has experienced since it's beginning... PATIENCE IS REQUIRED, BUT BUY THIS CAR!!! It truly is the driving force of the future of the automotive industry, in my humble opinion...