Am I the only dumb bastard

Well, is there an actual policy handed out in writing to Toyota dealers defining what to do about cars that have EV installed? Blame anything and everything on EV?

Ummm, no, there aren't...

 

Huh. When I took posession the dealer dude did a nice top down tour, demo, paperwork session. Never mentioned anything about EV or voiding warranty. Of course, I didn't ask or tell. Now the only question I have is where is the 2nd Aux. outlet?!?! He didn't cover that.

 

not where my husband works. most there are curious about the ev switch but don't know much about it... they keep asking my husband about ours. he's the only one who actually has a prius.

so do you run independently? i'm sure the service writers aren't involved here. must not be very busy there. my husband is always getting tracked down and handed tickets, even when he has a car or 2 hanging and one in the lot waiting for him. he usually stays late to catch up. i don't like that too much...

 

Mike,
Is that a gallon in a Prius South of MS?
I have a factory EV switch I would like you to install.

 

Mike, that's an awesome attitude. Thank you for raising the clue
level in general, and digging into the reality of things. I could
only wish dealer techs had half of that grasp on reality.
.
Toyota snoops all of these forums and yahoogroups, but remains
strictly hands-off and doesn't actively participate -- too many
lawyers and all. They certainly take home some ideas, but then
have to weigh the merits of those against perceived customer need,
what's feasible to do from a financial and/or engineering standpoint,
etc. Toyota is very big, and has all the big-company attributes
that basically stonewalls the individual customer. Heck, even the
dealers aren't really given any information. It's really too bad,
that there's so little enthusiast support for such a kick-nice person
package of engineering.
.
And as far as I know the theory about EV buttons and "void the
warranty" has never been tested, especially not in any situation
where the problem at hand could be even remotely linked to it.
[If you lose a door-lock solenoid, who in their right mind is going
to try blaming an EV button for that?!]
.
_H*

 

Mike, wish you were down here in San Diego...we need your honesty and customer activism. Keep up the good work!

So what if anything can you say about the wandering issue on the freeway that some of us experience?

 

<another throat clearing sound> What he said was,

And what I'm saying is, when people are being told that they have to pay for new batteries because they ran them too low, there AREN'T.

If the people are being lied to/misled about battery damage, then I'm wrong. I've seen posts from knowledgable people saying a drained HV battery should be rechargeable. When they don't recharge, there should be a better reason than that the car ran an extra mile or two beyond some charge level Toyota established at 'pink'. The fact that the car allows itself to be driven to the death of the HV battery does not say 'ample software overrides' to ME.

If you are assuming that because your battery doesn't seem to be harmed right now by going pink on a regular basis, I'll have to wait a few years to see if that does or doesn't harm the battery in the long-run.

This does tie-in with my Toyota-knows-EV-will-ruin-batteries-but-won't-tell-letigious-US-owners theory, so until Toyota flat-out denies that in writing I'm sticking with it...

 

If Toyota sells the vehicle with the EV switch on European and Asia spec cars. What other change do they make to the vehicle/battery that would cause damage to our US spec cars if we added the switch?

 

Americans are so sneaky we would be running people down in EV mode every chance we get, that is why we didn't get it.

Viro

 

Where do you get the idea you can damage the battery with an EV button by running it down to pink bars?

First place mine never stays in EV that long. Generally I go 6 to maybe 4 bars in EV.

Secondly I get pink bars even down to 1 every time I run AC in a traffic jam with no push of the EV button, so it can hardly be a problem.

 

hmmmm... that's a way to do it. that's really interesting to know. so how many hours do you bill out per switch?

i like that attitude, that's what got my husband a job at the dealership to begin with and has made him rather successful there. seems that's the prevailing attitude of good techs. keep up the good work Mike

 

Here's my logic. It may be faulty logic, but I've been there before.

Toyota won't let us have an EV switch. Some cover story about EPA emission control rules.

If both modes are harmless to car, why not hardwire EV mode as standard? People go on about limited functionality in EV, no big distances, no big value. However, even if all that is true, then why not make the EV mode the World Standard, and then everybody everywhere gets it without the (admittedly tiny) cost of a switch?

There has to be a reason for the switch. There has to be a liability behind not having that mode be the default. "Limited value" wouldn't bring a switch into existance.

My contention is, US buyers will sue like crazy if the HV batteries go bad due to excessive EV useage, so we get no (official) switch. Non-US cars with switch require a switch to make it a concious effort to use EV mode. If those owners overuse it and hurt the battery, they are considered more likely to whine but pay for a new battery.

All I need from Toyota is an Official "EV doesn't hurt the car at all, ever" statement, and then I'll be quiet about it. Until then, I'm going with this logic...