2010 vs. 2011?

Not in the Pacific Northwest! At least..not yet!

 

That's pretty funny.

 

In the UK we've never been offered bisque or, as it's known in the trade here, hearing aid beige.

 

Just picked up a 2010 III, for $100 over invoice and still retained the 0%. I might have been able to find a slightly better deal but it was tough to fight a white with dark interior.

 

Congrats. Sounds like a key buy at 0 percent. All that's left now is to sit back enjoy the ride, appreciate the technology and make the payments.

Happy Motoring,

Tom

 

They were selling the base Prius for $20300 in December, go to www.truecar.com

 

As I said before, go up to the dealership service department and ask them to open up their books/computers to all the TSBs that apply to your car and ask the to perform it and see what kind of response you get.

Second, most TSB work pay chump change to the dealership involve. I don't know about your area but here the dealer techs get pay the job, not by the hour. They much rather work on general maintenance/service items like brake replacement, 30k service, and be able to charge inflated full book charge than get low balled by Toyota HQ into a TSB that pays actual time work.

Ever get a timing belt or water pump replaced on a Toyota Camry or Corolla? Most techs can do this in a hour but the "job" is a 4 to 5 hour job according to their books which they charge you by.

 

My Lexus dealer likes to pad their profits by volunteering to do TSB work on problems the customers don't even bring up and I've signed off on TSB work totaling over thousands of dollars so yes, they're a moneymaker for them.

If you have the blurry A/C display or have an actual problem that the TSBs cover, you can bet you'll have no problem getting Toyota to do them.

 

THOUSANDS??? Unless your Lexus had major engine problems or was falling apart, there is NO WAY a couple of basic TSBs would add up to a few thousand dollars to the dealership's bottom line.

The dealership can put down ANY amount they want on your receipt but the TSB dictates what they get paid when they submit to Toyota for reimbursement. Your dealership could put down 10 hours of work on your receipt but if the TSB say it's a 2 hour job, all they get is 2 hours.

 

Toyota doesn't wait until a model year change to address faults in their vehicles, they will make midmodel updates. Thats why when a recall or TSB comes out it only effects a certain VIN span, because after that span they have incorporated the update into the assembly process of the vehicles. So, if you buy a 2010 that was late in the year, assuming no changes to the car for the model year change...it would be identical to a 2011.

If you can get a good deal on a 2011, then the 2011 will always be a year ahead of the 2010 for resale purposes. If you were going to lease, undoubtedly the 2011 would have better payments for that reason, the residual would be higher.

As for changes, as I just posted the 2011 has a brushed stainless trim peice at the base of the doors that the 2010 doesn't have, thats all I saw different at the car show today.

Sure they would. When you bill labor at $130 an hour, and you do a TSB that involved 7 hours of labor to remove the dash to install some sound deadening, thats $910.

On the grand scheme of things, TSBs make plenty of money for dealers.

 

Was this 7 hours to remove the dash on your Prius?

Per the TSB NV008-07, it's roughly a 4 hour job to remove the dash, put in new clips and sound dampening materials on late model Toyotas.

If $130 is the flat rate charge in you in your area that Toyota pays per hour on a TSB, I guess you live in a area where cost of living it's higher than here in Northern CA where we have one of the highest standard of living and pay wages and even then the dealers don't get $130 a hour on TSB repair work.

 

Unless you have a connection, dealer will charge you whatever the book rate is. It's industry standard. The base rate might be different, but 7 hours is 7 hours.

 

Suppose it's just $300 each TSB, volunteer to do it for 10 customers and that's an easy $3,000. All the service advisor has to do is write "Customer complains of xxxxx" that the TSB covers to get it done and of course the customer won't refuse because they think their service advisor is doing them a favor by being proactive. If TSBs don't make money for dealers, why would they be so eager to make up some fake customer claim in order to do them?

It seems like you're not aware how expensive Lexus can be. Although not TSB repairs, replacing the center console and leaking shift valve shaft on a GX 470 under warranty was $1111 (including parts). No need for them to fall apart for it to get expensive. Toyota might be a different story though.

 

It was purely a subjective example. Anyways the post I responded to was talking about a Lexus dealer, Lexus dealers have labor rates around $130 an hour. Toyota here is about $90.

As someone else said, the amount of time it actually takes is meaningless, its the book labor rate they charge. For instance on my old ES300 it was a 14 hour job by the book to replace the lower control arms. In reality, its about a 6 hour job. My mechanic only charged me for the 6 hours...but a Lexus dealer would have charged me for 14 hours because thats the job by the book.

 

I had a 1996 Prius and now have a 2010 IV. I have a 2011 IV on the way (from a Montana dealer to my Lewiston, Id dealer). I hope there are changes but I sure haven't found much. My wife and I are keeping the 2010 so I'm soon to find out. Doesn't look like I should be very hopeful though.

 

When I compared the 2010 and 2011, the only difference I saw was is in the navigation system. The 2011 models have newer navigation software, aka updated maps. The value of a 2010 has to be knocked down at least for the cost of that upgrade, if it has a navigation system.

 

Seems quite a feat to have a 1996 Prius when the first model year was the 98 in Japan (NHW10) and the "classic" (NHW11) model didn't ship in the US until August 2000.

As for hoping for changes, not sure why you'd hope. http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/82748-my11-prius.html told us long ago the changes would be essentially nil. You'd of course get the benefits of any running production changes and no need for any TSBs that applied to 2010s.

 

Accessory added. Not standard.