To bring our recent Prius Crash and Total full circle, here is our experience buying a new 2014. Before going to the dealer, I did some research determining which model and what options were the most important to us. There is a II, III, IV, and V and each one has more on it and costs more.
The Toyota site indicated what options came standard on what model and we liked the price point/options combo of the III the best.
Consumer reports has a "car buying service" which I went through. You don't really buy the car from CR, but you select the model you want and any options. I selected the III and no options, since the III had what we wanted. Part of the process is to submit your contact info and it took less than 5 minutes for North Point Toyota to call. We made an appointment to go in at 5pm this last Tuesday.
I get their expecting to see the car I selected, or something very close, at the CR indicated "Target Price." The salesman starts showing me cars that have all been upscaled. If it's a II, it's got options that a III or IV would have, etc. I tell him I want a standard III and he keeps looking and not finding anything I want.
I start getting mad. Not abusive, shouting mad, but I let the salesman know that I am angry that the dealer is taking away my right to choose. So I say to my wife it's time for us to leave. I'll find the car I want on the internet, I'm sure. The salesman talks me inside and gets his sales manager involved.
I should emphasize that I wasn't feigning my anger, I was genuinely pissed. I wasn't abusive at all, but they knew I was an unhappy customer about to walk.
This is where it gets surprising. I'm expecting the SM to come in with a hard sale and basically tell me to take it or leave it. He's friendly and says, maybe we don't exactly have a vanilla III but what it the car has what you want for the right price? So I write down my price for a II and a III. Blue, grey, and red being our color choices in order of preference.
He comes back with a blue III, a red IV, grey 2013 III (not much diff between 2013 and 2014). All at prices about $500 more than my target price. Since they do have some dealer options that we like, the $500 is ok. The $500 is also OK because the prices are significant drops in their sticker prices. They all have their pluses, but the blue III is our top color choice and has the least added to it. We pick the blue III.
We got their at 5pm and had a deal at 7pm but it was after 9 before we drove away with the Prius.
I forgot to add that after we agreed on the price, we took a test drive, and while driving I thought of two more things I wanted. I wanted the dealer to turn off that damn interior reverse beep and to add door bumpers to all four doors. The SM agreed to do it for the already agreed upon price.
So they dropped a little over $3K off the sticker price. I just compared what we paid for the 2010 Prius II and for the 2014 Prius III. Their was no bargaining for the 2010, we paid their price. For the 2014 III we paid $928 more than the 2010 II and the 2014 III has more features than the 2010 II. I left satisfied.
Of course, I always remind myself that the dealer isn't making a deal he doesn't like.
Still, I got insurance to increase the settlement by $3K and the dealer to drop it's price by $3K. We coulda done worse.
The Toyota site indicated what options came standard on what model and we liked the price point/options combo of the III the best.
Consumer reports has a "car buying service" which I went through. You don't really buy the car from CR, but you select the model you want and any options. I selected the III and no options, since the III had what we wanted. Part of the process is to submit your contact info and it took less than 5 minutes for North Point Toyota to call. We made an appointment to go in at 5pm this last Tuesday.
I get their expecting to see the car I selected, or something very close, at the CR indicated "Target Price." The salesman starts showing me cars that have all been upscaled. If it's a II, it's got options that a III or IV would have, etc. I tell him I want a standard III and he keeps looking and not finding anything I want.
I start getting mad. Not abusive, shouting mad, but I let the salesman know that I am angry that the dealer is taking away my right to choose. So I say to my wife it's time for us to leave. I'll find the car I want on the internet, I'm sure. The salesman talks me inside and gets his sales manager involved.
I should emphasize that I wasn't feigning my anger, I was genuinely pissed. I wasn't abusive at all, but they knew I was an unhappy customer about to walk.
This is where it gets surprising. I'm expecting the SM to come in with a hard sale and basically tell me to take it or leave it. He's friendly and says, maybe we don't exactly have a vanilla III but what it the car has what you want for the right price? So I write down my price for a II and a III. Blue, grey, and red being our color choices in order of preference.
He comes back with a blue III, a red IV, grey 2013 III (not much diff between 2013 and 2014). All at prices about $500 more than my target price. Since they do have some dealer options that we like, the $500 is ok. The $500 is also OK because the prices are significant drops in their sticker prices. They all have their pluses, but the blue III is our top color choice and has the least added to it. We pick the blue III.
We got their at 5pm and had a deal at 7pm but it was after 9 before we drove away with the Prius.
I forgot to add that after we agreed on the price, we took a test drive, and while driving I thought of two more things I wanted. I wanted the dealer to turn off that damn interior reverse beep and to add door bumpers to all four doors. The SM agreed to do it for the already agreed upon price.
So they dropped a little over $3K off the sticker price. I just compared what we paid for the 2010 Prius II and for the 2014 Prius III. Their was no bargaining for the 2010, we paid their price. For the 2014 III we paid $928 more than the 2010 II and the 2014 III has more features than the 2010 II. I left satisfied.
Of course, I always remind myself that the dealer isn't making a deal he doesn't like.
Still, I got insurance to increase the settlement by $3K and the dealer to drop it's price by $3K. We coulda done worse.
I suspect if we had an existing car available for trade, they probably would have tried low-balling us to get back some of the discounts we were getting, but in the end it wasn't necessary. When I have shopped for cars in the past, I always found the most contentious part of the negotiation to be haggling over fair value for a trade. I was grateful not to have to deal with that this time.
