Since this might help the OP or others looking right now: this week I bought a new 2015 Prius two for $18.4k plus ~$350 in fees/registration (in an area where Toyota is running a 3k rebate on Prius). Dealers are trying to move their 2015 Prius cars to make room for the 2016, which will be a new generation of Prius.
We got a lot of buying advice from this thread:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/buying-a-2015-prius-two-suggestions/Here is what I recommend doing (most of this comes from that thread). I recommend starting with TrueCar to get a good quote. Then email the nearest 20-or-so dealerships, and ask if they can beat it. Let them know the exact date you want to pick up the car (ideally, a few days from the email, and at the end of a month). Tell them you don't need a test drive, since you are familiar with the car. And tell them how you will pay for the car, and whether you have a trade in, in the original email.
My mistake was switching from email to phone during the process. You want to get all of your quotes in writing, since dealers will ask you if you have a quote in writing.
I spent far-too long looking for a used Prius before deciding to go new. There are definitely deals to be had if you search on Craigslist, but my DW really wanted certified preowned if we went used. If you go the certified preowned route, you can look at the Carfax of every car, which will show you when the dealership bought/certified the car (so you can know how long the car has been on the lot). I emailed around quite a bit, and had a difficult time getting much past $500 under the black-book value of cars; even for cars that had been on the lot 2-3 months. I was hoping the rebates on new Prius would trickle down to the used market, but I was surprised that this didn't seem the case. The best I could do on certified used was $16.8k on a 2014 with ~40k miles.
Anyhow, I hope this info is helpful if you are comparing cars in similar price ranges.
