I bought my car with a auto buying website and found that the dealer who was in a more remote area....not in a hub of towns around me sold me the car for $200 over dealer cost.....way under MSRP.

I only had to drive one hour away to reach the dealership. The dealership was near a freeway but surrounded by pasture land and desolation...lol.

The dealers near me were all "You won't get it for less......its a hot car....blah,blah,blah"

 

I typed (your state) toyota dealers into google to find the dealers in your state.

Ask for the internet salesman. If they don't have one, then ask for the toyota managers name and deal with him.

If you call out of town ask the person that answers if they have a toll free number.

Watch out for the heavy advertisers. Many bait a customer and end up charging you the regular prices. I did have to pay a advertising fee above our agreed price. I found that may be routine with the toyota dealers.

Best to find your invoice price first using http://www.edmunds.com/
http://www.kbb.com/ or http://www.caranddriver.com/

 

I just priced a Prius and a TCH through the Costco auto program, the dealer told me $100 under sticker.

 

If you want it cheaper, you either wait until gas prices drop significantly (assuming they will, which is not necessarily going to be the case), or bite the bullet and get it. (If your really want the car.)

I agree the "premium" can a pain, and it varies. Some dealers have it, others do not. You may want to consider a market where they sell a lot of them, so prices are lower as they need to (or are used to) moving a lot of cars (ex. SoCal or Norcal).

I go mine earlier int he year...gas was pretty high, but cars in general were not moving as much ("recession" and all that talk). I got a fair price for mine (28K, fully loaded). If it was 5K more, I likely would not buy it and gone with a different vehicle. (At that point, why not get an Acura?, if I am committed to paying more for fuel).

As was said, the math needs to work for you. I'm saving around $1500 in fuel each year from my old car, you number may be different. But you have to compare the cost of the TC to what you would pay for a fully loaded Camry (non-hybird, but with all the same options).

TCH sticker, loaded is ~$31.4
Camry XLE V6 sticker, loaded is ~$31.9
Camry SE V6 sticker, loaded is ~$31.9

The V4 is a few grand cheaper, but does not have all the same options you get with the TCH. You can debate whether these are worth it.

Obviously, you can haggle more on the prices of gas-only vehicles, so you may get a better deal. When I was shopping around, the differential on OTD price was not dramatic (maybe 1K, not big enough to make me not choose the TCH).

The key thing is that if you pay up front, it's a sunk cost; the miles you drive is variable, so if you end up driving more miles, the breakeven is earlier (and vice-versa).

 

Sky Blue - do you mind sharing which buying club you used? I have used and directed friends to use carsdirect.com in the past. These were all non-hybrid purchases, resulted in either driving 100 miles or the local dealer coming to their senses. I haven't tried Sams club and Costco isn't in my area. I was just curious how the auto buying clubs are for hybrids.

 

I would second the idea of edmunds.com. At the end of the sequence determining your invoice price, they ask if you would like a quote, for which you enter a zip code that forwards your email to 3 dealers. I did this twice with two different Bay Area zip codes [I'm NE of Sacramento] and immediately got great prices. About half of the internet departments realize that Internet shoppers are price comparing [exactly like yellow pages shoppers, if you have any advertising experience] and give you a low price.

Good luck - gas prices are dropping, so maybe the upcharge will fade.....

 

Just wondering...are they delivering cars at those prices?
It's one thing to quote a price and take a deposit.
It's another to actually get the car.
I'm an old fashioned supply and demand capitalist and I feel that car dealers will still end up delivering the car (quicker) to their customers who will pay a higher price.
I could be wrong, usually am, but I think it costs a dealer nothing to respond to a lead and say "sure, $27M....fully loaded!"....but that's not a completed sale.

 

I bought my '08 TCH in February from the email quote option of Edmunds. It went to 5 dealers in the Boston area. I was given a price that was $4.3k below MSRP. Though this was before everyone freaked over $4 gas when it was a mere $3.75 . And also the '09's were just coming out.

Anyway the dealer absolutely held to the price, no arguing, no games just exactly what they told me on the phone. It was unbelievable. Internet is the only way I'll ever buy a new car again.

Don

 

I tried the Costco program initially but the impression I got was that dealers are not bound to it. One went so far as to try to sell me a 2008 Camry, making it look cheaper by factoring in the Costco discount on it but not on the 09 hybrid I wanted!

I ended up using a car buying service and even after paying that fee I got out cheaper than I could have going straight to a dealer.

 

Depending on where you're at, many Carmax franchises also sell new vehicles under their "no haggle" policy. I found their pricing to be pretty aggressive, but I haven't seen how they compare on the hybrids.