A short Toyota hybrid vehicle shopping trip
Customers back in control?Thanks to a killer headache on Friday, I decided to call it a day early and take care of a few errands. Since those errands took me close to a local Toyota dealership, I decided to shop some hybrid cars.
Are there still dealer markups on the Prius or Camry hybrid?
Finish: A short Toyota hybrid vehicle shopping trip
Labels: Hybrid Vehicles, toyota camry hybrid, toyota prius
posted by Dahcredyns at
9:45 AM
5 Comments:
Full Story
Thanks to a killer headache on Friday, I decided to call it a day early and take care of a few errands. Since those errands took me close to a local Toyota dealership, I decided to shop some hybrid cars.
Back in May I made the post, $3000.00 Prius Markup: Screw the customer to describe my hybrid shopping experience, which left me very disappointed thanks to $3000 dealer mark ups. Yet, just a few weeks after that post, my local Toyota dealership pushed that markup to $5000.00 on top of the MSRP, and added about $5,000 worth of dealer add-ons as well.
Even the Camry hybrid included a $3000 dealer markup.
But what about today? Have things finally calmed down?
At my dealership, used Prius hybrids now run about the same price as new Prius hybrids. What a deal!
You can even buy a new Camry hybrid as MSRP.
As for a new Prius, this dealership is still adding an extra $3,000 markup and several thousand in dealer add-ons, such as alarms, maintenance plans and extended warranties, but there is now much more wiggle room with both dealer add-ons and markups.
For instance, after reiterating that I was going to hold off until there were no addendums to the MSRP a few times, my salesman told me he had seen some deals on the Prius close to MSRP.
Of course, that was a Package 6 Prius, and from what I could determine from my salesman, lower packages would not be as negotiable at my dealership. Likewise, it is uncertain as to how these deals - sold at MSRP - were financed.
Was there a trade in, for example? Was it a fair trade in?
Thus, if you're not paying cash up front, dealers can find plenty of ways to make you pay more than you think you are paying. So, perhaps these deals weren't deals after all.
Nonetheless, lower gas prices, the financial crisis, falling home values, etc. are having a major effect on dealerships. Sales are down significantly on all vehicles. While hybrids are still a pretty hot ticket in this area of Southern California, demand isn't as strong and dealer markups are declining. And, without a big jump in gas prices, demand is certain to fall even lower (Unfortunately, many on Wall Street believe oil has bottomed and that new highs could be tested before the end of the year).
Ultimately, the market is better for hybrid buyers today than it was just a few months ago. Still, I wouldn't label today a buyer's market.
I'll be shopping hybrid cars more in the next few weeks, but I'd recommend that all hybrid shoppers take it slow and refuse anything above MSRP. Play hardball and demand a fair price, and MSRP is MORE than fair.
I'll refuse MSRP...no car is worth even that.
Can't say I disagree. I think MSRP is MORE than fair, at least for dealers. For consumers MSRP certainly isn't a great deal.
So, still some markups and likely no package 2's, huh. Oh well, no matter. I'll be going hybrid shopping, not just Prius shopping, in 2009 - 2010, and most likely Volt shopping in 2011.
I have no doubt that GM dealers will be very tempted to add markups to the Volt as demand will far outweigh supply for the first few years. Still, those will be great days when we can shop for such a selection of vehicles that will be available in 2011. I only wish we didn't have to wait so long.
In the interim I'm still excited about the Prius and Insight - even the Vue hybrid.
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