Prius 2016 starts selling in Germany on Feb. 20th

PS: so - I was at the dealer Tuesday, now it is Friday and I have seen no offer in my email. Another dealer that I visited the week before the Prius came out and that handed me 2 offers on paper, said he would call me back for a test drive, never heard from him since.
I am wondering: do they really sell Priuses so easily in Munich, or they simply don't want to sell cars because they are so well off??? or simply bad sales guys? I don't see that many Toyota's on the streets of Munich to be honest, and even less Priuses, unless they are Taxis, and even in that case, typically they are Mercedes.....

 

So I have decided to sell my Gen3 and get the Gen4....!
After a not so good experience at one dealer, I spare you the details, which seemed to me it didn't simply not want to sell the car, I have found and got a good offer from another one. He will give me 9000€ for my 2009 Gen3 with 100.000km on it (in line with market prices, I checked myself - the Auris Touring Sports does not help much my chances of getting a better price on it), and sells me the car (paying cash) for 27990€. 255€ is the cost for years 4 and 5 for the extended warranty. I will not finance it since they are at 3-4% interest rate - I am lucky I can pay cash and avoid the extra cost. I plan to keep the car well more than 3-4 years.

Warranty is 3 years/100.000km on everything and 5 years / 100.000 km on the hybrid components battery included.
I am a bit annoyed you still have to do checks / oil changes every 15.000km... and you must do them with Toyota, otherwise the warranty is void.

I will get a dark grey (called here "marlin grau") Comfort (mid-trim) version, with IPA+ICS, and rubber mats and luggage compartment cover. In Germany, talking about "colours" is a bit of joke, since you get 5 shades of grey (white, pearl white, silver and dark grey and black), blue and red. That's it. Wow, how many colours. Dark/marlin grey seems to be a dark graphite almost "black" tone of grey, much darker than the one I have on my Gen3 - it should look really good

The car is so full of features, there is not really much more to add on it. The choice of options is very limited and I actually like that.
It is not uncommon here to get a small booklet with tens of different options and packets when you get a VW... and I hate that.
The overall price is 32325€ (which is 2-3k€ cheaper than a similarly configured Golf) and I get a 4335€ discount (about 13% off the list price).
The final discounted price is very similar to the one I paid for the Gen3 in 2009, but with a lot less features - only difference are winter tires, which I will need to buy again, as I need to have them fit with TPMS sensors (and they are old anyways). That will be another 6-800€, in September/October... Considering the many extra features, the x-rate and inflation rates since 2009, I am glad to see that Toyota is not really ripping off the customers and still offering more or less the same price.

The only other thing that I find utterly nonsense about the trim levels, is that with all the safety features the car is packed with, already at the base level, the rain sensor, in not a super sunny country like Germany, is available exclusively on the Executive trim (the 3rd and last one available). For me the rain sensor is quite a safety feature, as it clears the windshield on rainy days when on the highway somebody preceding you changes lane and comes in front of you (suddenly) and sprays the windshield with water. I am so used on my Gen3 to simply wait and have the sensor take care of that very quickly...it will be really hard at the beginning to get used to the regular "intermittent" wiper function on the Gen4 and pre-empt the spraying by turning the wiper on myself...I really don't understand what is going on at Toyota EU/Germany, offering the rain sensor not even as an option on the Comfort mid-trim level.

I will not get integrated Navigation as I am really happy and extremely well served by my Tomtom with HD traffic. Not to mention it costs a fraction of the price of an integrated solution and it is upgradeable any time with the latest in navigation technology. Or simply with an app on my mobile.

Talking of mobile, the Qi charger is standard on the Comfort level, I wonder if I will ever use it, since I currently own an iPhone and unless Apple decides to offer this standard as wireless charging in the future, it will be left unused by me, or maybe used only from friends.

I wanted to order the car yesterday but the sales guy got sick exactly yesterday and I will not be able to go through with it till coming Monday. Considering that delivery for dark grey with IPA+ICS is not expected until mid-July (yes, you have read right), a couple of days will not make much of a difference.
Because end of March the "Fitness check" on my Gen3 was due, the dealer was really nice to offer it to me for free, since he will get the car in his possession shortly after and I have an extended warranty still on it that would be rendered void if the check were skipped.

As a side note: the PDF Price list on the toyota.de site shows that IPA+ICS is an optional feature in the Comfort trim, but it doesn't list it as something you can order in the options list. Only the parking sensors are listed.
On the website car configurator, it lists it as a possible option for a price of...0€! (the dealer told me it is actually 950€... and he says one can order it as an option).
Moreover, the underside door lights (to illuminate the ground when you enter/exit the car, are shown as an option of the Comfort level (and standard on the executive one) - too bad you cannot order it at all (not even showing up in the dealer's ordering system). Will I get it? let's wait and see this summer when I will get my hands on my Gen4.

PS: I am honestly hoping that delivery times will be a bit shorter....

 

No, as I would have to buy them separately and I have to already buy a new set of winter tires. 3 sets of wheels, not really a good plan

 

I have even made some videos of me driving top speed on the Autobahn with my Gen3. The top speed is kept and reached by the ICE, the electric motor helps a bit, then it simply does not have the torque and power to push the car, the ICE does.
Once you have depleted the battery, and reached top speed, the engine will slowly charge the battery. If you break a bit the speed will charge it quite fast. A full battery at that speed will help a bit, but torque to push the car, say from 150 to 170km/h is mainly from the ICE.
Once I have time I will post the video on the Gen3 forums. I never really had the chance and then simply forgot to do it...

 

PS: the sales guy is still sick! it is so frustrating I cannot even order it!