Heh, reminds me of the only Prius I looked at to buy back in April. I like the Prius, don't get me wrong. Like it a lot; but not 8 months worth, and that's what the largest Toyota dealer in Jax quoted for a slot on the Prius II wait list. He also said when it came in, they call the top 5 people at the head of the list, offer them a price, and if they say "no thanks," their name is dropped, b/c they know it's a sure sale to someone out there. Oh but I digress. That's a Prius II. The reason, well, one of them, I didn't buy the car I sat in that week was because it was a Prius I with 14k miles, and dude was asking more for it than my dealer was for any one of the 30 HCHs he had on his lot. I don't fault him, S&D is what it is, but jesus...

 

Michael, you wrote S&D.

Sounds more like S&M.

 

Disclaimer: I do *not* work for this site, but...

Try http://www.carsdirect.com

I punched in some numbers in got some pretty good discounts.

Then just take the quote you get on the site to your local dealer and see if they can match.

I knew someone who did this for his 2004 HCH. Fools around him were paying 25K BASE for theirs! He said to the dealer "Don't worry.. I won't tell them I got it cheaper".

 

you guys are lucky you live on the mainland, here in hawaii every single dealership (with the exception of mercedes-benz i believe) has a dealer markup of at least $2,500.00 on every single car, some markups i've seen are as high as $5,000.00 over MSRP. many dealers here refuse to sell the car at even MSRP, they only sell between MSRP and their marked up price. i would be embarassed to tell you guys what i finally ended up payin for my HCH after going through 3 different dealerships, but i did finally talk them to below MSRP, but not by much

 

That kind of overpricing takes the wind out of the sails of the "tax break" next year for hybrids, that is if it doesn't include the NAV option.

I would gladly pay $24 large for an 06 if it came with NAV.

 

What dealer did you e-mail here in the DC area. Some are pretty shady....

 

I believe that there is a large run on hybrids right now due to gas prices and availability. I have the feeling that getting a hybrid for MSRP will be a difficult thing to do until production volumes increase significantly. Even the used hybrids are selling for high blue book now, and they're getting a lot harder to find now over a month or so ago.

Shawn

 

Challenger1,

Not sure if I should name names here but the dealership is in Fredricksburg (that narrows it down!) ... I figured that they would be more reasonable since they're kind of out in the sticks. I guess I was wrong.

I've also been in contact with the Internet sales guys from a couple of others who appear to be more helpful - they wont venture a guess as to price, but that's probably the right response from a dealer at this point.

 

Here is an email I received from a local Honda Internet Mgr...

This sounds fine with me. Should I even search for a better deal? btw, I don't want to spend days trying to save $500 - $700. What do ya'll think?

 

I think that sounds fine. If the hybrid does come in under $24K with the Navi, I think even MSRP is fair. It's sort of what I am betting on at this point.

However, as you've seen gas prices have started to come down (i.e. short-term memory). In addition, I think a lot of folks will be waiting until Jan 1st to get the tax credit. There may not be as long of a wait (or as big of a line) as people are thinking. Maybe the first week or so, but I am betting November/December might be pretty slow for these guys. Assuming there isn't another gas crunch between now and then.