Pittsburgh Prius experience

As with many parts of the country, the Priuses here don't last long at the Pittsburgh Toyota dealerships. We drove an hour away to Greensburg Toyota where they assured us several times that they had two vehicles with package #3. When we got there an hour later, one was a driftwood #6 and it had already been sold and the other was a black #3. Black was our lest preferred color, but then just as we were about to test drive it - oops that was sold too. Wth!

The salesman told us that the black one was going out on a "dealer trade" but that a silver pine #3 would be there tomorrow. What luck! Using an estimate from Miller Toyota in VA, we negotiated to about $600 below their asking price or $200 below MSRP. (I think we could have done better.)

The experience with the finance person and her talk on the value on the extended warranty, almost scared us off. (Everything we read about buying cars said DON'T get the extended warranty.) We were hoping to keep this car for ten years and we started to think that we were NOT going to be able to afford the cost of repairs down the road. After a sleepless night we reevaluated and almost canceled the deal but then decided that the warranty hype should not discount all the hours of research we had done through consumer reports and online.

Anyway, we completed the deal and now have a #3 silver pine. YEAH! Although care of the environment is high on my list of proriorities, I never thought I would ever be able to actually afford a hybrid. Thanks to my parents for the five grand, thanks to USAA for the loan and thanks to Uncle Sam for the tax incentive!