One of my cars is leased and I'll be turning it in within the month. I already own a Ford Escape Hybrid (not a lease) - I'm happy with it, but I don't always need an SUV and would prefer that my second car be... well, a "car" and not an SUV. I'm very strongly preferring the Prius as the next car to buy.

The local Toyota dealer says that they're impossible to find and that dealers don't have them in stock -- he claims that cars are sold before the dealer receives shipment of them and that if I want to be fussy about options/colors, etc. that he'd have to try to arrange to do a dealer-swap to get something close to what I want. He said it'd probably take a month to get one, and if I wanted to get one equipped with options of my choice then it could be several months.

Another person told me that the Prius was historically hard to find in stock, but it isn't anymore. It may be hard to find in some regions, but these can be found sitting on the lot in many dealers.

I live in the Detroit area and so far I've only visited the one dealership. How hard are these cars to locate?

 

Typically they aren't found on lots, they tend to outsell production and especially when gas prices are rising, so if you want specific options or colour it's best to plan ahead and order what you want, then wait for the shipment.

It's pretty pathetic in my opinion, thousands of SUVs and other guzzly / crappy cars just rotting on lots everywhere, and yet the Prius is so hard to find on a lot that people end up buying something else out of frustration... or maybe that's the idea? It sure would be nice to see excess Prii on lots, I'm sure they would be selling even more than they are currently... I guess it would take a big ramp-up of production to get there tho. Ah well.

 

It is hard to find Toyota Prius on the lot. Even though they have one on the lot ,it won't stay on the lot for long. I saw they had a Seaside Pearl without option and black with package 1. I drove by dealer and they sold it already. I traded in my 02' Prius and it's also on the used car lot. It should be gone by the end of the month. I waited mine for 11 months. You won't get anything off or mark up $5000 over MSRP. Most of them showed the web and they are all pre-sold.

 

I actually didn't have any problems finding Prius' on dealer lots (I'm in the Philadelphia area) when I was looking about 6 weeks ago. One caveat was that the only Prius' I could find were fully loaded (Package 6 - so they were all over 26K). I did find a couple of package 3 (about $23K) and just 1 package 4 (about $24K - although that one sold in less than a week). I actually got the dealer to discount the package 6 by about $1200.

I actually couldn't find any 06 Civic Hybrids Non-Navigation ($22K) on any lots though. I test drove the one with Navigation and wound up buying the Civic Non-Nav as it was cheaper than the Prius and the Honda dealer gave me $2500 more on my trade - even with the difference in gas mileage, I couldn't justify the incremental price difference. It took me less than 3 weeks for the Honda dealer to get me my car in the color I requested.

The shortages are not a problem in my area as even after I walked out of the Toyota dealership, they kept calling me daily right up to when I got my Civic. I would have bought the Prius if they matched the deal (price and trade) I got on my Civic Hybrid, but even down to the end, they were still off by over $1500.

 

I am not sure why, but in the southeast, you can visit toyota.com and click on build and price your Toyota. Put in a zip code anywhere in the southeast. The next screen shows all of the models and how many are available in the area now. There are 194 Prius's available in the southeast. you select the Prius, the color and the options you want and it gives you the number which match your selection. If you go to view the inventory when you are done it goes to a screen with the inventory of close matches to what you chose. Then if you " click HERE to build your own" you can find a screen which allows you to refine your options. when you have them all included, click on find my toyota, and you see the future delivery dates for dealers near your zip code.

I found mine this way for the Panama City Toyota dealer on a Tuesday and went to the dealer, gave them my name and number and told them to give me a call when it got in on Thursday. They didn't know they were going to get one, but I got the call on Thurday and after the test drive, it was all over.

Don't know if it will work this way in the Detroit area, the build to order screen doesn't come up for dealers in the West Coast, but it works for the Southeast region. Let me know if you have any trouble finding one this way.



pcflorida

 

Dealers in high-demand areas will sell the cars off their allocation lists - that is, when they find out in advance how many cars of what package and color etc., they are getting, they call the customers they know are interested to come put deposits down on them before they come. So, that's the "pre-sell" bit. All dealers will get cars of all models on a bi-weekly or monthly basis, depending on their prior sales performance - so they may get 0-1 or 10-15 of various packages and colors. It's up to you to find a dealer who will treat you well, and who won't mark-up the car or make you pay a non-refundable deposit just to "find you a car".

Here in Southern CA you can't test-drive a Prius at 99% of dealers. All the ones that hit the lot are already spoken for. They opened the door on one and let me LOOK inside it before I bought mine.

DON'T DO DEALER TRADES... just find a dealer who is getting the car you want. I like dealing with internet/fleet salespeople - more willing to deal over the phone, interested more in higher volume of sales than shaking down every customer for all they can in my experience.

 

Tcampb01's time may be about over, but there are a number of Prius now listed in craigslist in several Michigan cities. Let a good Toyota shop inspect it before making an offer.

DAS

 

I did that for two months in Augusta GA, looking for a Prius for my wife to test drive. No luck. That search only gives you overall numbers & models, but rarely gives accurate stats on what's coming to which dealer (according to two dealers I spoke with). I finally found a dealer two hours away who had four on the ground, UNSOLD. Was ready to drive there for the test drive but my wife insisted I call the three local dealers one more time. Toyo of Augusta had a used '05 pkg4 on the lot, so she drove that, then we walked in & put down $500. They told me there was a Seaside Pearl #5 coming in two weeks, or a Mag Gray #3 in one. I took the Gray as I already have a BT headset that I prefer to use. Came 12 days later. No regrets!

 

Either new or used:

http://ebay.com/

Bob Wilson

 

i have seen dealerships with them on site, but they always want more then MSRP.