Upon dropping Prius off for it's second attempted fix, I requested a free loaner car. The service writer said "They only had rental cars" I insisted on a free car, at no cost, etc. He said he could give me a rental car. He persisted along this line until I firmly said that I wanted the Dealership to contact the Coporate office and provide to me in writing why I could not get a free loaner car. After trading back and forth a few times the same arguments, he finally relented and said I could have a rental car at "NO CHARGE" It took quite a bit of persistantcy and firmness for me to have him finally come around. He explained to me that they only do this if the problem was recurrent (it was ) and if there was a safety issue involved. There was, car was stalling, no juice. This particular Dealership is Roseville Toyota at the Auto Mall. Roseville, CA. That is thier policy. Your Dealership may have a different policy. But, be persistent, clear, businesslike and soft spoken, but carry a big stick!
You are entitled to a rental that toyota compensates the dealer for if you car requires more than 8.0 hours to repair. That means 8.0 hours of a tech swinging a wrench on it, not to include down time for parts etc. The ASM caved because you were being a pain. He probably figured you might give him a good survey if he did this for you. You will probably slam the dealer anyway because of your general attitude. Yes the dealer gets the comments back and gets to see who said what. Wait until you realy need help....looks to me like you are burning up your get out of jail free cards to soon. Some of my favored customers have no need for a "loaner or rental" when they come in for major services. If they promise not to crash it they get to drive my supercharged IS300. I have an old beater truck for my yard waste disposal at the rentals, and I just drive that the next day. Strange things happen when you are nice to your technician. No charge saturday flat repairs, my home phone number for jump starts after hours...... Regards, Mike
Andy, I have had 2 loaner cars from my Toyota dealer just for the asking. I think the service dept likes it because then they can 'fit' my car in at will instead of asap. I wonder if certain dealers who have a rental component to their operation have an easier time dispensing loaners than those who must get reimbursed from Toyota? Or perhaps they can tell by my address that I passed up 3 other Toy dealers closer to home and they are showing their appreciation? When it's time for your next purchase consider Santa Rosa Toyota, they've been great with me in all departments.
by technical writer do you mean service writer? no. as my log in name implys I fix them....ie I am just a lowly technian. (speifialy a service team leader with toyota MDT certification). good point about the ease of acsess to another car....we have 6 avaliable for servie customers. If we need more than that, we have to rent one from enterprise, hertz, whoever. Additionally, I can only speak for myself, but I do look at the customer name and address and you can bet if they drove past a sister store to see us they might well get perks others do not. That also goes for those who request me by name to look at thier car....they get extras at no charge. I try everyday to give everyone 110%, but some folks I have no problem giving 125%. There are 500 mechanics in my county. What can I do for you to stand out from the crowd and retain your business? That's my attitude. Regards, Mike
Service Writer is probably the more correct terminology, so a customer can ask for a particular mechanic, technician, service team leader? It would be beneficial for the average customer to be more aware of these distinctions. As for the Loaner car, I suppose dealer policies vary
Thanks for the tip, but Marins a bit far from 20 miles N. of Sacramento, Maybe my car might break down in Sausilito one day tho.
Again policy depends on dealer. Some shops have one prius guy, we have 4. Our store policy is to make you as content as possible, so that means if you want a particular tech, you can request them and we will see that they alone work on it. Additionally if you want to road test or discuss an issue with a tech before write up that will happen as well. Any model not just prius. YMMV Regards, Mike
