My 2006 will be ready at 10:00 tomorrow!

What a week it's been! I started out my Prius search doing everything wrong and now hopefully am on the right track.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I foolishly put $500 down on a 2006 at a local dealer. The price was to be 'MSRP at time of delivery' and the delivery date was anywhere between 45-180 days. The more I thought about this the more it sounded like a bad deal.

Things got worse when my current machine sold unexpectedly fast. Now I was without a car for 45-180 days. Not good.

A friend of mine at work had a good experience using Edmonds.com so I thought I had nothing to lose (well, maybe $500) by giving that a shot. I entered my 'dream car' stats and hit 'enter'.

Boy, did the dealer email responses come in fast! Some wanted me to get on *their* list (no thanks) but two others mentioned cars that were on their lots. One was a silver #4 that got sold as we were talking it over. He then claimed to have another inbound on 1/4-1/11 but I was gunshy about waiting lists at this point.

The second dealer said that he had two unspoken cars - both black in color. One had *no* options and the other had #8.

The no-option car kinda intrigued me as I didn't think they shipped any. The only piece of the #4 package that I really wanted was the side airbags, and I kinda wish this car had them but the more I thought about it the more I figured it might be something I could live without (perhaps a bad choice of words... :blink: ).

So I went to see the car, fully expecting to hate the black color. But...I loved it! It looked like a stealth fighter. I know it will be a pain to keep clean but my Jetta was Navy Blue as well and I learned to live with it. And the price ($22,491 - floor mats were included) was *really* appealing. So, I said 'let's do it'.

I also found out that this dealership is selling the extended warranty for 7/100,000 $985, a price I just couldn't resist either. But that's it - I'm not getting anything else the Finance guy tries to pitch my way. They got me to take the Extended Warranty and MSRP on the car; they should be satisfied.

So I have a date with destiny tomorrow at 10:00. I'm currently wearing out my inkjet cartridges printing out all the 'Prius Pick-up' information so I can arrive there fully prepared.

Once the deal is done I will move on to the next challenge - getting my $500 deposit back from the other dealer. My current dealer looked over my contract and said that the 'not refundable' verbiage is probably illegal and that they had never held the deposit on a customer who did not buy a car. We'll see how this goes with Your Humble Narrator.

 

That other car had Bisque leather. Looked nice!

Happy New Year!

Jim

 

I'm sending you a message with the contact info.

Good luck!

Jim

 

Well, I plan on visiting the dealer tomorrow to ask for my deposit back. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

But for today the good news is that I got my Prius! Here's how it went:

My wife dropped my daughter and I off at the dealership at almost exactly 10AM. My salesman Jason was already there and went out and brought the car to the front of the dealership. He handed me the 'key' fob and told me to look it over.

Now, the weather today was terrible in the Hillsboro Oregon area. Wind, rain and lots of clouds. So the car was wet and didn't have that 'new car shine' factor. But Katie and I were undeterred and we started our inspection.

The first thing I saw was a new sticker next to the factory sticker. It listed a 'dealer markup' of about $1,300. It definitely was not there yesterday and I thought "okay, here we go...".

But everything else looked good. I went over my PriusChat checklist and found that almost everything was cool (the tire pressures were uniformly 30psi, but if that was the worst of it I would be delighted). I was having trouble concentrating as my daughter was going beserk over all the gizmos on the car. As a frequent passenger in the back of my Jetta, she was totally overjoyed over the leg room in the Prius. She also loved all the cupholders and the CD storage area. The car was definitely a hit with her.

Satisfied that the car was okay, I went back into the dealership. The first thing I said to the Jason was "We're ignoring that dealer markup sticker, right?". He said 'Absolutely' and that was the end of it. I filled out a credit application and gave him some insurance info and it was time to go see the Finance guy.

Only he was late. So we sat around and waited for him to show. Katie and I went back out to the car and programmed the radio and checked out all the toys. In about 30 minutes Jason came out and said Mr. Finance had arrived so in we went to the Inner Sanctum.

I was determined to get the base car and nothing else but the Extended Warranty. Jason said they were selling it for $980 and that sounded too good to be true. Turns out, it was - that price was for a 6 year 75,000 mile version with a $50 deductible. I asked what the price was for a 7 year, 100,000 mile no deductible warranty and he quoted a price in excess of $1,400. Sorry, but no sale. Knowing that I had 3 years/36,000 miles to add an Extended I opted out. So the final paperword was for the base car at MSRP and $186 worth of mats. No hard sell, no pressure. By far this was my best car buying experience, and I've bought about 6 new cars so far.

Driving home was an experience. I like to sit back and take things slowly when confronted with a new machine. My 10-year-old daughter on the other hand was talking a mile a minute, asking questions and touching *everything*. Between the MFD, a new car and her, I can honestly say I was a bit distracted.

So imagine the jolt of adrenalin when I saw the car in front of us nail its brakes and come to a halt (a tree branch had come loose in the wind and was half blocking the two-lane side street we were on). I hit the brakes, hard. The ABS kicked in. The car behind me grew in the rearwiew mirror. This can't be happening, I thought...

We stopped, well short of the car ahead. The car behind us stopped as well. Slowly, gingerly I manuevered around the branch in the road. So much for the brake break-in period!

We finally made it to Hwy 26 and got a taste of freeway speeds. I quickly decided that this was not optimal conditions - the wind was knocking us all over and not doing much for our gas mileage, either. I can see that I might want to try that BT stiffener plate mod that I read about here.

Once home I took the missus for a ride and she loved the car as well. I spent the remainder of the day reading the owners manual, learning the systems and washing and waxing the exterior. So far, I love the car.

More later,

Jim

 

Thanks for the kind words. I as much as said what you mentioned about financing an extended warranty to the finance guy and I could tell he didn't care for my views on auto financing. Most of these guys have a 'only the monthy payment matters' view of things.

A lot of posters mention getting extensive overviews of the Hybrid systems, MFD, etc. after a sale. Not so in my case. Jason said that he 'used to try to keep up on the Prius systems' but has now basically given up as all the customers he meets already know the car far better than he. I think that was a nod to places like this and suggests the power of free information. You should have seen his face when he saw me going through the pre-delivery checklist; I don't think he felt we should be privy to that information.

Now I have to find a good price on some all-weather mats. My $186 wonders are already showing signs of wear. I don't think they were designed for monsoon season in the Pacific northwest.

One last plug - read the owners manual! I did last night and found out about interesting things like the low tire pressure warning system. Is that neat or what? I actually ran out to the garage to reset it.

And speaking of tire pressure: 35/33 or 42/40?

 

I feel the same way about my Jetta. She was an honest, hard-working car who did her best to keep me safe (let's just say that I believe in ABS systems). I try not to personalize inanimate objects but it's hard sometimes.

As for gas prices, I think the sub-$2.00 prices we're seeing won't last. I can't fathom why anyone would buy a SUV at this point in time.

 

Well, I got my deposit money back!

After several unanswered calls to my salesman's cell, I got in the car and drove over to the dealership. Couldn't find my guy so I asked to see the person in charge of refunds. Signed a release form and got the money credited back to my card. No fuss, no muss, no questions.

I am relieved and very happy.

Jim

 

Thanks for the advice - I've inflated the tires to 38/36 and feel that the ride is just fine. I may try 40/38 in a day or so.

And it might just be that I'm getting better a 'pulse and glide' techniques, but my MPG average is on the rise.

Jim