Wed 11 Jun 2008
I just used my credit union’s car buying service website to ask them to find me a Prius with the options I want. Tomorrow morning I’m getting up early to go into my local branch because SECU just started a program to offer very low interest rate loans on hybrid vehicles.
Eek?
Time to play “Name the Hybrid” then?
Possibly…? SECU says they’d approve the car loan, no problem there. Now it’s a matter of finding one.
‘Sparky’ is adorable but too obvious.
SECU is the best! ever!
Well, SECU has said that they basically have no hope of finding me one in any time frame other than months. One local dealership has told me they could get me one in ~10 weeks, maybe faster since I’m flexible on color. Tomorrow I’m going to begin the process of, at mrh’s suggestion from his own experience, pitting every Toyota dealership in NC against one another.
If you haven’t gotten SECU to officially approve the loan (but it sounds like you have) go ahead and do that, cause they lock in the rate. My personal experience kept me at a 5% (quoted 6 months earlier) vs the much higher (8%? – if I recall) that it got raised to literally the night before I purchased my my car (in 2000).
I used the car dealership competition tactic to good success on my last new car purchase; got a crazy deal from some dealer in Wilmington and got a local dealer to match it. That being said, given the scarcity of Priuses right about now, that’s probably gonna be tough.
Good call though.
Right now, getting a “deal” on a Prius means finding a dealer that does not charge a premium above MSRP and does not charge dock/recourse fees as a stealth premium. Happily, I’ve found a dealership in Raleigh that is taking orders, takes a few weeks to fill them and fits both of those requirements. The salesman with whom I’ve been working has been very informative and honest enough to recommend against a couple of options I’d considered on the grounds that he feels they don’t make enough difference to wait longer to get them and/or they aren’t worth what Toyota charges. (The dealership I plan to order from is Fred Anderson Toyota.)