This is my opinion for anyone on this forum to dispute, discuss or dismiss; certainly your choice. I for one believe Dianne when she says they are Clueless. This has been my personal experience with every Toyota dealer I've spoken to about the Prius. Credit to Dianne; she will always sell more cars by telling the truth - and more power to her, and other dealer personnel who try their best to help us all. I believe many of us have been disgusted by the spin, misinformation, stalls, dismissive attitude and general inability of Toyota North America to Do The Right Thing on the matter of informing and taking care of '04 Prius customers - and dealer personnel for that matter. SUGGESTION: Priuschat.com is a nonprofit business. Run by very competent and dedicated volunteer/enthusiasts. But this site is still a business. We are all "shareholders". At nearly 500 members and growing, we represent a remarkable, organized and involved percentage of '04 Prius owners in North America. So let's organize our issues, track them and launch a very, very focussed campaign to garner our share of the Toyotal Customer Care Spotlight. We can do this by making it painfully easy for Toyota to know what the issues are, how the issues rank in terms of importance to '04 Prius owners and what the likely impact on Toyota profits will be if they remain unresponsive. That would include everything from emails to letters to press conferences and news releases. The '04 Prius is a marvelous machine. They are selling beyond any Toyota MBA's most absurd projections. Driving mine for the last three months has been the best new car experience I can remember in 50 years of motoring. That's all nice, but we're still ot being treated liike grown ups by Toyota. KACHING-KACHING. That's all Toyota can/wants to hear right now. This has inevitably caused Toyota NA to become arrogant, dismissive and disinterested in investing time, money and human resources in growing a SATISFIED, LOYAL customer base. Starting THIS WEEK, let's drag Toyota North America kicking and screaming into OUR world and get them up to speed on their own product, consumer issues and how to fix them. The buck stops with each of us. We can whine and complain, or we can come together and be the growing ulcer in some Toyota Product VP's gut. 500 or so angry, intelligent, factual emails a day would sure screw up my "Outlook". Better them than us. What say you? Bob
AMEN I have been waiting ten weeks with no information as to my Prius order. My decision is to wait no more than six more weeks then cancel my order. I believe Toyota NA has poorly handled this whole debacle...no information, no news, no anything.
My car just kinda showed up. Mid-December, it was assigned to my dealer. They were as surprised as I was. Ordered 10/27, picked up 1/3. I'm not saying your car will just show up soon, but it could happen...
I was told by my sister-in-law that she waited almost a year for her New Beetle when they first came out. I have to remind myself that the car has only been in Pioneer's hands since late October. We are only three months in. Jeff
RobertO and any one else. Let's just start a list of problems and suggestions for the 2004 and future models. We can make it cumulative and then decide what to do with it individually and collectivly. 1. Battery runs out on long steep climbs. (Continental Divide) 2. Interior lighting deficient. (Dash dimmer switch, storage compartment below radio, storage drawer, cup holders, center storage box, ODO button) 3. Would prefer 4WD and disc brakes on all 4 wheels. 4. NAV sytem a. Passenger navigation override option. b. c. d. 5. Gas gauge calibration option. 6. Rear wiper doesn't clean snow off the lower edge of the upper window. The arm should curve the oposite way and be adjusted to wipe lower. 7. Auto headlights should dim the display screen at night. 8. Trunk mat tab interferes with trunk locking. 9. Need separate "door open" indicators for each of the five doors. 10. Quiet package 11. 15-20 gallon gas tank. 12. A little more leg room for the front passenger. 13. More adjustment for the drivers seat (or power) 14. A little more headroom for rear passengers.
I ordered my 04 in July, took delivery on Dec 17. It seems to me that for a popular car that is pretty typical, but thats just my opinion. I agree with Steve's list, but doubt most of it will show up in what is, to my mind, basically a cheap car. It is very well made and reliable, but bottom line it is still quite inexpensive compared to most others. Its nice to have all these options usually only available on much more expensive vehicles, and for me that is why I have to remind myself how inexpensive it was. Especially when I find myself complaining about how loud it is, or some other relatively minor (to me) complaint. My suggested improvements: A "quiet package" , and a 20 gallon tank. Peace. Jeff
My dealer told me that in the BC package there was a Driver side power seat. As they only had a #7 to test drive and no # 9 to look at I didn't know any better. My $11,000 Elantra has a manual 6 way adjustable driver seat, I would think Toyota would have matched that with little added expense. Rich
Off With The Gloves; Let's stay Relevant to the '04 we HAVE It is gratifying to see the frustration come out of the woodwork. Speak up or stay frustrated! The more we exchange ideas on the car, the more good we will do - even for Toyota. My concern here is that we focus on the '04 Prius we have, not the one we think they should build; that will be the 05's and /06's. We will all eventually give Toyota Development great (read as: Free) ideas for their next generation of Hybrids. That's easy. The thrust of my "call to battle" is for Priuschat, Priusonline, Mr. Kash and all the others to band together and cause Toyota to Get It Together. Thanks's to Danny's efforts, Priuschat is 500+ Strong and contiues to grow today. All told, there are probably 1,000 to 1,500 active Prius owners/owners who could be ready TODAY to contribute 5 or 10 minutes a WEEK to this effort. At about 2,000 or so, magic happens; this becomes an element that Toyota cannot ignore or spin away. By doing so they would damage themselves. Makes me wonder why some 30-something Toyota MBA in Prius Brand Management isn't already proactively participating in Priuschat. Dianne does, other Toyota dealer technicians and salespeople do. Here are three ideas for the (for want of your own, better idea) "Prius Owners Consumer Agenda": 1. Compel Toyota to open their Corporate Kimono (no slur intended) and allow us to know the car(s) well. In evey Park and Ride, Mall and Supermarket parking lot, we are without a doubt their BEST and LOWEST PAID sales representative. Seems to me Toyota would want us to know what we're talking about. 2. Receive timely and truthful information about the car, from features and pricing through delivery and ownership from "official" Toyota resources on a formal and continuing bases. This is a little different from #1 above. 3. Insure that, when it come to service, repairs, warranty repair, recalls and service bulletins, Toyota outperforms all others in creating a rock-solid base of loyal Prius owners now and in the future. Maybe the three points above could be part of our Formal Agenda. The point is we have to go farther than T-shirts, mugs, hats, vanity plates and Pride of Onwership. That's all good for Toyota, and ironically we end up paying extra for that stuff. I believe Toyota has NOTHING to lose by being truthful about their products. This assumes that their customers are intelligent, fair and proactive. I believe the this defines most of us (Prius owers) - or we would have, all of us, bought Hummers. But first; we have to be organized, strong, and have a very thoughtfully considered agenda. Let's not get mad; let's get even. Bob
I've been looking at the list of options, changes, additions and suggestions for improvements to the Prius on this and the YG website. After a thorough analysis of all the suggestions I've come to the conclusion the that only vehicle large enough to handle the options, additional fuel, leg room, rear seat ceiling height etc is the Hummer. Yes, there is tremendous room for improvement in the Prius but for the money and the wait I received more than I expected.
With regard to: 7. Auto headlights should dim the display screen at night. ... If you turn on your headlights and then rotate the dial to the left of the steering wheel, there is a point at which the screen dims for night driving. Just leave the dial at that setting and whenever you turn on your headlights (presumably at night) the screen illuminates at a lower intensity for night driving. hope this helps, Alex BTW - While I understand why alot of the features you mentioned are desireable, some of them are counterproductive (like the weight of 5 extra gallons of gas) to building a car as lightly as possible so that it gets the best MPG it can.
I'll throw in my suggestion for the one thing that disqulified the 04 from being purchased by me: Make the back seat capable of fitting 6 ft tall plus adults. The classic fits them, aleit tighly in the legroom department. The 04 has the legroom, but it's basically a four door two passenger car for people like me who typically is the driver when all of my friends and I are out and about.
Re: Off With The Gloves; Let's stay Relevant to the '04 we H I am getting frustrated by what I call Prius bashers. Most of them want the Prius to be equiped like a Town Car. It'l never happen. I had the pleasure of knowing Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the noted mathamathician(sic) who convinced the Japanese to produce quality products instead of the little dolls they were famous for. His equasions turned the Japanese industry around to what it is today. Toyota correctly designed the Prius to be an economical, fuel efficient automobile by eliminating weight. An example is the back bumper applique which is costly and profitable but its only about 1/64" thick, of extremely durable vinyl for application to the top surface of the rear bumper, to prevent damage to the top surface of the bumper. If U. S. automakers made it, it would be made of heavy rubber, about 1/2" thick. Next, consider the automatic parking feature on Japanese models. It's fantastic but U. S. automakers would just say-"It won't work" Electric seats, moon roofs, etc. just add weight and defeat the objective of the car. Ever wonder why there are thousands of people in the US who want the car but can't get one. Toyota MUST BE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT. End of sermon. :mrgreen:
Love the car we have; improve the post-delivery experience There is no questions that the '04 Prius is a remarkable car in every way. Toyota Devlopment did a great job of arriving at intelligent compromises on thousands of details in order to give us a product that works well in our day-to-day world. Kaisen really works. I believe most of us do not want more weight or features that are "tin-fiddles" that detract from the best attributes of the car. We want reliabilty, utility, safety and economy. With the '04, we get a lot of that. The thrust of my statements in this string is simple: We deserve better treatment from Toyota on the matter of post delivery service, education and user support. I want to see more transparency from Toyota. If a problem is a problem, they should say so early in the game, keep us informed. That done, we should have the grace to work with them until the issue is resolved. Takes BOTH sites. That is the Way that works so well in Japan. Makes me wonder if they think we are spoiled brats who can't handle the truth, so they feed us sweet nothings to calm us down. This has probably been their experience with the US market. I'd rather know the truth, and work proactively with Toyota on resolving the issues we've all been discussing. And, I'd like to see that start happening well in advance of the release of other "h-series" Toyota products. When those products are released, they will sport a higher gross price, and likely provide dealers with higher margins. These upscale products will pull the customer care spotlight off the Prius and focus it on the Highlander and other new product. This will inevitably eclipse the higher level of support that all Prius owners seek. We can be Change Agents or Whiners. I'm for Change. Let's get going! Bob
As far as the interior fit and finish are concerned, I think Toyota DID get it right. The inside reminds me of a Lexus. Looknig at the RX300h pictures only served to reassert that feeling. If there were to be any changes in the options lists, it would be to allow for a more al-a-carte means of adding stuff that you want to the car. The only change to me that Toyota needs to look into is a means of getting that needed couple of inches of headroom in the back seat. The Toyota feels upscale enough.
Well, Jason from the YG and GreenHybrid just IMed me with this link - http://toyota.mediaquotient.com/index.html It looks like Toyota is listening to you - or at least paying someone to read this site and write down what we're saying This week's report: http://toyota.mediaquotient.com/weekly/index.html Archived reports: http://toyota.mediaquotient.com/archived/index.html They take actual quotes from Priuschat and other sites and include them in these reports that go to Toyota. So, keep contributing your ideas and your complaints about Toyota! They are spending the money to have someone compile all of this data, so I'm guessing they at least glance at it! Danny
I, however, harbor no proprietary information, and in a real and legal sense, am forgetting everything I saw today. Who am I?...
I probably shouldn't have bragged. I cannot in good conscience(sp?) send the documents along to anyone. There is nothing very surprising in them to anyone who reads anytghing online. People are concerned by the gas tank issue and the long wait times. Some people have good experinces with dealers -- others have had bad. Brian
Re: Love the car we have; improve the post-delivery experien <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(\"RobertO\")</div> I'd be interested in knowing in what areas you feel that Toyota is not providing sufficient support. In my mind, the most important area of support is in dealing with problems with the car. So far, I have not gotten a sense that lots of people are finding that the car breaks down and Toyota is deficient in helping them in this situation. I understand from reading this Web site that other people would like support from Toyota such as (a) help with making modifications to the car (e.g, installing Xm and other audio components that Toyota does not offer) or (b) with explanations of how the car works. For the most part, these latter areas are of lower priority for me personally (which is not to say that they aren't important to other people). However, I would also say that Toyota needs to do a better job with the Smart Entry & Start system (either with the design of the system itself or with documenting how it works) if people are unclear about what ought to happen if you leave the car running but take the fob away.
