i think john found a way to get past that.. lemme find his story
"Road Trip: Locating the 2004 Prius. Call all of the dealers in your state and the surrounding states. Tell them to call back as soon as a Prius matching your preferences becomes available, agreeing that you will sign & fax a purchase agreement along with locking the deal via a credit-card charge immediately after getting notified. Lots of waiting will follow. Finally, a few phone calls, a fax, and $500 later, the deed was done. My friend got his 2004 Prius that way. So today, we jumped in my Prius and 250 miles later (round trip), he actually had his Prius. Yeah!"
-from john's stuff (
http://john1701a.com/index.html )