Devestating experience at the dealer/ done with Toyota?!

Wow.

What a nightmare. I will whole-heartedly say that is most definitly not the way most Toyota folk work. I had a most enjoyable experiance at Avondale Toyota, over on the west side. Was there any paper trail indicating the delivery date and the intended car? If so, that could be support to go to a lawer or up to Toyota corporate. I don't think I would accept a car from that dealership, though, ever. At this point, I would try to get your deposit back and RUN somewhere else. If they say a car was "damaged," without giving any specifics, and still trying to get full price, I think they are full of huey. Try several dealears to see when they have Prii coming in and get on their lists.

 

You've done precisely what you should do with that letter, however you should also copy it to the general manager of the dealership and to a litigator, the litigator moreso for the effect it will have on the GM of the dealership and on Toyota.

While your experience is not typical, Toyota customer service is fairly poor in my experience.

 

That's really sad.

What makes it worse is that you see others with their Prius or on PC talking about their Prius and can't join in, as it were.

Unfortuately dealerships vary from place to place. I got my Prius online and it was in stock, but I don't get my servicing done there.

 

Unbelievable. I'm really sorry to hear about this and can understand the bad taste left in your mouth.

I am not overly fond of dealer's and their tactics (the previous two dealer's I bought from were definitely not glowing examples of sainthood.) My experience with the Toyota dealer went relatively well. The sales person was on top of things and not pushy. The finance guy was, well let's say, a finance guy, but I can overlook that. My next step is EW. We'll see how that goes. And finally service. If that goes well I'll be happy. Let's hope Toyota doesn't let me (or better yet us) down.

I get the idea that Toyota strives to hold a high standard in the auto industry. As with all families there are bad eggs here and there. If you were truly looking at getting a Prius you shouldn't give up yet. Try another dealer if you are willing to give Toyota another shot. Have you had a chance to test drive one yet? If not give it a spin. I usually know if a car is right for me when I sit in it. If it feels like a glove I'm in, if not....I'm out in a heartbeat.

Either way good luck and enjoy whatever you choose to purchase. B)

 

If you take a day off and call around to dealerships within 500 miles you will find your car today. I have found many Prius for my friends, my wife and me. I flew 1000 miles to get mine 2 years ago but I had it the day after I finally got tired of waiting and decided to get a car no matter what. It's been a great experience. Good luck.

 

WOW, I am so sorry to hear about your experience. I would like to assure you that your experience with this particular dealership is NOT typical of all toyota dealerships. I purchased my 2006 Prius through LaRiche Toyota-Subaru in Findlay Ohio. http://www.toyotabob.com I signed for the car and put down a $300.00 deposit on february 27th and took delivery on April 14th. Almost right on schedule... the delivery truck my car was on disappeared for 3 days, go figure... but the dealership and my salesperson was kind enough to humor me and keep me informed.

The car and the purchase experience was great. I also orded a 10-disc CD changer with my car to be installed. I just had it installed yesterday and they gave me a 2006 balck toyota matrix to drive around free of charge while they took the car to a audio place to hve the changer system installed. My sales person took the tim to personally pull the car up for me, show me how to use the changer, and I had similar treatment hen I took delivery of my car, although I think I may have known more about the prius that they did (thanks to PriusChat.com!) It was nice to be able to show them how to enable/disable the smart key-smart entry system

Lariche has recieved numerous "presidents awards" and other accolades from toyota for their excellent service, although most auto dealerships in the Findlay area are known for their service (people in the Findlay area can be VERY demanding... I know, try working in a restaurant or retail store around here!)



I checked their website and this is why they list going through them, and I can say on LaRiche's Behalf that this is ALL true, as I have a 2006 Prius from them, and my mother has gotten 2 2006 Toytoa Highlanders, a 1997 toyota t-100 pickup truck, a 1996 subaru outback (the car I learned to drive in) and a 1992 subaru legacy wagon.

// If you do not see active content in this spacethen you must enable JavaScript. Due to changes to Internet Explorer, all 'active' content must be loaded dynamically into a container, which requiresthat JavaScript be turned on in your browser.

Our goal is 100% Customer Satisfaction. From beginning to end we want this to be your best vehicle purchase experience ever. We want to hear from you if you are not fully satisfied.</span></span>

I dont want to sound like a paid advert for them but they stick to those policies very well.

So, Long story short, I would say you had the misfortune of finding one of Toyota's bad apple dealerships, I would do all you can to get the word to the corporate toyota management about this dealership and work with you local media (as it seems you have begun to do) do get the word out.. (i.e. Three on your side, etc)

However, I would still strongly suggest still trying to get a prius, albiet from a different dealer (I do hope you got your deposit back from them right????)



Good luck and god bless!

 

Wow, that really stinks. One thing I don't understand is why would you sell your car before your new one had arrived? A friend of mine did that 3 years ago, he sold it the day before his new car was to arrive. New car comes in on the car carrie and as the guy is unloading the car one of the ramps breaks and car crashes to the ground. It took them another 7 weeks to get him a new car. He was on the hook for 1/2 of the rental

 

unreal. i'm sorry this happened to you, that is a bad business and it's good you're spreading the word.

but the first rule in dealing with a car purchase is to protect yourself above all. never believe any delivery date they give you. there are too many variables and too many chances for them to sell 'your' car off to the highest bidder as it sounds like they did. selling your car in anticipation of getting the prius made you vulnerable. never sell your old car until you have the new one in your posession.

the tax credit should go through september at least (probably longer) and as others have said you can spend a day on the phone and get your hands on a prius. back in january many people did this tactic rather than sit and wait around for ever-changing delivery dates.

you don't have to deal with your local place, especially if they are as bad as they sound. dealers are familiar with people crossing state lines to buy a prius.

definitely keep on spreading the word about these people, the more business they lose over this the better. good luck.

 

Well, now I'm terrified, because I placed an "order" for my new silver, package 5 with leather, and Fowler Toyota in Dallas swears I will have it within 6 weeks. They, like your dealership, assured me that they could request a specific color and package. (I was willing to give them 3 colors from which to choose.) I just hope your situation turns out fine soon. As I hope mine does.

I will say that most dealerships I talked to were willing to sell one Prii or another within a week or so if it was one that wasn't already sold...the only catch is it might not be the exact color or package you had in mind. If I were in your shoes and carless, I would definitely take your lunch hour today to call all the dealerships in your city and ask for the package you want, don't specify a color...just ask what they have inbound, and you should be able to find your package within a day or two of phoning. After that, you'll probably take possession in a week or two. Don't forget to report these liars to the BBB. Blech.

 

I believe sending the letter with copies as indicated is the best remedy for this type of problem. I also agree that if you just get on the telephone you will find your Prius in short order. Unlike others, I say get the color and package you want, not what they are willing to give you. It took me about 3 weeks to get my Tidelands loaded Prius back in January of 2005 when everyone was saying 6 to 9 month wait. I also did not pay any additional fees or for additional unwanted options. Spend the time on the phone and you will find one. Good luck and best wishes in your search.

 

Rent a real common car a few states away (something like a typical colored Toyota Corolla or something), go to the dealership on some strategic night (preferably when it's raining, taking into consideration where it's located, the volume of traffic at certain times, etc.). Maybe 1/2 mile prior to reaching the dealership, stop in some area where there are no cams in sight (atm cams, in-store cams that might be looking out windows, etc.), and either obfuscate or remove the license plates. Get back in the car, and be sure to wear a large baseball-type hat with no markings, preferably black, long sleeve black shirt (make sure you have NO jewelery, watches, wedding bands, etc., black ill-fitting (far too small for your hands, think OJ!) beat up leather gloves, over sized sunglasses, and if you can, hair extensions tucked under the hat to make it seem like you either have a mullet, or long hair. If you can, grow a goatee or beard prior to this, or even use camo paint that you can quickly remove, or even a simple black bandana, whatever works best. Then, showtime... Drive up to the main entrance, and toss a brick through one of those nice big dealership windows if they have one....

h34r:

 

"Unlike others, I say get the color and package you want, not what they are willing to give you."

I agree, if at all possible given your transportation situation. Our dealer, expecting arrival of colors, and packages, that we weren't keen on, rather than pushing us to buy one they were already getting, accepted our $500 DP on 4/3/06 and, had our requested red #4 ready and waiting 24 days later, although we couldn't get there for another loooooooonnnngg 24 hours, lol. The sales manager seemed to spend a lot of time on the phone tracking down cars for clients.

BTW, If that dealership treated you and your friend like that, it seems a safe bet there are other badly treated car buyers in their past...might be something interesting to have someone look into......or threaten to look into.

 

Where are you from that you've never heard you should be cautious when buying a car?

Do you have a written "Promised Delivery Date" along with dealer ramifications for missing that date? I doubt it since I'm sure they would never give you that. They gave you a verbal date and you went gonzo on that. Going gonzo on that was a mistake that you made.

I think it was generous for them to let you drive the fleet vehicle. Why didn't they extend that rather than doing a rental car? Very strange.

Were you new to PriusChat.com after you put down your deposit and sold your car? You wouldn't have to spend long on here to know that the delivery dates are a 'guess' on a good day. Very few get their cars early, very many get them late, and almost nobody gets their car on the original estimated date.

You waited a whole 43 days before this catastrophy in your life. hahahahaaa... Do you know how short that is for a Prius?

I have no choice but to say that I think this is 90% your fault and your problem. It was your mistake to sell your car without having your prius in the driveway. I'm no rocket scientist, but I knew when I was told I'd see my car end of January that it was going to be as much as 2 months after that, and maybe a week early if I was lucky. I used common sense to come up with that estimate. It came about 3 weeks later than estimated. Not bad for having 5 months lead time and they didn't even know what the options would be on the 2006 when I ordered it.

I can only imagine how you treated the dealer in order for them to tell you to hit the road. Either you were very nasty to them, or they are a really bad dealership. I can't see even the most incompetent dealer dismissing a sale to someone who was acting civil. They just don't do that.

Bottom line, you brought this on yourself. The Prius is still a great car and maybe you learned from your mistakes.

I'd love to see the story from the side of the dealer and hear about the customer.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FJRCRAZED @ May 9 2006, 06:09 AM) [snapback]252070[/snapback]</div>

I agree with this statement. I would not have sold the Sport Trac until after I had my car in hand if I had gone on a waiting list. I was lucky enough to deal with Carlsbad Toyota and no wait. I've never been happier with a dealership. I think that I was especially surprised that you would sell your car or even continue dealing with these people based on this quote in your letter: Because I had a question about one of Tracey’s claims, I called Toyota Corporate to confirm that it was in fact possible to special order this particular car, as I had heard otherwise. I was informed that Tracey was misleading me and was asked for her information.

Many folks here have suggesting casting a wide net and negotiating with more than one dealer. Calling around doesn't hurt anyone. Daron is being a bit harsher than I am but I agree with him. You seem naive about the process, it doesn't seem to me that you have done that much reading of PC threads on purchases.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ May 9 2006, 10:39 AM) [snapback]252111[/snapback]</div>

Well, ok, you're right, maybe that is a bit too extreme....


Here's an idea I saw being implemented once, and it worked GREAT in getting the dealership a lot of bad press.... Maybe this mechanism can somehow be applied to this situation, so I'll throw it out there:

Apparently, some customer got a bad deal on a car from a local dealership. What they did was this: They parked the car in a public parking area adjacent to a busy intersection, and from the inside, plastered all the windows with flourescent paper describing exactly what had happened. They even attached a couple balloons, gave you the impression the car was being sold, but you could see there was sooo much writing on the flourescent panels, you just HAD to see what it was all about.... They managed to park it there every day for a few weeks. I know for a fact it caught the dealer's attention, because at around the same time, I had purchased a car from the very same dealer, and when I asked the sales creature (thanks Evan!) about it, she said, "Yeah, we've been having meetings about that...." :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ray Moore @ May 9 2006, 04:58 AM) [snapback]252049[/snapback]</div>

This is similar to what I did....and I found an inbound car to my specs within 4 days at a dealership 250 miles away.

try this via the internet.......
GO TO CARS.COM and build your new car there, specifying your color/package/etc. I believe there's a COMMENTS section for any text you want to enter.

you can query up to 3 dealers at once with your zip code (or one nearby); if you hit BACK, you can query 3 more dealers until you've hit them all.

good luck and report back to us.

 

Hi joy....

Had you considered purchasing an "in stock" Prius in another state, flying and driving it home? There always seem to be Prius immediately available if you have at least a small degree of flexibility. What with being "devoid of transportation" presently, a trade-in is apparently not a factor.

In the 18 months we have enjoyed our Prius, I have noted that almost always, Prius were in stock for immediate delivery somewhere, like Virginia, Chicago, etc.

Don't give up. Rather than "beating a dead horse" consider the alternatives.