Joined
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48 Posts
Since we've had our new Prius exactly 30 days now, I figured it was time to introduce myself and thank the board members for all of your help during my research and car shopping.
"What help?" you may be wondering. Well, I was raised in one of those households where we'd better not ask for help with our homework until we've tried looking up the answers first. So I've been lurking on this and several other boards since mid-May and found answers to every question I had about the car and how to go about buying one. Then, after we bought the car, I spent another month lurking to seek answers to all of my post-purchase questions.
Thanks to your generous (if unknowing) assistance, Kathy and I are now the ecstatic owners an '05 Seaside Pearl, Pkg #5, with splashguards and the black rear bumper protector, purchased from a small-town North Carolina dealership below MSRP with no wait. We knew we'd be traveling "south of the border" for our car because none of the Virginia dealers (Mid-Atlantic Region) could sell us a Package 5, even though we are only 30 miles from the nearest Southeastern District dealership.
I sent out identical emails to 14 dealerships--6 in VA and 8 in NC--with our specifications and request for best price, and ended up driving 150 miles to Toyota of Henderson. They had exactly the car we wanted and their full-time Internet Sales Manager Denise was the only one who went to the effort of working up a quote tailored to the specs I submitted. Most of the other dealers who responded just sent the exact same info I could have gotten myself from the "build your Prius" section of the Toyota website. The fact that this dealership also had the best price of all the ones we solicited was just a bonus.
Our experience in the dealership was just as painless as our email negotiations. We were allowed to take as long as we wanted to drive the car off the lot and run through the pre-delivery checklist I brought along. The only thing we found was that they hadn't installed the rubber plugs or the front license plate holder, which is required in VA. There was also no pressure whatsoever to sell us anything extra, although I am thinking about getting the Platinum extended warranty thru PriusChat.
Oh, and we just received our new vanity plates yesterday: "KICK GAS"
Thanks again to all of you who have shared your wealth of knowledge and I look forward to participating in the forum.
Regards,
Harry
"What help?" you may be wondering. Well, I was raised in one of those households where we'd better not ask for help with our homework until we've tried looking up the answers first. So I've been lurking on this and several other boards since mid-May and found answers to every question I had about the car and how to go about buying one. Then, after we bought the car, I spent another month lurking to seek answers to all of my post-purchase questions.
Thanks to your generous (if unknowing) assistance, Kathy and I are now the ecstatic owners an '05 Seaside Pearl, Pkg #5, with splashguards and the black rear bumper protector, purchased from a small-town North Carolina dealership below MSRP with no wait. We knew we'd be traveling "south of the border" for our car because none of the Virginia dealers (Mid-Atlantic Region) could sell us a Package 5, even though we are only 30 miles from the nearest Southeastern District dealership.
I sent out identical emails to 14 dealerships--6 in VA and 8 in NC--with our specifications and request for best price, and ended up driving 150 miles to Toyota of Henderson. They had exactly the car we wanted and their full-time Internet Sales Manager Denise was the only one who went to the effort of working up a quote tailored to the specs I submitted. Most of the other dealers who responded just sent the exact same info I could have gotten myself from the "build your Prius" section of the Toyota website. The fact that this dealership also had the best price of all the ones we solicited was just a bonus.
Our experience in the dealership was just as painless as our email negotiations. We were allowed to take as long as we wanted to drive the car off the lot and run through the pre-delivery checklist I brought along. The only thing we found was that they hadn't installed the rubber plugs or the front license plate holder, which is required in VA. There was also no pressure whatsoever to sell us anything extra, although I am thinking about getting the Platinum extended warranty thru PriusChat.
Oh, and we just received our new vanity plates yesterday: "KICK GAS"
Thanks again to all of you who have shared your wealth of knowledge and I look forward to participating in the forum.
Regards,
Harry