PiP test drive question

If you were just tire-kicking... oh well.

But if you're serious about buying, find a salesman who knows what he/she's doing, and make an appointment to drive a charged car.

 

i called ahead and asked them to charge it. when i got there, same thing as you, wouldn't go into ev. when i asked why they didn't chrge it, he said they thought it was already chrged because the battery icon was full.

 

My dealer did the same thing. I went to check the PIPs and asked if it was charged and he said no. I asked about the other 4 they had and not one was charged. This was at about 11am so I asked if they could charge it up and I would be back at 6pm to test it out. He said "no problem, that will be great.

So, I come back at 6 and say lets go test it out. The salesman says it may not be fully charged, I had it plugged in but some one moved it. We get in and it had 3 miles of charge on it , but it was just enough for me to test out the EV power. Which I found be very adequate for around town accelerations.

 

I shopped at two dealerships when I bought my PIP. The first dealership initially refused to charge the car saying they do not even have a charging station. The salesman new very little about the PIP. I was actually teaching her about the car after some initial online research. The second dealership had someone who kept all their cars charged all the time. They were a little better informed but not as much as I would have imagined. I don't understand how someone who is in sales is not completely informed about the product that they are selling. Puts you at a huge disadvantage as a salesman!

 

the problem is, most car salespeople would prefer to sell something like corvettes. if they have any interest in cars to begin with. a lot of them simply can't find other jobs or aren't qualified. a lot of the salespeople around here are qualified to wear a suit and stand outside the front door of the dealership smoking cigarettes.

 

Nope the battery was not charged and my salesman knew absolutely nothing about the car or what it did. He sure spent a lot of time explaining to me how to take the plastic off the floor mats.

Miller Toyota Culver City

 

learned way more about the PiP on youtube than salesman that sold it to us. his only comment was the price was that the dealer discount was really good (which turned out to be false as TFS sweetened the deal a week later)

why would toyota flood the bay area with PiPs with minimal sales and marketing? when the leaf came out, i recall sales events and demo cars driving around the south bay...

 

I believe that the car dealerships still try to sell the car using the time tested methods of last century. They do spend a lot on digital marketing ( see tons of display ads, automated emails without any personal touch even for my replies). I went to Fremont toyota, sales person went in to get a key, but he couldn't even open the car as it had drained. Later for my generic email for quote (through google inventory) I get a response in an email , when I respond back with asking for an appointment, there is no response. But, I keep seeing ads on the browser from these guys. If only, they put bit more effort in harvesting the leads they get. Old salesman ship is about creating excitement if customer is not interested and ignoring when they show interest. Dont know when they can really try to help user with the car features. Every dealership I have gone, I am assigned a sales person who mostly doesn't know anything deep. (most of the time, I felt I knew more going through web pages than the sales guy).

At Fremont Toyota, the sales person was looking at PiP base model and saying, yeah this is loaded, I kept wondering why he is saying that, then I realized he sees the nav screen and thinks that it is loaded. When I asked about advanced, he did not have much idea what I was talking about, then I had to find one in the parking lot to tell him what I was talking about!

In some ways, the stand by Tesla guys to sell on their own makes lot of sense, if a traditional sales guy has so much conflict, how can they sell an electric car that needs different push!

 

The PIP I test drove was not charged. When I arrived all the plugins (8 or 9) were sitting in the middle of the lot. When I asked the sales person I was told the only outlets were in the back where they park the sold cars and the cars in for service. In my usual style I suggested setting a special section for plugins that includes access to outlets.
Question: Is this an issue for Toyota USA? It suggest they are not doing an adequate job of training their sales team or dealerships. Many dealers may not be aware of the difference between a hybrid and a plugin hybrid. I assume most dealership would not altering their facilities or buy extra charging cables without knowing if their investment will pay off. Toyota USA needs to provide training and/or incentives to help improve the situation.

 

My dealer had charged up PiP available.
However, someone else who came in about the same time took that car for Test Drive as that PiP was dealer's designated demo PiP.
Therefore I wasn't able to test drive charged PiP, but was able to pick out any PiP for test drive.

 

Both of the PiP's I test drove including the one I eventually purchased were completely drained off battery. It didn't matter to me. The salesman whom sold it to me knew next to nothing on the PiP. Again, this meant nothing to me. I had already done my own research.

I wonder if all of you are asking for too much. The PiP is an extremely low volume seller. A salesman can only memorize so much. I don't disagree that a good dealer would know everything about the PiP and be properly trained. But I don't think they're necessairly "bad" for not being familiar with the car. There were maybe 6 PiP's at the dealer I purchased from. There were some 30 or 40 regular Prius and hundreds of other Toyota models. If I were the owner, I would prioritize myself on the volume sellers.

It is no different at the local Best Buy or Lowe's. I don't put faith on the saleman knowing anything about electronics or home repairs.

 

There's a reason why Dianne Whitmire sold more Prius Plug-ins in April than the rest of the country's dealerships combined.

Heck, I bought my Prius from her, and I haven't even met her.

 

The dealership I purchased my PIP from had my test drive car charged and read to go, they have a level 2 Leviton installed right outside the service dept.. I purchased a car the next week. When I arrived at the dealership my car to be was plugged in and waiting for me.

 

Berkeley Toyota doesn't charge their cars, when I asked why, I was told "it drives just like a regular Prius and makes no difference".
I tried to contradict but it was useless.
What was even worse was when I suggested that they plug the car into an outlet that was literally 3 feet away from where it was parked, I got an insanely condescending "yeah we'll be sure to look into that" response. At least their parts people are nice, but I sure have no desire to set foot in that dealership again. Except to maybe remind them why they lost my business and how I was willing to FLY just to get a car from a different dealer.

 

The first dealer I visited did not have a charged up PIP. And they would not negotiate the price. Mossey Toyota had charged up demos and did negotiate the price. So, I bought my PIP from them. (San Diego)