Our 2009 Prius is starting to give us more and more trouble at 200K miles, so we decided to look at purchase/lease of a new car. I was intrigued by the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid Prius. However, they are few and far between, and searching online, they are being sold used at $4-5000 over the MSRP of new models! I also searched online for info about leasing and got an estimate of the cost of a lease.
We went to our local dealership, and sat down with one of the sales guys. He told us that Toyota has divided our country into 12 regions, and is only allowing one state in each region to sell the Prius Prime, since they are so few. It would be easier to buy a Prius Prime in So. California than in the mid-Atlantic, as it is the only region that has good deals. Also, all of California has Prius Primes. No fair! (just kidding)
Anyway, the salesperson described the leasing process, and approximate cost, and I went back home and researched everything he said, and it was entirely correct. No pressure, no hard sell.
We went home and discussed it and decided we need to do this. So we will go back and order a regular Prius to lease and decide on buying it later or getting a different car later.