Hi All,
I wanted to post this to see if anyone has had a similar experience. Last summer I got repeated letters from my toyota dealer telling me that they would pay more than the retail value for the Prius I had bought there in 2005. I brought my Prius in and they quoted me a trade in value of 18,000, which was actually lower than they predicted since I have some dents. I ordered a new Prius at that point. Fast forward to this week, my Prius came in so I went to get it.
The story tonight was that used Prius are not in demand anymore now that gas prices are below 2 dollars a gallon. Now they say that they will give me 13,500 for my trade in. The car is in the same condition as it was this summer, with not many more miles on it.
Needless to say, I went home with my original Prius, I did not buy the new car as it was going to cost over 4,000 dollars more than I expected.
Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Kim

 

GREAT JOB! I am proud of you.

Tell them that if used prii are not in demand anymore, than neither are new ones, especially in this economy!

Dealers have been pulling scams like this since the first one went into business.

They expected you to just bend over and pay the extra money, now they can find a new buyer and a new customer...

08feh

 

It is to bad you did not get everything you agreed on in writing. A new Prius would be nice, but I'm sure your old one is OK as well. Maybe they will come around? I am glad you walked as well! H

 

It sounds like a local dealer issue. I was not terribly impressed with my local dealer after I was on the waiting list and they called me one day, "First person with $1,000 gets the Prius."

Sales games are a pain and so unnecessary.

Bob Wilson

 

I don't think they were scamming you. I think the switch in how much they would give you for trade-in was really just a result of the economy tanking. When gas was $4+/gallon our cars were in tremendous demand. I saw a news story about a Prius that was a few years old with a dent in it that auctioned on eBay for more than it's original retail price. In addition to my Prius, I have a Ford Escape Hybrid and I watched the Edmunds.com & Kelly Blue Book (kbb.com) rocket up about $3000 in value.

Now that the economy and the price of gas have plummeted, people are worried about spending. In just a few months the price of used cars has dropped and the value of used hybrids has deflated even faster. It's much easier to get financing on a new car than on a used car. Someone trying to apply for a loan to buy a used hybrid at a price more expensive than a new hybrid (which would have been do-able when gas was over $4/gal) is going to have a tough time getting that loan.

I don't think the dealer scammed you... had you been able to do the whole transaction when gas was expensive I think the dealer would have followed through. The "problem" with the transaction is that the whole reason people were paying above retail for a "used" car was because they can't obtain the "new" car (they obviously would prefer a new one for less money... if only they could get it.) So the fact that you were relying on your car was working against you.

Once the economy comes around (which may be a very long time), gas will likely skyrocket again and hybrids will, once again, be in very heavy demand. You wont be able to profit from it unless (a) you are _very_ good with a crystal ball and can pre-order your replacement car so that it arrives just in time for you to get peak value on the sale of your used car or (b) you have an extra car and/or don't _need_ to reply on your hybrid so you can afford to sell it at peak value and do without while you wait for a replacement.

 

Thanks for all the great responses. I wish I did have a crystal ball! I see now that my mistake was deciding to buy based on my Toyota dealerships marketing. If it wasn't for all the mailers they sent me, I likely would have waited two more years to even start looking for a new Prius.

So, now I go back to plan A and enjoy my current Prius which I do love. It was the first brand new car I ever bought and I am attached to it, so I am good. Maybe by the time I am ready to look again, there will be some cool new technology for sale, like a plug in Prius.

 

If anything you were the victom of your OWN SCAM.

Markets go up and markets go down.....CONSTANTLY...!!

The sensible thing to have done was to go ahead and complete the trade while the market was UP...

 

Positive attitude there!

 

A fairer title to the thread would be "Did the local dealer scam me."

It is hard to hold Toyota responsible since so far as I can tell - from over here in the UK - many, or even most, US dealers are like that. And some UK ones.. I can guarantee you it would never happen in Japan.

Anyway the answer would be no. Getting the offer in writing should surely have seemed a pretty elementary precaution...! Even having failed to do that, and left it as word of mouth, you can still enforce it if you can convince a court you are telling the truth.

 

Why trade a 2005 for a 2009 Prius in the first place? It's the same design and will get the same mileage. Makes more sense to wait for the redesigned Prius.