<p>Get your bids in ASAP.
In August 2008 we placed an order for a Prius. Only 30 ahead of us. Dealer didn’t know how many were allocated to them. Bubble bust put us in #1 position by Thanksgiving, we were told to expect January-Feb 09. We were not required to put down a deposit nor was there any price negotiation.</p>
<p>^ The Toyota dealers in my area are offering rebates and special financing on the Prius. I don’t think there is a shortage any more.</p>
<p>The last time I was at the Toyota dealer for servicing (free w/Camry hybrid purchase in our case) the guy said they have not replaced a hybrid battery yet. I didn’t independently verify this statement ;)</p>
<p>We will purchase a Prius 2011 within the next 2 weeks or so. There is currently no shortage of Prius. There are at least 5 or more in the lot for my taking this weekend when I went for a test drive. My H used edmunds.com to get bids and before he can log off, there are at least 2 replies with offers lower than what edmunds.com estimates. He was pleasantly surprised. We use edmunds to buy our last car (a Honda) 5 years ago and all the bids came in within a couple of hundreds if memory served me right. We picked the bid of the dealer closest to our house. Very hassle free. We are willing to let them have some profits but not too much, so both sides are happy with the deal.</p>
<p>In July, we walked out of one dealer in Baltimore who pulled a bait-and-switch on us, drove to Bethesda and drove away two hours later with the Prius we wanted at the price offered by USAA’s pricing service. No shortage of vehicles, at least in our area. The Prius is very popular here because of the great mileage in city driving – the Beltway is stop-and-go for hours each day.</p>
<p>Went and had a look at a 2011 Elantra. I am quite enamored. Have not done a test drive or the all important “can my husband get into it without a shoe horn or out of it without a can opener”. Really nice little car - much more spacious than the Fit and the interior finish was very nice. Husband also went without me and test drove a civic today and said it was smaller than the Fit, and he thought it was a rougher ride. </p>
<p>So we may go wednesday and check out the Elantra if we can find one within reasonable driving distance (100 miles ish) that does not have a jacked up price because of add ons I am not interested in paying for. There seem to be very few available. None of the dealers have more than a couple. The dealer I went to today had just one but with a navigation package, and I am so not paying almost $2000 extra for a navigation package (I can buy a map for $5!!). I can only find a 3-4 within a 100 mile radius that do not have either the nav upgrade or some special limited version with a sun roof and leather seats that also adds a couple of thousand. </p>
<p>Ant the ones I have found are black (too hard to keep clean on our red dirt country roads), red (I had a burgundy car that was also hard to keep clean - don’t know if a “red” red is hard or not) or a “congratulations it’s a boy” metallic baby blue. :(</p>
<p>We did not want the nav packages – we can get a new Garmin for $150 at Costco that allows up to update the latest maps for free. When it dies in a couple of years, we’ll replace it. Much less than $2k and all the other cr*p in the package that we don’t want!</p>
<p>Consumer Reports likes Hyundai vehicles.</p>
<p>We have a 2007 Fit that we got when they first came out. Love it, esp. the back seats that fold up and down in various ways. Mileage is upper 30s on long trips.</p>
<p>I understand the newer ones have adjustable driver seats, which would be nice. </p>
<p>I like the shape of ours better than the newer ones that resemble the swept-back or sporty Matrix or a bunch of other cars. Ours looks like a really really small mini-van. So cute! :D</p>