Pioneer orders
blackbalsam said:
Pardon my asking, but what is a pioneer? I received my '04 about 2 months after placing my deposit and it was the color and package I wanted.
BTW, I love the car and am happy with the mileage.
The 2001 and most of the 2002 Prius
were ordered (actual *orders*, not
this fluky allocation stuff now) via
an internet ordering system that
Toyota had set up. Toyota knew how
many cars to make of what type, and
knew at what dealerships that there
were orders and shipped them accordingly.
The internet ordering system stopped
in Jan/Feb. of 2002 to be switched
over to the Rav4 EV rollout (no longer
produced), and 2002-2003 Prius were
then bought off of dealer lots as
early as April 2002 under the regular
dealer allocation system like all other
Toyotas.
In June, 2003, Toyota sent an email
and/or a snail mail to owners of a
classic Prius that had been ordered
through the internet ordering system,
to allow them to "pre-order" a new
2004, again using the internet ordering
system. Toyota called these people
"Pioneers" and their orders are
"Pioneer orders."
Then Toyota decided to only use the
Pioneer internet orders just for PR
purposes ("look at how many prior
Prius owners want a new 2004!"), and
ignore their ordering system. Toyota
just shipped 2004s willy-nilly to
the regions, who allocated the 2004s
however they saw fit. Dealerships
that had no 2004 orders and knew
nothing of the car had cars on the
lot to sell to someone off the street,
while dealerships that had oodles of
2004 Pioneer orders didn't receive
cars or recieved cars that they
didn't have orders for... The whole
point of the internet ordering system
was so that cars went to where there
was a waiting buyer, mostly in order,
but Toyota ignored their own data.
I had a Pioneer order, placed July 4th
weekend, but it was over a month
after release (mid Nov.) before my car came in,
whereas some people who had not
heard of a Prius before they walked
into a dealership in mid-October had
walked off of the lot with a new 2004.
Toyota peeved off us Pioneers, and
now are doing the same with all the
other "orders" with folks on dealer
waiting lists, with their silly
allocation system. They have this
really nice internet ordering
system, with REAL factory orders,
but they didn't pay attention to it
for the Pioneers, and probably won't
re-start it for the non-Pioneers.