Waited 3 months, then got one in 1 week

Back in February I ordered a #9 Prius from a local dealer who told me that because they were the big volume Prius dealer in Chicago my wait would be a relatively short 8 to 12 weeks. Three months have passed and I'm still nowhere near the top of their list.

So last week I followed the advice I've seen on these forums over and over again: I went to the Toyota web site and contacted every small-town dealer within about 300 miles of Chicago. Most of them quoted waits ranging from 6 to 24 months, a couple of them had unclaimed #9s coming in in the next month or so, and two had unclaimed #9s coming in within a week! Yesterday I drove a rental car 330 miles to the north woods of Wisconsin and drove home in my new Super White #9 Prius!

The dealer was delighted with the easy sale (at MSRP) and delightful to work with. They told me frankly that people don't make a lot of money in that town and it's so small that most aren't interested in paying extra for the NAV. So it made little sense for Toyota to send them a fully loaded car that they hadn't requested. And, if Toyota had instead sent that same car to my local dealer, someone far above me on their list would no doubt have claimed it.

The only villain in stories like mine seems to be Toyota's irrational Prius distribution system. And the moral seems to be to understand that and make it work for you.

BTW, I don't think the dealer names are as relevant here as the process. I believe my local dealer was being honest with me, and this small-town dealer probably won't see another unclaimed Prius anytime soon.

- Rick Kulp, White number 9 -- 400 miles (mostly highway), 42.7mpg