When did you purchase it?
I think the point of this conversation is that the market has changed, significantly, over the last few months as the price of fuel has increased demand for these cars.
If your experience was from 6 months ago, or longer, that is one thing.
If you purchased it recently, that's another.
Thanks!

 

This brings back memories of when I lived in Dallas. My wife and I was in the market for a new Honda Accord. We walked in the dealership and looked at one. We asked the salesman how much. They wanted $1000 above the sticker price. I said no way and walked out. We started looking at Toyota's. My wife liked the Corolla's so we purchased one at a fair price.

She drove that car for about 40K miles and sold it car for near what we bought it for. It was a '77 model with a 5-speed manual shift. It's amazing the refinement that toyota has been able to do over the years to the Corolla and especially the engine.

 

Wasn't too long ago, end of May.
Full efficient cars are in demand, and the dealers would make you believe that they have the only one for sale in a 100 mile radius. It was a bit tough getting the car I wanted, and 'settled' for a 2008, (less money too).
Same car different year, all the options I wanted, no more no less.
I didn't get any special financing, rebates etc, but I still did purchase it under MSRP.

 

Yea, Honda (and others) will do that; they wanted sticker plus markup on a new model. It was ridiculous. After basically putting 8 dealers in play, (I will buy the car today, cashier check in hand, please give best offer in 10 minutes), I left with the car for invoice plus a couple hundred.

That was before car shopping on the internet took off. Now it just some emails and phone calls.

 

Thanks for the insight! I just went to this site to check it out. My car hasnt arrived as of yet. So when I used this site, and put in what I added to my car, if the dealer price that was given to me is less then what this site says, then its a good deal?

 

There is no doubt that demand is up, but the limited supply seems to be company driven.

A look at Toyota's sales numbers for the YTD sales (Jan-July), reveals an interesting trend. The Prius sales are down 4.5% for 2008 (106,225) versus 2007 (110,565). The Camry isn't broken out for hybrid but YTD is down 0.6% and Corolla is down 1.5%. The Yaris is up 33.4% but Toyota sells more Camrys and Corollas in a month than Yaris(es) in 7 months . Toyota also reports TMS (Toyo, Lex & Sci') Hybrid sales and they are down 2.4% YTD for 2008 (165,522) over 2007 (169,659).

 

The reduction in supply is definitely not intentional. Toyota is hurting from a major decline in US sales for all cars. I am sure they would like nothing more than to be able to churn out enough hybrids to meet the extraordinary demand. Maybe then their stock wouldn't be tanking. However, there are real problems with battery supply and this is whats holding up production of hybrids.

 

I think the various techniques suggested will help in receiving the lowest possible price. At the same time, I acknowledge your point that the lowest price achievable may have changed.

Regards.

 

Agreeing with the others who have posted here to the effect that to get the lowest proce, you have to by something when it's not popular,..........

I'm imagining that if Warren Buffet were in the market for a Toyota this year, he probably would have bought a Tundra about a month ago planning to hold it until the price of gas goes way back down, then sell it for more than he paid and buy a hybrid at a discount.

I guess that if we could all be as smart and disciplined as Warren, we'd all be rich.

 

Well yes, you can now get a relatively good deal on a Tundra, but that was only because gas guzzling SUVs were overpriced because they were "in style." You can now get an SUV for thousands less than it would have cost you last year, but this does not mean it will be worth more in a year or two. Gas might go down, then again it might not. Either way, once the SUV fad has passed, it might not come back for a very long time. The new fad might very well be small and fuel efficient cars. Just look at the success of the Mini Cooper, the Smart for-two and the hybrid cars we are discussing here right now.

In fact, hybrid cars might be more than they were last year, but now that fuel efficiency and environmentalism is in style, the price of hybrid cars might just continue to climb over the next few years. Especially since we are again in an inflationary cycle.

Even though hybrid cars like the Camry Hybrid have seen a dramatic increase in negotiated prices from last year to this year, there is good reason to believe that Toyota will respond by inflating the MSRP again and again over the next few years. I saw the same thing happen after I bought my second-generation Rav4 in 2002. It was a hot car when I bought it and Toyota continued to increase the price ever since. I got my Rav4 for $19k but a similar Rav4 today would run you $25k.