I think dealer switched tire brands on me.

Hi Charlie,

Both Michelin and Bridgestone are A-brand tires, top of the market. About the same pricing.
A dealer often doesn't know with what type of tires the new cars will be delivered. So i think there is no real problem.

 

Probably a differnt car not different wheels and tires. I don't think the dealer would bother switching out the tires or the wheels and tires. Both the Bridgestones and Michelins are OE tires.

 

This is not common practice. If you feel you can prove the dealer was intentionally deceptive I'd confront them and threaten further action until they put the Michelins back on. IMO and IME Bridgestones are not even close to the quality and handling of Michelins. It's worth fighting for.

 

What would the dealer benefit from doing this?

It's much more likely that you simply didn't notice that their car (now your car) had the other OEM tires mounted.
When you buy a car, you (eventually) sign a hunk of paper that transfers ownership from them to you. Before you do this, it's usually a pretty good idea to do a bumper to bumper inspection to look for issues that may be present that the dealer would be responsible for (stains inside, scratches outside, missing interior fittings, etc.) until you sign that paper.
After that......it's allllll you baby!

Scratch?
What Scratch?
There was no scratch there before you bought it!

Like I said...let's pretend that you're 100-percent SURE that the car had Michelins mounted before you took ownership, and the dealer switched them.
Why would they do this?
(more importantly!) Can you prove that they did?

Sorry, but if it's that important to you, you should have paused in your new car purchasing bliss and performed a more thorough inspection of the car before you took delivery.


OK...so that's the bad news.
Here's some good news.
Not all customers are difficult, demanding, and unreasonable. There are very rare examples where dealers practice in chicanery like selling cars that they know to be damaged during delivery.....switching out OEM equipment.....reneging on unwritten promises....etc.
In case you're one of the more humorless people on the forum, that was sarcasm.
Danny still hasn't fixed that font.

There's a feedback loop for the customer...actually there are several.
1. Go to the dealer and explain your concern. If they're somewhat concerned about daffy old-school things like customer satisfaction they "might" switch out the tires and saddle some other (perhaps less persnickety) customer with the other tires. This isn't as easy as you might think. This is 2012. Tires have s/n's. They might just track tire serial numbers with VIN numbers at Toyota and "prove" to you that you have the tires that came with the car. Or....they might switch them out just to get you out of their hair.
2. If you can't reach an agreement or they're jerks, or even if you're the jerk (just covering all of the bases here!) you can slam them on the customer feedback form. Grab a thesaurus and really go to town in the part where you can write additional comments. Have some fun with it.
3. If (1) or (2) above don't meet your need, then Toyota has some form of regional customer satisfaction branch that you can pop a flare over with your concern. Be sure and get the name (or business card) of the SALES MANAGER.

Failing all of this.....you can do what I had to do once. It takes some stamps and/or a fax and a little research. Find out who the owner of this dealer is and ping on them. Contact the BBB and/or the Chamber of Commerce. Then, start climbing the food chain of Toyota, USA with some interesting faxes.

If you're complaint is valid, it will certainly get traction eventually.
I got a call one time from one of Ed Witacre's lackeys when I was overseas in the desert over a military discount that Saturn said I was ineligible for (THOSE were some embarrassing letters and faxes!!) It took a little while.....but I did get the discount...and a written apology.....and a free warranty.
Justice does happen sometimes.

Just please make sure you're on the right side of right and wrong before you launch your crusade!

Good Luck!
Really...it's probably a misunderstanding that 5-minutes on a PC can fix.



Crap.....as if this post weren't long enough already, I forgot one last important thought!

:welcome: Welcome to PriusChat! I wish you well with your new car!

 

Clarification?

If you test drove, and made the deal FOR the exact vehicle you drove off the lot, and when you test drove and dealt for the vehicle it had Michelin Tires, then YOU SHOULD receive that vehicle with the Michelin Tires.

You sign a purchase contract with a vehicle VIN and that is the vehicle you are purchasing and receiving. If when you were looking at it and dealing for it, it had Michelin tires? You should of received it WITH the same tires.

However, the first step is to talk to the dealership. Just tell them you noticed that your Prius had Michelin Tires and you've personally had a good history with them, and that you'd like the tires you saw on the vehicle when you purchased it.

Also, The Key is did you check the tires on the one you purchased BEFORE purchasing it? Seeing a row of Prius with Michelin Tires means nothing. Are you sure the one you test drove had Michelin on them? If you are 100% sure? Then I'd say the dealership shouldn't of switched them. If you are NOT sure? Then they can say yours happened to have Bridgestone...

 

OP - have you asked the dealer?

 

When we purchased our Prius I noticed on the lot new Prius's with several different brands of tires on the cars. That was one of the criteria's that made me select one specific car vs. another. You may have seen a line of cars with Michelin's but the specific car you selected had Bridgestone tires. It does not seem that would have been the dealers responsibility.

 

... and go look at the tires on the remaining display vehicles, before you ask them about it.

While it doesn't apply to your model, a previous thread, What tires did you get on your 2010?, shows how much variation in tire makes and models we experienced on the first Gen3s.

 

Your info says you an '11 Prius. For the non-v wagon '11 Prius Two, Tirerack at Tire Search Results mentions there are 3 possible OEM tires: Bridgestone Ecopia EP20, Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max or Yokohama Avid S33D.

For the '11 Prius Five at Tire Search Results says the choices were Michelin Pilot HX MXM4 and Bridgestone Turanza EL400-02.

For the '12 Prius v Two at http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...Rating=V&minLoadRating=S&tab=OE&filterType=oe, it only lists Yokohama BluEarth S34, but I don't know if their info is complete.

 

The opportunity to sell a car to someone who wants a certain brand of tire.

When I bought my Gen3 and was checking out the new cars on the lot, I asked the saleman if I could get tires swapped between cars if I found the car I wanted with tires I didn't want. He said they would swap them between cars at no charge.

I suspect that is an unusual request.

 

Which tire company warranty brochure came with your car? That's what it was built with more than likely. Theres no profit motive for a dealer to switch tires as you suggest. So the dealer goes out and buys Bridgestones, takes 1-2 hours of labor switching tires, balancing and installing the tires and then what? How many people buy tires from a car dealer?

 

To the OP?

Have you discussed this with the dealership? In as non-confrontational way as possible?

It might not be a big deal. They shouldn't do it, switch tires, but if you indeed caught them? They might be willing to give you a set of Michelins just to keep you happy and quiet.

There really is nothing anyone in Prius Chat can do about it. The first step I would think would be to calmly mention that you and your friend thought the vehicle came with Michelin Tires...and just see what they say.

Ultimately they can deny it, and perhaps you will be stuck with the Bridgestones..but I'd first calmly and rationally voice your concern and desire.

 

I just do not see it - in terms of perceived value Bridgestone/Michelin is sort of like Coke versus Pepsi. Now if you would up with some no-name tire I might agree. Let's put it this way - if Toyota thought one of the tire options was significantly better than the others don't you think that they would put it on a specific model or have an up-charge for it?

You say that the entire row of cars had Michelin tires - was the specific car that you wanted in that row? Was there more than 1 row of them?

If this was so very important to you why did you not check the car before taking delivery or be sure to have the sales person note it on the sales contract - pre-sale I'm sure they would have ensured that you had the tires that you wanted.

 

The dealer did nothing wrong. This is how Toyota makes the cars, by using tires from several OEM's.

My Prius came with Bridgestone tires, and they've given me 35,000 trouble-free miles so far. You should know that, when it's time to replace the tires, if you don't use special Low Rolling Resistance tires, mileage will be reduced.

 

Charlie,

I don't think the dealer switched tires on you. As with the 3rd Gen Prius hatchback, I think Toyota is putting more than one brand and model of tire on the Prius v.

Here in NYC, my brother just got a Prius v Two like yours. It too came with Bridgestone Turanza EL400-02 Ecopia tires.

[IMGLINK]http://priuschat.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34144&d=1326229261[/IMGLINK]

 

If you go to any Toyota dealer, you'll see that the Prius have Bridgestone, Michelin and Yokohama.

You saw all Michelin when you first looked.... Look again.