I paid msrp for a 2006 Mag Gray#4.

"You can't polish a turd"

I appraise real estate (lots of city driving) and the navigation and blue tooth phone are nice features for my line of work thus a Prius appeared to be the perfect vehicle.

I shopped for a new package 7 or 8 Prius here in South Florida for over six weeks and did not have any luck locating either of these in stock. To compound matters gas prices started rising again followed by the IRS announcing the $3150 tax credit. With this the local dealers began to raise prices $3 - 7k above msrp.

The best deal I could locate was a package 7 plus leather trimmed seats for $31.5k. And this price included a wait for the vehicle to arrive. I later found an "in stock" package 8 at another dealer, test drove it, loved it, but this dealer did not want to budge much from it's $35.5k asking price. I understand supply and demand but realized I needed to look elsewhere.

I remembered that Carmax has new car dealerships including two Toyota dealers in in Maryland and Wisconsin. By shopping on line I was lucky enough to locate a new package 8 at the Carmax Toyota dealer in Laurel. Md for approx $1,000 under msrp ($28,300). Since Carmax posts their vehicle prices on line and there is no haggling I made a phone call last Tuesday and by Friday morning I was driving the vehicle back home from the DC area.

The $3k - 5k (minimum) savings was well worth the flight, time, and mileage costs involved in retrieving the vehicle. In addition my wife and I made it a weekend trip which included a great overnight stay in Charleston, SC.

We averaged about 46 mpg on Interstate 95 with speeds of 65 - 75 per hour and I've enjoyed over 53 mpg the first week back under more normal driving conditions.

Fyi - the dealer indicated they get out of region buyers all the time and spoke of a lady from California who has flown out twice for new Priuses. If you go this route keep in mind they usually do not have much (if any) inventory.

We feel lucky to have found this deal and look forward to our many years of fuel and environmental savings.

I bought 2006 Toyota Prius Silver Pine Mica with Package 7, leather interior upgrade and Extra Mile option package A for $30,449.00 last Friday. Orginally I picked Seasid Pearl and I had to change it because they didn't have it. I waited for 11 months. I traded in my 02 Prius with nav for $12,800 and they didn't give anything off MSRP. I paid MSRP +title License -trade in. They approved me for loan for 6.9% up to 6 months.

My previous vehicle was a Ford Explorer Unlimited, and I loved driving it, but didn't like filling it up so much or so often.

The Prius were hard to find in Houston, and by the time I would go, they were already sold. I looked on edmunds and found two listed for areas just outside, and found an 04 that had 15Kon it, had nav sytem and bluetooth hookup, and the key system, safe key. I love it, but I'm only averaging 50.7mpg; I do mostly short trips in town, and when I drive highway miles, I average 57mpg. It listed for 28,9K, but I paid 25K.

scandi,

I think you paid a little bit high on 04" Prius. If you paid $3000 more, you could have gotten yourself 06' Prius with Package 7 (Nav) for $28,000. In San Antonio, you can buy one on the lot. Some girl bought one from the lot when I picked up my car. Last night, I saw one (Seaside Pearl with no option) on the lot.

I bought mine at the dealer in Panama City for $24,600. It has option #3. I found it by going to toyota.com, clicking on build your Prius, and clicking on find my Prius. It gives you the availabilty in the region, and when new arrivals are scheduled for your zip code. I went to the dealer on Tuesday, gave them my number and asked them to call when the red one got in. They didn't know one was coming, but they agreed. On Thurday I got the call, and after the test drive, it was all over. Still at Full on my second tank, 600 miles.

Well, perhaps I did pay too much, but the prices for the comparable car in mileage and package 6 is now 26K for what I see on the internet. The rumor is that men in car sales take advantage of the "little ladies" , so perhaps I was duped. But, I do like the car, and it's saved me a lot of money on gas.

One of Murphy's Laws is that as soon as the deal is signed, a better offer will come along.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Scandi,
Can you bring it back to the dealer? How long do you have the car? I searched on the web and the MSRP of 2004 (basic) was $20,510 + package 9 was $5245=$25755 when it was new back in 2004. I'm sorry they cheated you. You could have gotten yourself a new with navigation for $28,000. I put $500 deposit last June and I just got my 06' Prius fully loaded with navigation, leather, back-up cameras for $30,499.

I totally agree, those of you who have signed to own for one this year, that includes me, there's news of the next generation prius 2009 model already in the works by toyota. that means it could be here in about 2 years (2008 perhaps and sold as a 2009 model).