I am looking for a standard HH with no options package. I have talked to several dealerships and have encountered this:
1. Some dealerships only take special orders and the estimated time varies from 1 month to 8 months
2. Some dealerships put your name on an allocation list with no idea how long it will take
My question is this: Does it matter which dealership you place your order with? Does a larger dealership get their special orders filled faster? I'm assuming that I have a better chance of getting what I want by going to the dealership that will place a special order, rather than depending on what comes in on allocation at another dealership?
Does anyone have any insight on how all this works?

 

I ended up finding the dealer who HAD them.

It seems that Toyota is allocating Highlander hybrids in part based on their sales of the Prius.