I'm about to plunk down my $500 deposit! Woo hoo!<br><br>I have one question, though. Has anyone out there been able to bargain successfully for a Prius? One of the dealers I've been to said "no haggle", while another dodged the question when I asked if they were willing to bargain. Does anyone have any experiences they're willing to share?<br><br>I know that Toyota supposedly sells Prius at a loss and all, but if I can save some money, I'd like to! :-)<br><br>Thanks in advance!

The dealer considered mine used with 3,400 miles on it. The owner of the dealership had driven it for while. I didn't haggle any but got it for 18500 plus a free bra for the nose. I should have tried to get a free CD plus the bra. I love the car. It is a Super White.

&gt; tlee650 asked:<br>&gt; Has anyone out there been able to bargain successfully for a Prius? <br><br>I've been a member of both the yahoo and egroups sites since July and have read all of the posts. No one has ever posted that they were able to order a Prius for less than the MSRP. (One member did fess-up that he paid a few thousand over, however.) The best that you might be able to do is to get something (floor mats, window etching, etc) thrown in for free.<br><br>After 90 days the dealers can sell their demonstration (TRAC) units and will usually discount them by 10 - 15 cents per mile. So if you really need to save some money, try calling all of the dealers in your area to see if they have a TRAC unit for sale.<br><br>Chuck G

Chuck G-<br><br>I negotiated a TRAC car at a Long Beach dealer with 1100 miles on it for $500 under MSRP. CD player discounted and floor mats thrown-in the deal for free...But, decided to wait two weeks and pick-up my ordered new one instead, which I got for $150 UNDER MSRP by using the Toyota class-action discount coupon. FYI.<br><br>-Michael

Chuck:<br><br>Edmunds now uses CERTIFICATE CLEARING CORP outta Chicago...<br><br>www.certificateclearing.com<br>or <br>800-505-3455 <br><br>Coupons good until end of 2002. Dealer MUST accept them. (Only exceptions are on a specifically advertised vehicle or the purchase of a fleet car.) I made the mistake of DISCUSSING the coupon with the dealer BEFORE the final purchase. They refused to accept it and threatened to sell my ordered Prius to someone else! I ended up getting PO'd, calling both national Toyota customer service and the plaintiff's lawyer in San Francisco, after which, the dealer promptly apologized and deducted the coupon from the price. So technically, you CAN purchase a new Prius for UNDER MSRP! <br><br>Good luck.<br><br>-Michael <br><br>p.s. If you happen to lease your vehicle thru WORLD OMNI FINANCE CORP, contact CCC about ANOTHER discount coupon! FYI.

Toyota STRONGLY encourages their dealers to sell Prius at exactly MSRP. But they can't easily force them to. Still, a dealer who wants to continue selling Prius will probably stick with MSRP if you press the issue. Since the car is in huge demand and dealers do not have Prius just sitting on the lots, it's unlikely you can get below MSRP. The exception is that dealers who ordered Prius for their rental fleet (called a TRAC Prius) can sell them after 90 (60?) days. So your best bet is to call all the dealers in your area and enquire if they have any TRAC Prius nearing the date they can be sold. They might be willing to bargain down on the price if they don't think they're in a hot Prius market. Some people have reported travelling almost halfway across the country to do this!<br><br>Robert Snyder<br>NJ-PIKACHU

Robert:<br><br>Yes, MSRP is the Prius game. However, no Toyota dealer can refuse the Toyota class-action coupon on the purchase of a new Prius, thusly making the purchase of the car UNDER MSRP by $150. (This is mandated by a settled lawsuit with Toyota Motor Corporation. Spoke to the plaintiff's lawyer in San Francisco who was AMAZED that my local dealer had refused the coupon. He simply told me to remind Frontier Toyota in Valencia, CA, that it would cost in fines and attorney's fees about $35,000+ to litigate their non-compliance in court. Needless to say, they took the coupon.

I went to their website and purchased a coupon via my credit card. After waiting about 10 working days, I was notified by them that there were no coupons available in my area, (No. CA). I did review my online credit card statement and the company didn't charge my card. So I was out nada. I did ask the question to my dealer if they would honor the coupon when I picked up my super white prius and they responded positivily "yes". So the long and the short of things were: Availability of Coupon seems to be related to geographic area and my dealer would have accepted it if I had one.<br>And the company seems to be straight up by not charging my card prior to sending the coupon.<br><br>hope this helps. <br><br>Don S.

Trac cars with 10,000 down to 10 miles on cars.com and autotrader.com and are priced accordingly.<br>Don

why does it cost $49.95 to get $150 off the price??? just curious...

What is the deal with the class action coupon? Is this only available if you bought a Toyota during a certain period? Can anyone get one? If so, where? Thanks.

Just got my Silver Prius (named "SPARKY") March 26. Ordered early February - expected in July/August. Dealer called offering me a new Prius that someone else had ordered 6 mo prior and now had backed out.<br><br>I found that the dealer was reluctant to negotiate primarily because the volume of sales on the Prius is so low that it appears it's more of a headache to them than anything.<br><br>I found a statement on the Toyota website regarding a $298/mo lease offered only through Toyota. I had a finance guy check out the numbers for me and it was certainly a better deal for me than buying - plus I'm not taking on the risk of what happens with Toyota's devotion to this vehicle 3 years down the road.<br><br>Lease specifics were:<br><br>$1898 cap-cost reduction.<br>+ First Payment and $350 refundable security<br>$304/mo (my options increased payment by $6.00/mo) + sales tax on each payment (mine was 7%) total lease payment = $325<br>36 month lease<br>45K miles allowed - $.15/mile for overage.<br>Residual value: $10997<br><br>Zero lease return fee or purchase option fee.<br><br>I'm open to buying the vehicle if all works well, but I compared with purchasing (financing) outright.<br><br>$21150 (MSRP of car + options)<br>$ 300 (Dealer mark-up disguised as "admin fee"<br>$ 1501 (Sales Tax 7%)<br><br>$22951 Total<br><br>I compared difference financing scenarios and down payment amounts, but the lease was very attractive. This was the first Prius lease that the dealer had done and there were some toyota guidelines specific to the Prius lease that the dealer had to have faxed to them. <br><br>I have no idea whether I got a "good" deal. This is the first car that I've ever "paid" MSRP - ouch! But I'm extremely happy with the deal and I guess that's what counts.