To Prius or not

Test drove a Prius last week and it was nice. Unfortunately, it was more car than I wanted, i.e. it came with options that I was not interested in (backup camera, smart key, iPod connection, better sound system) which drove the MSRP to over $24K. The dealer offered $22K but I walked away from that deal. It was $2-3K more than I wanted to pay. The base model would have been fine which would have probably been offered a $20K but the dealer said that those models are only available to rental agencies. Huh?