The Long Shot worked

2 weeks ago my dealer advised me he did not think my Prius that has been on order for 2.5 months was likely to make it here by Sept 30. That ticked me off. 10 days ago I posted my "long shot" question if anyone knew of any cars available on dealer lots in the West. Thanks to all the suggestions from many PriusChat members, I had secured a car the next day from Mark Miller Toyota in Salt Lake City. They found the color and package I wanted in Provo and swapped for the car. They did a great job on leather installation and the full set of Clear Bra including the recesses behind the handles, and the car was ready to pickup as planned today.

I live in Northern Colorado so the plan was to catch a flight from Denver to Salt Lake, finish out the paperwork, and do the 7 hour drive home, all in one day. It went off flawlessly. Many thanks to 'sl7vk' who picked me up at the Salt Lake airport this morning and drove me over to the dealership. They had the paperwork ready to go. I did a test drive and looked over the car, and in 45 minutes I was out the door headed home

Chuck Hess at Mark Miller Toyota was fantastic to work with. He knew how to do deal such as this over the phone, deal with the out of state tax issue, and made it all go smoothly. The folks in the dealership were also great. Offered the Extended Warranty, but no pushiness, were fine when I said no, and finished things out. If anyone is having a hard time finding a car, I highly recommend giving these guys a call. It was by far the cleanest and simplest dealership experience I have ever had.

I got to put nearly 500 miles on my new toy today, and had a smile on my face the whole time. The first time I stepped out of the car at my first stop, it felt really weird, like I was forgetting something, when I got out of the car without removing the key. I'm guessing lots of folks get this funny feeling.

46.4 MPG across I-80, then 60.6 MPG down HWY 287 at 65 MPH. Just amazing.

As for the discussion in another posting about things you don't like about the Prius. I loved it all as expected. About the only thing that annoyed me was the reflection of the air vent left of the steering wheel in the drivers window making it tougher to see the driver side mirror. Specially when the sun was overhead and really shining on the silver plastic around that vent. Does tinting the side windows help reduce this at all, or is this just the way it is?

Thanks again to all that responded with suggestions of dealers to call. Having one within a one day trip was great. I'm now an excited Prius owner

Joel

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Aug 5 2006, 10:32 PM) [snapback]298536[/snapback]</div>

Godiva has an excellent point here for those seeking to get a car and short circuit the long waits. Even though you are calling around, and therefore it might seem the dealers know they have the upper hand and can charge what they want, it is not true. Dealers can often pull from the same stock in a region or city. They want your business and will still compete for it.

In my case, two dealers were talking to me about the same car. One quoted $2000 over MSRP saying that everyone in the area charges well over MSRP. The other one quoted MSRP. Gee, this debate is easy. Not only on price, but on the ethics of the dealership. The dealer I have my order with does not charge the typical ~$250 "dealer prep" or "document fee" and I did not want to pay it now. I told the dealer I was now working with (over the phone 500 miles away) if he wanted the deal he would need to knock that fee off. Specially since I would not be paying for an airline ticket and gas to get it home. They have to charge the fee so they said, but the reduced the price below MSRP to offset the fee. They wanted the business. They sold a car that they acquired from another dealer's lot instead of that dealer getting the business. It's competitive out there to your benefit, even if it might look like it to us.

Happy hunting ...

Joel