I'm a newbie to the Prius and to New Hampshire. I am not satisfied by the pre-delivery service from the selling dealer (Rockingham Toyota in Salem, NH) and am looking for recommendations for a Southern NH dealer with a good service department. For those who will ask, the dealer could/should have done the following: 1. Center the steering wheel so it is vertical when driving in a straight line. 2. Install the radio antenna. 3. Install (or explain why not) two plastic plugs which appear to belong in holes in the underbody but were left in the glovebox with the radio antenna. 4. Inflate the tires to the proper pressure (approx. 5 PSI low all around) and program the TPMS accordingly. This is my 4th Toyota. My son works at a SoCal Toyota dealer. I have been spoiled by excellent service and don't want to give it up.
Tire pressure you can do yourself; once you've got them where you want them [a bicycle hand pump works fine, btw] you can reset the TPMS with the button under the steering column. The dealer probably won't do that because they're too afraid of lawyers. . You can probably also pop in the hole-plugs yourself; that's supposed to be part of dealer pre-delivery and they should have done it before giving you the car. . The other stuff .. you can hopefully get done under warranty or them missing new-car prep items; steering wheel alignment probably wants to be backed up by an all-round alignment check too. . _H*
Sure, I can do these things myself, but I bought a brand new car so I don't have to do them myself. The lack of attention to detail, and word of mouth from friends and family, makes me wary of this dealer. I'm shopping for a service department. The Prius is not my only car. I have an unhealthy relationship with two old VW vans that consumes all of my wrench time.
I live in 'southern' NH. I mostly go to Ira Toyota in Manchester because they are the closest. I have taken the Prius to Grappone Toyota in Concord NH and in the past, with a 4 Runner and RAV4 used Nashua Toyota. They all seem pretty equivalent. I bought my Prius at Ira and the pre-delivery work seemed fine. If I ask them to do something they do it and everyone there seems pleasant enough. Just a few months ago I had occasion to go to Rockingham Toyota to look at a used car they had there that I thought I might be interested in. It was a VW newbeetle convertible. I was going to trade my VW cabrio for this 'newer' convertible. They were kinda bad when we started talking price. They had the car advertised at $8998 and all of a sudden they tried some trick stuff telling me the car had been advertised incorrectly and that the price was really $9400. This happened after I told them I wanted more for my trade. Anyhow, I did not buy anything from them. That's what happens when a woman walks into a car dealership alone. It's not fun. I think these dealerships might be a drive for you from the Salem area. But that is the scoop. Good luck.
give them a shot at service, you're not going to need anything for a long while anyway. i'm in mass and if you find a service dept. that listens to you, does only what you want, knows all the facts and charges what the estimate, let me know. i'd drive as far as octavia.
I already related my dissatisfaction to the salesman during his followup call. I will give them the opportunity to make it right before giving up completely, but I am still looking for an alternative. I'll probably try in Manchester.
no problems to report with Toyota of Nashua: they haven't overfilled oil after changes and will leave tires where you want (if you ask and have them note on the paper -- forget to do that and all bets are off). Manchester is probably more convenient thought
GREAT service/sales etc with Grappone Toyota. Have purchased 3 Prius's so far. Management goes out of their way to deliver service, parts and sales. (HEY WHAT IS THE PLURAL OF PRIUS?
According to Toyota the plural of Prius is Prius (like sheep), but common usage says Prii and Priuses. I believe Latin rules would give us Priores, not that Prius is necessarily Latin. If someone were REALLY concerned about avoiding a faux pas, one could say "Prius cars" I think whichever makes you happy works. Just say it with enough authority that listeners assume you MUST know what you're talking about. Nolo
Even if you never plan to use this dealer again, if I were you, I would write them a polite letter which describes your dis-satisfaction. Include the specifics you describe. Finish with a suggested action they could do to resolve your dis-satisfaction. This should be addressed to the dealership owner, with a copy to the sales manager (your salesman's boss). No company wants dis-satisfied customers. No company can endure and prosper by creating unhappy customers. But, if the right person isn't even aware that you are not satisfied, then nothing will get done. Your informing the sales rep was the proper first step, but obviously he either didn't care or was not empowered to do anything about it. Having been in sales (computers) myself for twenty years, I know that a "professional" sales rep will take care of his customers, because he wants them to come back and buy again. An "amateur" rep will take the deal and move onto the next sale - not caring much about you after you bought but also not realizing that you will never buy from him again. The amateurs don't last long, but unfortunately they are around. On the other hand, maybe it's just that in New England they believe customers are hardy and self-reliance, vs West Coasters who like to be waited on hand and foot. ;-)
To follow-up on this, I had the 5000 mile service performed at Grappone Toyota in Concord, NH this morning. In addition to the standard items, they checked and adjusted the front wheel toe due to slight front tire feathering which I pointed out to them. Fixing the alignment also fixed the steering wheel direction. There was no extra charge for this; they stated that they are allowed to do one alignment under the warranty. FWIW, they are still recommending oil changes at 5k mile intervals. They did have the correct 0W-20 oil on hand. Thankfully, I received the reception and service that I am accustomed to from previous Toyota dealers. They took my car without an appointment and performed the service in about 2 hours, while I waited in the customer lounge. I'll be returning there for the next service. Rockingham Toyota, the selling dealer, is too far (1.5 hrs) from my new house to make it worth the drive for service, even thought they would have done it at no cost. I have no intention of ever returning there.
