So, here's an idea for a thread. How about everyone share the bogus, incorrect, just plain un-informed things your dealers may have told you about your new techno-wonder-mobile. For instance, I've read: "you have to put the shifter in B occasionally to charge the battery" Okay, so here's mine: I had a damaged tire replaced by the dealer, like it recommends in the owner's manual, because the tire pressure sensor can be easily damaged. Sure enough, the dealer damaged it. As I'm driving away from the dealer, the TPMS light comes on. I check the tire pressures and do the reset thing. Three trips back to the dealer to get it fixed. At one point the service writer tells me they have to check the tire pressures (I'd done that already, but okay...). He says: "The tire pressure light will come on if the pressures aren't the same in all the tires. Even if they're off by a pound or two, it can make the light come on. " Later: "Well, that wasn't it. I had them check all the tires, even the spare, but the light won't go out." I didn't remind him that door sticker actually call out 35 front / 33 rear, which is, of course, 2 pounds difference between tires. Or that normal pressure for the spare is something like 60. Or that the spare doesn't have a sensor. Okay, your turn...
Sales guy: "Even though the car will arrive in 2 weeks, I can give you the VIN today so that you can start driving in the carpool lane tomorrow (!)". Finance guy: "The prepaid maintenance plan includes 3 major services, the retail costs of those 3 services alone will be more than the cost of the plan (quoted $1,400)". Same guy: "My cost for the extended warranty is $2380, I will sell it to you at $1 over my cost, how's that?" Another finance guy: "You can't buy the extended warranty anymore after market." I forgive them since I look past theor statements anyway and the car has been great.
I don't recall any glaring inaccuracies worth mentioning here about the Prius, but I recall the head salesman at a Honda dealer telling a customer the CR-V has the same engine as an S-2000. At the time, the only similarity was displacement. I was shocked at how stupid salesmen can be.
"It's not possible to turn off the revere beeper" "No-one makes a hitch for a prius. You can't put a bike rack on the back or the roof" "No, it's not possible to change the display behavior to stay on the screen you have selected. It will always go back to the Info screen" All the above from the same guy here in Colorado. When talking with multiple dealers in Salt Lake via phone who were all competing to get my business on the one car available in the region in my desired color and package, 3 dealers had quoted my MSRP plus their dealer handling charge (which I negotiatied away), but one dealer quoted $3000 above MSRP. When I called him on it he said "Everyone here in Salt Lake is getting way over MSRP". Needless to say, they did not get the sale.
I think i really lucked out... the dealer didn't try to tell me about the car (although he did point out the different storage compartments)... instead, he sat there for 45 minutes while i explained everything to him, asking questions the whole time!
The bogus statement my dealer told me was really my fault for not checking more closely. He told me my car had side air bags. It didn't. Peace --
"If you don't get the extended warranty now for $1997, you can't get it later." "If you get extended warranty later, it won't be the Platinum plan. Once the car leaves the lot, Toyota treats it like a used car. You can only get the Gold plan, whic is more expensive." Of course, both BS!
My favorite was at the Honda lot, where I was test driving a Hybrid. "I wouldn't really worry about gas. I have a friend at the Fed and he tells me that gas will be 1.50 by Christmas. You should get an Accord." How about I get the hell off your lot.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sl7vk @ Sep 6 2006, 10:43 AM) [snapback]315139[/snapback]</div> I also heard about Honda dealers will tell you that you need 6 steps to start a Prius, or something similar. :lol:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NASA guy @ Sep 5 2006, 11:26 PM) [snapback]315043[/snapback]</div> Or: "If you want to run the Prius on battery alone, shift to B" You have to admit, if you could set it up that way, that would be a trippy way to activate the EV mode. P.S. I didn't get any misinformation as they knew I was a member of one of the Yahoo groups. Of course that also meant that they didn't tell me how the SKS worked. I had the idea that you pushed the little black button on the door to UNlock and didn't find out until I read the manual.
My sales guy asked the "Ole Pro" salesman how long the IRS tax credit went & we were told only until 9/01/06. This was like 8/10/06. Glad that we had read that is was in fact thru 9/30/06. Best. Bill in FL
In response to "What does the climate AUTO button do?": "It puts the A/C on high." And from another salesman, on my pre-delivery walk-through: "When you drive with the radio on, you've got a lot of other noise from the road, etc. and with the ASL it'll take out a lot of that noise to give you a better sound from the radio."
No lies from my dealer, he knew almost nothing about the vehicle. We couldn't even start it until I found the pad of valet cards in the center console :lol: He really knew his stuff when it came time to pick mine up though, so I give him credit for that
The 2 sales people I dealt with, and the finance manager who set up my loan all gave me accurate information and fair treatment. When they didn't know something about the car they were very straightforward with me about not knowing the answer. I should also mention that on my first drive in the new car, the salesman gave me correct instructions on using "B", so that alone should be enough to highly recommend them
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PA @ Sep 6 2006, 12:04 PM) [snapback]315194[/snapback]</div> We got that one too. Also, his definition of Vehicle Stability control was actually the description of traction control, and he said the screw in tow eye was because "that's how they tow cars in Japan". The finance guy kept trying to convince me the service plan was anything more then an extended warrenty. Said it would cover parts that failed for any reason, where the warrenty only covered factory defects. I asked for an example of a failure that would not be covered by the standard warrenty that would be covered by the service plan in the first three years, and he could not provide an answer. We passed, and will buy from Troy if we decide we need it. Alan
The dealer told me the usual "B is for driving on the battery." They also said that the cabin filter was almost impossible to change and that it was very important to bring it back to the dealer so they could change it. I guess I looked like I couldn't possibly pop the glove box door off? Or maybe that I had lots of money to give them.
