Current wait times

My wait was all of about 3 hours. Dealer in So. Calif. had about 35 of them sitting on one level of a parking garage. You could pick a color and package there without a problem (except they wanted $3000 over the sticker which I got down to only $500 over). Of course, a couple of weeks ago the price of gas was lower so they are probably all gone now. He did say a lot of the inventory goes to the dealers who sell the most. He said they'll move them all out within the week if gas goes up (it has, and a lot!) and they would recapture their higher fee as well..

B~

Mine took about 3 weeks to come in. I was lucky though, because when I called a week later, they said there were 25 people in line for that car if I didn't want it. (I'm in the Boston area.) Another dealer said they had some coming in a two weeks; two others said 4-6 months!!!!

Thanks for your feedback.

How far in advance did you know when the car would arrive? Not being able to predict anything about the timeframe is making me crazy.

Paul

Well, I was told at the time it would be 1-2 weeks. (I was curious about that, and they said that was because they were a high-volume dealer, unlike the dealer in my town.) It didn't come in then though. I called about two weeks after I put down my deposit and was told it was in New York and would be here in 3-5 days, but that also didn't happen. It came in about 9 days after that. That wasn't too bad, given the wait times other dealers were quoting.

Some good news!

The inventory manager at my Toyota dealer managed to get a Prius pulled from another dealer's shipping manifest, and transferred to theirs.

This means that my Prius is on its way from Japan. Projected arrival at the dealer by 16 September.

If it arrives on time, it will be a wait of about 4 weeks from order to delivery.

Paul

Lucky you! Mine was on a ship when I ordered it. You wait time is about what I experienced.

Mine could very likely be on the same ship, and I ordered it in February!

Ouch.

Sorry that you are having to wait so long.

Where are you located? Is it a small dealership? Did you arder an option package not normally available in your region?

My dealer is a relatively small one in western Virginia.

I found out they are trading a red one away that is arriving now in order to get a silver one for me in three weeks.

Paul

Just got an update from the dealer. The delivery date has been pushed back from the 16th to the 19th of September.

Paul

Mine was delayed too. Salesman said car was "delayed at the railhead." and I should expect it late this week.

The explanation he gave me on wait times runs as follows:

The allocation to dealers is not linked to Prius sales volume. Some dealers (like mine) maintain a rigorous reservation system. Others do not keep a waiting list but sell to whoever happens to come into the showroom when cars are available. Should I believe this explanation?

It doesn't jive with my dealer's situation. I heard of dealers receiving several cars every month at a point where my dealer could only hope to get one. When production was ramped-up my dealer started getting two a month. Besides, it would make little sense to ship a dozen to a Toyota dealer in a small town while shipping a dozen to a dealer in a large town.

My dealer is a small dealership in a relatively small town. People in the area are very interested in preserving the environment which may lead to an unusually high Prius order rate. I get the impression that this dealer's waiting list has been extending 6 to 9 months and the dealer has been receiving about 10-12 Prii per month lately. Not hard data, just impressions from what has been said.

I can understand some dealerships not wanting to keep a waiting list. My dealer had to go to considerable effort to get a Prius that was in transit in a color I would accept swapped for another Prius in transit in a color I didn't want. It would be easier on the dealer, with the Prius in high demand, to just wait until he had something on the lot, and then sell it to the someone who was interested in it.

However, I don't believe the line that shipments are not tied to sales volume. It sems that the distributerships try to send at least some Prii to each dealer. But I'm sure that a town of 20,000 people gets fewer Prii than a city of 1,000,000 people.

Hope to hear stories of you enjoying your new car soon.

Paul

Just to put things in perspective....

When my wife bought her 1993 Toyota Camry she wanted the V6 XLE package in blue without leather. She went through the exact same process as I am reading here. The car was swapped with another dealer, was on the boat, stuck at the port of entry, etc. 10 weeks from the date of order she had her car. She's been happy with it since then.