Hold Off Buying a 2010 Toyota Prius

The 2010 Toyota Prius will go on sale in the US early next month and demand will surely be through the roof. Buying a new model when it first comes out is one of the costliest mistakes car buyers make. If you're one of those people who have got to have it right now, no matter the price, then by all means go for it. But here at RealCarTips.com, our goal is to save you the most money possible when buying a car. And if you're like most people, waiting a few months to save a few thousand dollars is worth it, especially in this economy.

Demand for the 2010 Prius is going to be extremely high while supplies are going to be very limited. This ensures you will NOT get a good deal on this car (at least for the first 6-12 months). To make matters worse, demand in Japan has been so high, Toyota will be limiting the number of deliveries to the US. Toyota had 80,000 advance orders for the car in Japan before debuting May 18th. Their original goal was to sell 100,000 cars for the entire year! Japanese buyers ordering today will have to wait 4 months for delivery.

Toyota will be working overtime to produce as many of these cars as they can. As is usually the case, the first models to roll off the assembly line tend to suffer more quality problems as engineers work out the kinks in the assembly process. This is another reason you will want to hold off buying right away.

So how long should you wait? It depends on how quickly Toyota can meet demand, but we recommend holding off your purchase until at least the end of the year.