[Seaside Harry]

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

 

[evander]

Congratulations on your hard work and eventual success getting your Prius. Love the license plate.

 

[Sanny]

KICK GAS... rofl. You'll do just fine around here! Welcome to you and Kathy and your little blue Prius.

kick gas... hehehe :lol:

 

[JAGprius]

OMG :shock: :shock:

... Kick Gas ? That is so hilarious.... definitely best one! :lol:

 

[Seaside Harry]

The smug, self-righteous, and altogether unpleasant lady at the DMV refused to even accept our application for this plate until we demanded to see her supervisor. Neither could explain to us what was objectionable about any word or combination of words in our selected message, so they reluctantly accepted our submission with a vague warning that it might still be rejected by the review board in Richmond (or we could have our plates rescinded later if the DMV received any complaints from "sensitive citizens").

Based on this, we were pleasantly surprised to receive our plates in the mail this week instead of a letter from the DMV. I guess we shouldn't have worried, though. After all, what could be more positive than a message urging our fellow drivers to "kick the gas habit" by driving a vehicle like the one our plates are affixed to?

If the DMV comes after us later, I guess we'll just have to point out the enormous number of personalized plates they've already issued to Hummer owners, and remind them about the, um, "alternate" definition of that vehicle's name. After they've recalled each and every one of those far more offensive plates, they can call me back to talk about mine.

Incidentally, some of the other possibilities we considered were: 4GET GAS, ANTI-GAS, SIPS GAS (already taken), SIPS FUEL, GASAVER, GAS SAVR, SHUN GAS, GAS FOE, WHAT GAS, GAS-WISE, BYE GAS, SMRT CAR, HI VOLTS, D-CELLS, and ECO TOY.

Although we didn't seriously consider these, the DMV website also permitted the following choices: HAVE GAS, GOT GAS, UN-GASSY, and SNIF GAS. I imagine any of these choices would have met with even more resistance when arrived at the DMV, however.

Regards,
Harry

 

[Astrowoman]

Love the "KICK GAS". Also the "don't panic".... did you actually annotate your button in large friendly letters?

 

[Seaside Harry]

I haven't had a chance to properly annotate the button yet, but we do keep a towel in the car at all times!

 

[Astrowoman]

I wonder if the NAV system can find the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. I'll have to try that sometime.