this feature is down on toyota's website. Is this typical behavior before the change the model year?

I just went to toyota.com and built a Prius with no problem. Maybe they were just having a glitch - seems okay now - build away!!

Still not working for me, in fact it won't let me build any of the cars/trucks. This is what I get when I try:

It's working for me.

While bad DNS information should typically mean that you can't connect to the site at all, it wouldn't hurt to perform an ipconfig /flushdns after closing all browser windows. Other than that, removing any third-party toolbars would be a good idea.

I suppose the only difficulty I'm having is affording the thing!

It depends on where you are. If I do a build for where I am (NY/NJ region), i get the configurator just fine. If I do it for where I grew up (Allentown, PA area), I get the error message.

It's probably determined by whether or not there are any more 2006's allotted to your area. Your area probably isn't slated to get any more 2006's, so you can't configure one.

So it seems it is a "between model years" thing.

(that's what my car tells me, so it must be true)