Feels great to finally own one! The destination was definitely more satisfying than the journey in this case. Here's the (long) story if anyone is interested:

I had given deposits at two dealerships about 3 weeks ago. Cerritos had quoted about 3-4 weeks for delivery, but I did not know at the time that this time frame starts after they place the order, which they only do on the 1st and 15th of each month. After learning this, I started the all too familiar with most people here process of calling every dealership within driving distance to find out if they have a TCH available selling at MSRP with no aftermarket add-ons.

After talking to South Bay Toyota on 6/5, I was told that they have a Mag Gray in their system due to arrive in 1-2 weeks. My wife and I dropped off a deposit that day and the dealer told me to expect a call later in the week for details. As it turns out, I got a call on 6/16 from the dealer that our name did not make the list for the latest allocation and that it may not arrive for another month.

So, I was in limbo from 6/3 to 6/20, but I keep calling dealerships asking if they had Mag Gray in stock. We sold our car on 6/9 in anticipation of replacing it with our new one, but being a one car family until our TCH arrived is going to be inconvenient. It's a good thing that my wife and I work at the same location.

It seemed so hard to get the exact color and options we wanted that we started to consider other colors (Blue Ribbon Metallic, Desert Sand, Barcelona Red, and Jasper Pearl) just so we would have a better chance of getting one. I even briefly entertained the idea of having a dealership make a base model fully loaded (and posted a thread here). The wait was killing me!

During this time, we had visited a couple of dealerships and found that the blue was really starting to grow on me and, more importantly, my wife. We still really liked the Mag Gray because it's a "more grown up" color, but there is something about the Blue Ribbon Metallic that kept making me want it. At that time we decided that either color would be great.

On Tuesday, 6/20, I received an email from Cerritos Toyota stating that they have the Magnetic Gray fully loaded with Nav allocated for me and is due to arrive from Japan in 2-3 weeks. I was relieved that I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, but 2-3 weeks seemed like an eternity.

That night, my wife checked out websites in the Valley (I had been trying to find cars in L.A, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties) and found a fully loaded TCH in the Thousand Oaks Toyota website. She sent an email to them asking if the TCH happened to be blue. We received a reply yesterday morning, 6/22, stating that the TCH they have is blue with ash interior that is fully loaded.

So, I called them up. As expected, the dealer Tina said that they are selling it at $3K above MSRP. I politely said "no" and told her that I have a Mag Gray allocated to me and that is scheduled to arrive in a couple of weeks. She then asked if I would consider buying it for $1500 above. I told her I'd check with my wife, knowing that she'd say no. I called Tina back and said that we decline the offer. A half hour later, I get another message from her stating that if we purchase it today, they'll let it go for MSRP. Bingo!!!

At 12:00, we picked up our son from daycare and drove the 60+ miles on the 405 to 101 (which was not fun, even during this time). By 3:30, the car was ours!

It's an absolutely stunning car, both inside and out! I'll be spending all weekend playing with all the gadgets our new toy has. I already have my Treo 650 paired with the TCH bluetooth.

Ironically, I called South Bay Toyota this morning to ask about getting my deposit back and the dealer there told me that he was just about to dial my number to let me know that my Mag Gray TCH is here to pick up. When it finally rains, it pours!

So, if you're interested in a Mag Gray TCH fully loaded with Nav, there's one available (at least as of this morning). Give Obi-One (562-688-7351) a call to see if it's still available.

Sorry for rambling on, but I thought I'd share.

Jeff

 

Congratulations on your new TCH!

I know the feeling and went through similar ups and downs with a deposit with a dealer (told me maybe August after being on the list a month!) Then finding what I wanted on a lot by luck from calling around (Chula Vista Toyota had 2 TCH and 5 Priuses with no waiting list when I called early last week )

 

Congrats !

We have the exact same cars I got mine fully loaded blue ribbon metallic TCH exactly a week ago. Couldnt be any happier with it.

Enjoy.

 

IMHO, Blue Ribbon is the nicest color. This, from a Super White owner.

Enjoy.

 

Congratulations!

 

Congrats!

 

I ordered the same car also and can't waight for mine. I won't settle for anything else since I have wanted a dark blue metallic car ever since I started "driving" around die-cast matchbox and Hotwheel models through the dirt and over the carpet in the late 60's and early 70's.

Since then I have driven a Red 87 corola hatchback FX-16, a 91 red-pearl truck, a red pearl 97 dodge caravan sport and a metalic green 02 dodge grand caravan sport. In every case, I always settled on the color. These colors were fine and I liked them all. But I was always dreaming of a dark metalic blue.

Time to make a stand since I fully expect the TCH to be as reliable as my past Toyota's. It simply is the best bet and compromise between all the models out there. I fully expect some Lexus drivers to give me some dirty looks when they find out how much I have and how little I paid for it.

 

I am really happy about my Blue Ribbon Metallic TCH. I had always been interested in the blue one, although Metallic Gray was our first choice when we placed an order. It was because of the waiting and having to go to different dealerships and checking out other colors that my wife came on board.
As been noted by others, the Blue is a fun color while the Gray is more sophisticated or "grown up". My wife also thought that the the Blue was too flashy while the Gray blended in (which is my reasoning for wanting the Blue color ). But after getting to see the Gray and Blue side by side though, she said that she can be happy with either one.

Boyd, I'm sure you'll enjoy yours when it comes, and you will have more than Lexus drivers staring at your TCH. Good luck!

 

Blending in is the problem with Silver too...every freakin car is silver, it's so annoying. My old Honda was silver and I hated it. Everyone I know LOVES the color of my TCH. I'm very happy with it. I wouldn't call it dark blue though. Just "Blue"

 

Around these parts it seems 7 out of 10 Honda's are silver (probably 9 out of 10 if you count only Civics and Accords). I refuse to get silver just for this one reason even with Toyota. My neighbor has a silver Civic. My bro-in-law has a silver Civic (which he got when their previous silver Civic was stolen).

Light tan/brown is another color on my "way too popular on Japanese cars, no way I'm gettin' it" list.