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2004-2009 Toyota Prius Prices Paid and Buying Experience
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I've never leased a car before, but have been offered a package #6 Prius, the darker grey, for MSRP of $28,300. With taxes etc in California it is around $31,000.
This car has been found thru car broker in LA at car dealership in Sacramento, so I'd probably pay a delivery fee of $375.
I have a credit rating of 841.
The lease involves:
putting $1000 down
36 months
15,000 miles
$538/month
residual: $14,900.
In contrast,
purchase would be
$3000 down
60 month loan thru Toyota at 6.29% (seems high)
$550/month.
Any advice from you knowledgeable folks? Need it soon. Thanks,
Katherine
THE WARRANTYS IN THE SOUTH EAST REGION DONE BY FIDELITY ARE BACKED BY SOUTH EAST TOYOTA AND ARE JUST AS RELIABLE AS FORD OR ANY MANUFACTURER
SO LETS GET THE FACTS BEFORE WE POST
As someone who always had leather seats I love the cloth interior of these. if you can save $ I highly recommend it, esp as I didn't have to burn my a** during this last heatwave..
Factoring in your down/delivery that is about 575 a month total which if it includes taxes is probably par for the course these days. However I am sensing a backlash against the dealers who have been marking up the prices and claiming there's a 3 month waitlist....I get 3 calls a day about one that "just happened to come in".
Good luck - I'm stoked with mine!
Package 2
$22,900
3 year lease with 12,000 miles
Nothing down except drive off of first month's payment and license (I think it came to a total of $646.)
Residual -- $13,900
Total monthly payment including taxes $419. They really stuck it to me on the money factor -- I think it was .00323. My FICO is 844. Two weeks earlier, I could have gotten it for $379.
SoCal is using "scare tactic" of "running out of cars, better hurry up because Toyota has stopped production, some dealers are charging $5,000 premiums, etc." Plus, they are taking #2s and tricking them out and then charging $28,000+ for them. Don't fall for it. If you don't bite, they'll call you back in a couple of weeks with, "I just got a car in . . . "
Good luck. I love my car.
Curious -- What are you paying the broker?
It will be delivered to my driveway. So the decision I have to make in the next couple of days is whether to buy or lease.
Thanks for all your good info. I feel more comfortable with the lease decision I think.
Katherine
OK, facts.
CAPS IS SHOUTING.
Not everyone lives in FLA.
Auto manufacturers will not necessarily honor extended warranties issued by third parties. That means you may have your new car fixed by non dealers. If it is fixed wrong and it causes other damage, the dealer won't fix it under warranty. Check with your dealer about their policies BEFORE you buy.
A manufacturer warranty will be honored by the dealer, backed by the people who made the vehicle, and repaired by the people who know the most about the vehicle - using factory parts.
One additional fact I'd like to know: Do you work with selling or servicing 3rd party auto warranties?
Last fact: I do not sell extended warranties of any kind, though I have bought several - all from the manufacturer. Honda in my case.
People reading this thread probably don't have good opinions about Ford.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=117522
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5JF_X5UDTw
However, some of the points didn't make sense.
You would not be taking your NEW car to a non dealer anyway because that's what the new car factory warranty is for.
Of course one place is not going to fix damage caused by someone else for free.
If the first place caused damage, they are responsible for the damage and will have to fix it or pay to have it fixed.
But since they Prius is so reliable, it makes even less sense to consider an ExtraCost service contract from Toyota or anyone else than the typical average car.
I really think that Pirus started out to be a very good car with good MPG and alternately, save people money. But when greedy dealers up-charge outrageously like this, you are really just paying for all that gas money up front WITH INTEREST (when you get a car loan)!
Needless to say, we didn't get the Prius. And I really can't justify getting a Pirus for $38,000 (package 5)! We also test drove the Sicon XD...drive ok with decent MPG. You can get 2 of those for 1 Pirus.
Of course they are not going to get $7500 over MSRP, they just ask a super high price up front so you feel like you negotiated a great discount if you pay $2500 over.
Obviously, if you think about the price you're paying after markups, you will realize that you would be negating the gas savings and other vehicles would make more sense..
Bought my '08 Prius Touring Pkg 6 last night (Riverside County, CA)...paid sticker $28604. The dealership was not doing any dealing and not asking for $3k-$4k mark-ups like the 3 other dealerships I contacted. I felt I got a fair deal and skipped the extended warranty and additional fluff. Can't wait to start enjoying the better MPG.
You would not be taking your NEW car to a non dealer anyway because that's what the new car factory warranty is for.
Of course one place is not going to fix damage caused by someone else for free.
If the first place caused damage, they are responsible for the damage and will have to fix it or pay to have it fixed. "
Well, I was replying to a different post, but here goes.
The whole point of EXTENDED warranties is that it applies AFTER the normal warranty. With a Toyota extended warranty, the service is done at the dealer. That was my point.
The second item was that if an "outside" shop fixes a problem wrong and it causes a different error, then the dealer may not fix it. For example, most cars have a 50K or more warranty on the transmission. The Prius has the 10/150K warranty. Yes, if it can be demonstrated definitely that the "outside" shop caused the damage, they have to fix it. However, the Toyota dealer may be the only ones that know for sure that a problem was related to a prior fix. If the "outside" shop denies they are related, you are stuck between, forced to take the "outside" shop to court.
That whole process is messed up compared to getting a manufacturer extended warranty.
But in any case a 3rd party extended warranty is inadvisable for the Prius (or any Hybrid) for the simple reason that the HSD is so complex that only the Toyota dealer should touch it.
from Consumer Reports:
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/buying-advice/most-fuelefficien- t-cars-206/index.htm
Fuel Economy
Rank Make & Model CR Overall MPG City MPG Highway MPG 150-mile trip MPG
1 Toyota Prius Base 44 35 50 48
2 Toyota Prius Touring 42 34 47 48
3 Honda Civic Hybrid 37 26 47 45
4 Toyota Camry Hybrid 34 28 41 37
5 Toyota Yaris Base (manual) 34 26 42 41
6 Honda Fit Sport (manual) 34 26 39 40
7 Toyota Yaris Base 33 23 44 40
8 Nissan Altima Hybrid 32 27 36 35
9 Toyota Corolla LE 32 23 40 39
10 Honda Fit Base 32 22 43 38
11 Honda Civic EX (manual) 31 22 40 37
12 Hyundai Accent GS (manual) 30 23 36 35
13 Kia Rio5 SX (manual) 30 23 36 35
14 Mini Cooper S (manual) 30 22 38 36
15 Mazda3 i (manual) 30 21 42 36
All have Overall MPG of 30 or higher
Toyota Prius Touring: First Drive
The high-end Touring version of Toyota's Prius has wider wheels and tires and a tighter suspension than the car's base version. Online subscribers have often asked whether to opt for the Touring Prius, so we put it to the test. Our Touring car cost $24,803, which is $895 more than a base model.
Along with an option package including electronic stability control, this Touring Prius did have better handling and braking than a previously tested base model. It got through our avoidance maneuver 3 mph faster, which puts it on a par with some of the better-performing family sedans. It also stopped about 10 feet shorter from 60 mph. The main performance drawback is lower mpg: 42 vs. 44.
CR's take. Mileage for the Touring Prius is still much better than that for any other five-passenger car we've tested, and the edge in performance could give drivers an extra margin of safety. We think that's worth the extra money.
Compare Prius vs. Yaris. At $4 per gallon and 12,000 miles per year, you are saving $550 in gas money TOTAL. Assuming you are going to only keep the car for 5 years, a 60 month bank loan for a $26,000 Prius would be $502.65 a month.
And a $14,000 Yaris would be $270.66 per month. So in 3 months you have already spent more on car payments than you actually saved on gas money. Now multiply that by the whole 60 months = $13,919.40 difference in car payments made. Subtract the yearly $550 gas savings = $11,169.40. You have paid over 11 GRAND to "SAVE GAS MONEY." I don't get it.
Some guy in this forum said "Well what if gas is $20 per gallon. It could happen." THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE. If gas were $20 per gallon our economy would be destroyed so fast it wouldn't matter what kind of car you drove. The trucking industry would crumble, meaning every consumer product that is trucked would cost 5 or more times as much. There would be zero gas powered mass transit, no buses or planes or taxis. It would be the Great Depression Part II. With $20 per gallon gas you could probably trade your $26,000 Prius for a newspaper or some already chewed bubble gum if you were lucky.
All we can hope for in the near future is to build more nuclear power plants to give us electricity that doesn't rely on fossil fuels to power electric vehicles and even before that, pray that the oil companies start drilling oil on the U.S. public lands they already have a green light to drill on and pray they get green lights to drill in areas they don't already have permission because a squirrel might be inconvenienced.
Any way to lessen our dependence on foreign oil, I'm for it 100% but I'm not going to spend an extra $186 a month to do so. I'm going to stick to a $14,000 car or wait for the little "minis" to come out later this year or next year.
The Yaris will still be cheaper, but it isn't a comparable car. The Prius is a more substantial car with more space and many more features than just the hybrid battery.
If they make something a Yaris hybrid in a few years, then that will be something to compare it to.
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Share your vehicle reviews
If a three year old Prius is selling for near what a new one goes for, shouldn't the lease cost next to nothing? Yet people are paying upwards of $300/mo! Makes no sense.
Can you share where you bought your Prius? I am in the market. Thanks so much!
smokemirrors
I wouldn't pay over MSRP no matter how popular the car is now. There ARE also dealers who will still sell for MSRP or less in this market; so what if you have to wait. You may not have much of a choice if you are in Hawaii.
The dealers who gouge buyers based on "market adjustments" are entitled do so in a a free market economy but they permanently go on my personal sh*t list, and I will never buy from them.
Any savings in gasoline or personal satisfaction you might derive with the car are more than offset by the price premium, IMHO.
In CA, with sales tax of 7.75%, title, etc. it costs about $31,000 or so OTD.
As to the idea of paying a premium, I don't like it but it MAY be worth it as currently the next best cars to my thinking, Yaris and Fit, burn about 90 gallons more gasoline per 12,000 miles. Hard to project the resale market three-five years from now as to gasoline prices and the much wider choices in fuel-efficient cars. Yaris and Fit may seem like SUVs by then. I would think that the 42-44mpg Prius would tend to hold its value better than the 32-34mpg Yaris or Fit. My 30 mpg 02Civic only lost about $1,000 per year.
Why don't you investigate buying one in another state, and shipping it to FLA? We have lots of them here in LA.
wait, could have gotten it sooner but we were picky on the paint Sliver Pine
Impossible? Four years ago, the prospect of fuel going to $5 per gallon was described as "Inconceivable". The draconian consequence of $20 gas has no connection with the liklihood of it occuring. If we started pedal to the metal today, it will still take between 10-15 years to fully engage an alternative energy source for vehicles. While $20 gas is not a slam dunk, the failure to acknowledge this distinct possibility is a full fledged flight from reality.
Both situations are just as sleazy.
but
a dealer can charge what they want for their product and the consumer has the right to pay or not pay. The reason some dealers charge a "premium" for a Prius is because there are buyers that will pay for the immediate gratification. If you disagree with a business's practice the best thing to do is avoid them but there isnt any reason to call them scum, thieves etc. because they do not do what you would like them to do.
I always wonder what the people that complain would do if they had a Prius and they sold it on ebay. Would they stop the bidding when it reached Edmunds TMV or would they take whatever price someone offered even if they knew it was more then the car was worth.
Well of course these dealers can do what they WANT to; it's a free country. Just like I and others are free to say these dealers ARE scum and I, for one, will never do business with them.
However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the dealers asking for $5K/$10K/etc. over MSRP. Nobody is forcing you to buy a Prius. There are plenty of other cars available. When the dealers cannot sell the cars for what they're asking, prices will come down. Simple supply and demand.
At the end of the day, I was happy to pay the $2K to get my car now versus in 5-6 months.
I am thrilled that it is finally in but I can tell it will take some time to get comfortable. Another short-coming is the comfort of the drivers seat. I would like them to put a bit more attention into this on the top models for 2010. 50 miles per gallon, less oil from the Middle East...all the car companies need to take note that this is the new standard. Next challnge... AWD prius.
AWD will kill the fuel economy. There are oh so many reasons AWD won't work in a great gas mileage car. Parasitic loss, weight, drag. The Prius *might* get 35mpg if it was AWD. That in itself would be something but unlikely to happen. They'll probably make a hybrid SUV in the Prius line and sell that.