Buying new Prius V... Help!

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aceoperations
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 9:04 am

Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by aceoperations »

Hello folks,

We're in the market for a new car, and appreciate the input of forum members on our situation.

We have had a single car (corolla, paid off, 125k miles) between us for a few years now because my spouse has not been working and hence we did not feel the need to have another car. Now that we are having our first baby in a few months, the extra car has become a necessity. We are looking at a larger car that we plan to keep for 15+ years and have narrowed it down to a Prius V (lowest trim) after test driving a few options.

We have saved up for the car in I-bonds (along with our EF) which we can redeem for a few months interest penalty so that we can buy the car with cash. However, PenFed offers a 1.49% new auto loan for 3 yrs which we are considering for two reasons: (1) assuming current ibond rates, we come out slightly ahead at the end of 3 years compared to cash purchase (2) we think there is an advantage in having some liquid cash lying around for the upcoming baby and me being the sole earner at least for the time being. We anticipate having an EF covering 4 months of expenses if we buy the car with cash and 10 months if we take the loan.
  • Does taking a car loan make sense for us? I’ve read around here that cash purchases are the way to go. Am I missing something?
  • We are considering taking the car loan on my spouses name since the current car was bought on a loan in my name (credit history purposes for potential future home purchase). We checked credit scores on Quizzle and we are both between 770-780. But I am afraid that the loan process might be difficult since she is not currently working. Since our scores are so similar, is it worth the hassle? Or should I just apply for a loan under my own name? Sorry if this is vague.
  • On the topic of the Prius V itself, we would like leather (or leather-like) seats for easy cleaning purposes. The lowest trim has cloth interiors which we do not fancy, neither do we want to pay more for higher trims that have the bells and whistles which we find unnecessary. Are there good after-market options for leather seats out there?
  • We plan to use the method described here to buy a car. Any advice on this is appreciated. We’ve never tried this before.
Thanks for reading this post! Any inputs are greatly appreciated!
denovo
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by denovo »

aceoperations wrote:

[*] We plan to use the method described here to buy a car. Any advice on this is appreciated. We’ve never tried this before.[/list]

Thanks for reading this post! Any inputs are greatly appreciated!
Read the whole thread on car buying , and stay firm. It's possible the demand for fuel-efficient cars has gone down since gas prices have also gone down. You can check edmunds and truecar to gauge how popular the car is. If you wait until August-September, the prices on the 2015 models may be lower since they want to make room for the 16's.
Last edited by denovo on Thu Apr 16, 2015 9:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Don't trust everything you read on the Internet"- Abraham Lincoln
WhyNotUs
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by WhyNotUs »

Toyota is offering 0% for up to 60 months so no need for Pen Fed, run your wife's SS# first to see, might work. You will know in minutes.
We bought a Leaf instead but looked hard and Prius V and liked many things about it.
Google leather seat covers and you will see that they are easy to find, personally I would go for pleather but YMMV
I bought some wet seal ones at Costco for my Leaf since I bought the bottom of line model.
I own the next hot stock- VTSAX
JWooden10
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by JWooden10 »

I have found prius chat to be a decent resource for Prius after market questions such as yours. May be worth a try.
Bruin
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by Bruin »

Check Edmunds.com for current incentives here:
http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/prius-v/2 ... r-rebates/

Looks like you can get $2500 cash back OR $500 cash back plus 0% financing for up to 60 months.

Check out truecar.com. I am currently seeing the price for a base prius V two as $22,961 in Los Angeles area, I assume this includes all rebates mentioned above. Now you know the most you should pay for a base Prius V two is $22,961 when haggling with dealers.

Check out the car ads in the LA Times/your local newspaper, yes you can still typically get very good deals through that, but don't bother looking at the ads that say "1 car at this price".

You will usually want to deal with the highest volume car dealers in our area, particularly for your specific model. Higher volume car dealers get better dealer incentives that low volume car dealers. I think I say you were also in the Southern California area and I think Santa Monica Toyota is like one of the top volume dealers for Prius'. Note, I have bought from them before, a Prius, at a heck of a deal, but they will use every trick in the book to try and get you to pay more including warranties, etc. You HAVE TO WALK AWAY.

Good luck!
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DrippingSprings
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by DrippingSprings »

I have used a variant of the carbuying method in that thread. It worked well.

I own a Prius C. Great car. I am not familiar with the different trim levels in the V; the one thing I will suggest is that you do not need the navigation system.

Priuschat.com is indeed a wonderful site.

You can get significantly better gas mileage than the listed EPA mpg. When you go to Priuschat, read a little on hypermiling.
Topic Author
aceoperations
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by aceoperations »

Thanks for all the responses so far!
Looks like you can get $2500 cash back OR $500 cash back plus 0% financing for up to 60 months.
I did the numbers on how the cash-purchase/PenFed loan with $2000 cashback compares to 0% with $500 cash back, and I found that Toyota's deal is the costliest and PenFed loans are the cheapest based on the fact that I will pull out I-Bonds for full cash purchase. Turns out the very attractive 0%, is not so attractive after all. :beer
If you wait until August-September, the prices on the 2015 models may be lower since they want to make room for the 16's.
We did consider this since we are in no major rush right now. My only worry is that $2000 cashback incentive expires on May 4th. Is there any reason I need to move quickly before that date, or would I still get good or maybe even better deals later this year?
Higher volume car dealers get better dealer incentives that low volume car dealers.
Is there any way to tell what the volume of sales are for each dealer? For anybody who used the blind-auction technique in the link, how many dealerships did you contact and up to what distance away?
Lafder
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by Lafder »

We have a 2011 Prius. When we bought there was a shortage and we had to wait for one to come in. There was no negotiation in price since they had a waiting list of buyers. (When a car was coming, whoever was at the top of the list had first pick, then it moved down)

I did not want the bottom, very base level of options since it did not have hands free built in phone, with controls in the steering wheel (very convenient).

We decided we did not "need" leather or navigation and the couple 1000 price difference did not seem worth it. So we got a middle level one.

Within the first year I was sorry I did not get leather. Cloth gets dirty very easily and is hard to clean, versus leather wiping off. Also, the 3k or so difference that seemed to matter becomes insignificant over the life of the loan. This was very clear to me a year into payments, though it clearly felt like it mattered when buying the car.

It was a good learning experience for me. So the main thing I wanted to point out was get the leather now if you think you might want it.

My friend got cloth and did after market leather through the dealership at the time of purchase. It was very nice and actually seemed higher quality than the manufacturer's leather. It looked original and professional. This is the actual brand he got. http://katzkin.com/

Costco pricing is supposed to be one of the best deals and there is no need to haggle. The dealer will try to upsell you extended warranties as well as prepaid oil changes and maintenance at the time of the sale.

You will love almost never needing to go to the gas station. The under 10 gallon tank gets over 500 miles between fills (regular Prius not a 5)

lafder
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mmmodem
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by mmmodem »

I waited until October to buy a current year Prius and I got both 0% interest and $1500 or whatever it was cash back. I actually got more off because I purchased a blue one that had been sitting on the lot too long. Must not have been a popular color or trim.

Don't worry about the 0% and cash back deals. Been going on and off at least as far back as 2012. Expiration makes customers feel like they have to act fast. As long as gas prices remain low, you can rest assured Toyota will come up with a summer promotion for a different amount of rebate. Just heard somebody trade in his Accord for an F150 for his 20k mile a year commute. Why? Gas prices are so low. Short term thinking...
dbr
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by dbr »

Yeah, I got an email from a dealer I talked to recently (didn't buy his car). He wanted to tell me the March incentive of $750 had expired and the April incentive is $1500.
Karl A
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by Karl A »

Make sure you spend a decent amount of time test driving the Prius V before purchase. I was very interested in this car because I wanted a Prius but was too tall for the regular version. It has tons of space and is very comfortable, but I found it to be severely underpowered compared to the regular Prius. Also, I don't know where they get those numbers for average MPG, but I averaged significantly less when driving around town (according to the car's computer). Just beware these significant differences from the regular Prius. I ended up buying something else.
Topic Author
aceoperations
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Re: Buying new Prius V... Help!

Post by aceoperations »

Thanks for all the inputs. From what I have seen online, there are varying reports of how much mileage the Prius V actually gives in city and as I understand it depends on the driver itself --- and whether you hypermile or not. For the size of the Prius V, it should still outclass most other competitors in terms of gas mileage. It did kind of feel underpowered, but this car is going to be for my spouse primarily and she does not seem to mind at all.

It's nice to know that I don't have to move fast before the deal expires. That gives us more flexibility to negotiate the car purchase closer to the end of the year which we have decided to do. I've have to look at the financing option at that point depending on whats available then.

Totally agree on the convenience of leather seats. We're going to get them one way or the other. :beer
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