I really wish the dealer told/showed me...(post your wishes)

Fortunately, I purchased my Prius from somebody who drives a Gen 1 Prius. He knows the car quite well.

 

Hidden spaces. I found a few around where the spare tire is on my 2016 Prius.
Are there others I should look for?

 

The Climate Control fan speed has a large impact on MPG and its Eco mode does not vary the fan speed.

 

Hmm... I could probably have used a run-through on the vehicle settings that can be altered via the stereo display. That said, there are only ... five or six?

Entertaining stuff the dealer did tell me:

I bought my C used from the dealer.
I got a huge kick out of the page I had to sign acknowledging that I'd been offered all sorts of various warranties and extras. I did a quick mental estimation of the grand total:

The car: 12500.
The extras: 11000.
These ranged from an extended warranty for 2859, to windshield protection for a few hundred, to lifetime key replacement for 700. I realize keys are expensive, but ... no. Surprisingly, they did have both of the original keys.

 

It's amazing how quickly all those extras add up.

Talking with local Prius owners who bought used, it does seem the second key seems to be rather elusive. We were fortunate. Our first Prius had both keys but our current one only had one. The dealer we bought it from threw in having a second smart key made at the local Toyota dealer as part of the purchase.

 

I liked the sales guy, he was honest. Came right out and said this is your second Prius, You know more than I do about them.

 

That is sad. My salesman still drives his Gen 1 Prius.

 

The dealer throwing in a replacement smart key seems more elusive than the actual keys. Well done!

 

The map lights come on automatically when you approach the car with a smartkey. At first I thought Id been leaving the interior lights on.

 

My dad was helping me choose my Prius. He said get the Prius 3 it has better audio. I stupidly didn't look for myself, but took his word for it. The dealer told me (AND I QUOTE) "He's wrong. LITERALLY the only difference in the 2 and 3 is the navigation system." I got the two, went home and looked it up. My dad was right, I should've looked for myself so I would've known to tell the dealer HE'S wrong. Having music playing loudly while driving is a must for me. I really...really wish the dealer had known what he was talking about. I could care less about any other upgrades but MUSIC is very very important.

 

Sadly ironic, but I feel your pain. Sometimes the hardest thing is to trust your own dad when you suspect a salesman to be a 'specialist and expert' ! 99% of the time he's trying to get the best deal for himself, not for you the customer.

 

So true. Truly honest car dealers with the customers' interest at heart are hard to find. We were very fortunate to find one 30 years ago and he's been our "go to" guy since. If he doesn't know something about a car he's not afraid to admit he doesn't know. That's one reason why his small used car lot thrives due to repeat business. People know they can trust him.

 

Wish the salesperson would have told me that the 2017 Prius cannot be fit with a trunk mounted bike rack!! There is apparently no trunk mounted bike rack that will work with the 2017 Prius!!

 

I have read on this forum that there are tow hitch mounted bike racks available to purchase. Does that help now?

 

did you ask before buying the car?
did you do your research before buying the car?
why is it everyone else's fault?

 

How could they expect a trunk mounted bike rack? I guess the dealer did not tell them the Prius Liftback is a hatchback with no trunk lid.

 

I'm going to play devils advocate here. Having grown up in a GM dealership, and finally leaving the field in a GM/Toyota dealership I can tell you stories which you would never believe. (Like being reported to Region monthly/bi-monthly in regards to their "maintenance required" light and as a dealer you failed to "fix" their problem, because now 2, 3 months later it's on again). Or being reported to Region because your 40k over your warranty and are pissed off at the dealership because they won't cover repairs. Or having a Scion brought into your dealership and expecting warranty repair, when at the time you weren't a Scion dealer. Yet being "Informed" by the Scion owner that since Toyota owns Scion that we can indeed perform warranty work. Uh, ok....???

Seriously people - dealers put up with some stupid sh**t from people.

Most of the sales personnel I've known over the years try very hard to help as much as they can, by being as informed as humanly possible. This is how they are making their living. So assuming that a sales person could care less about you, or expecting them to know EVERY detail about a vehicle being sold is quite literally very unfair.

 

I'd sympathise with you on all of that, but if my job was selling a range of vehicles, it would be an imperative to discover details of each model beforehand. Should I not have the detail requested by a customer, my priority would be to find out. There are good salespersons and the are better salespersons. I would aim to be one of the best, or find a different occupation

 

It would make sense to me that someone who plans of selling cars for a long time would do their best to help the customer and in the long run the same person not only would return to the same dealership and ask for the same salesperson that sold them their last car.
Returning customers asking for the same salesperson has got to be easy money.

 

I wish the dealership would have presented trim level options. Had I known that the Prius 3 was only $500 more, or that the Prius Prime was only $1,000 more I would gone with one of those. I love my Prius 2 but wish I had things like automatic headlights and Entune with Navigation.

2017 Prius Two