Inadvertently, through my facebook posts and just conversation when the topic comes up, I "talked" my friend Tom into buying a Prius. He was driving an early 2000's Dodge Neon, but it finally crapped out. Ive been told by friends and family that Im like the subliminal Prius advertising posterchild. I cant help it that I love my car!! So anyways, hes picking up the car tomorrow from a local Toyota Dealership. 2007, Level 4, 99,000 miles, single owner, service history looks great, super clean, new tires. I offered to check it out for him today. Now he test drove it yesterday. Today I went, got the key from the salesman and did the MFD 12v battery check. FAIL! AS I was checking the 12v battery, the car completely died - display went out and something was clicking and going haywire. Of course, a sure sign of a dead 12v. Opened the trunk, pulled the side cover, sure enough, it was the original (I could see a date code of 2007 on it!) Go back inside, tell the salesperson about it, he goes "Oh ok. Thanks for letting me know, Ill get the technician to JUMP it". I said "no no no... that 12v is 6 years old and its dead, dont bother jumping it. Im going to call my friend and tell him about this, and he likely wont be buying the car tomorrow unless it has a new 12 volt battery". I wasnt being rude or anything but the salesguy looked horribly offended Dont Toyota used car dealers check the car over before they list it?! I called my friend and he was so happy I found this and saved him money. When I told another mutual friend what happened, he called me "Some kind of Prius Angel"... I dont know if thats a compliment or if I just lost another star off my man-card
You did your friend a great service. Chances are it may have started to have battery problems and the original owner just traded it in. Now, since you interviened, you friend may have a trouble free Prius for a long time. Well done!
On a Gen3 you need a nav unit to run the same test. Michael Landon was also an angel. Angels can also kick some serious butt.
Well, I'd like to congratulate my friend Tom on his new Prius!! Also, I got $100 from the dealer for selling one of their cars - Best part; I have ANOTHER friend going to look at a used Gen3 today too, lol. This $100 per pop might be a good side business for me
Oh and guess what? The Dealer gave Tom everything that we noticed was amiss; The extra smart key, a new battery, a full tank of gas & car wash, AND they fixed the TPMS (the light was on and wouldnt reset with the button). Tom was so generous to let me drive it today and its a nice running Prius. I told him about Priuschat (Ive been emailing him links about discussions here for MONTHS, lol) and I gave him a quick run down on mpg tricks and Prius tidbits. My guess is, sometime in the near future he will join PC.
Well Im waiting to hear from my friend Theresa - she was bringing her husband to look at this 2011 Pri with 19,000 miles going for $15995 that I had emailed her to possibly pursue. I checked it out earlier for her when I was there with Tom, its a very very clean, base model Gen3 that would be perfect for her. Details to come....
I don't know but would like to know how to run that test on the gen 3. I believe you need to purchase a scan gauge
Hold Info button down while flipping headlights on/off 3 times will bring up Maintenance Mode. You need Nav or use a ScanGauge.
My buddy Tom (quaggmire) has joined PC and posted a thread in the new members section. Be sure to give him a warm welcome! Ive been bragging to him about Priuschat for months.
