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

You will realize as you get older and wiser that sometimes things are not communicated optimally. Perhaps because I am older too, I knew what @RCO meant.
Old age is better than the alternative though.

 

Dang! I got a handle on the older aspect, is just the wiser part I'm really struggling with.

 

My first post! And my first Prius. A Prius Prime.

Now that I have a Prius, I've determined the dealer did a lousy job of explaining things to me. Several of the cars owned by my company are Prius models. I've driven one of them for a few miles, but I should have told the dealer "No, I've never driven a Prius". I never asked the dealer what options are available on the different models. Mistake #2 on my part. Only after I hooked up the charging cable on my Prius did I realize my cable does not lock in the charging port. I presumed all models had a locking port. Mistake #3 for me. There's what looks like a button by the port, but it is not a button. Luckily I live on a very rural road. I'm sure there will be other things I'm going to find that I wish I had asked about.

The driver's side mirror is lousy. I've noticed the same problem on the Prius models where I work. The reflection near the edges is kind of wavy. I use my side mirrors frequently. When I was taught to drive in the early 70's, I learned to glance very briefly in my mirrors about every 20-30 seconds. My butt was saved several years ago by doing that. I was stopped at a traffic signal and a dump truck approaching from the rear was coming too fast. I quickly turned right. The dump truck went right through the red light.

Not too happy with the car, but I would not be happy with most new cars anyway. I'm 62 yo and from the "old school". All my cars since the late 1970's have been diesels with manual transmissions. Even though my line of work since the mid 1990's has been in the computer field (database administration), I like a car with mechanical guts; not a "Microsoft car". I hope I get use to my Prius.

 

Prius chat has been my best teacher. Great response and technical entries

 

i wish the dealer had shown me priuschat

 

It may be helpful to all you newbies to know that if your dash lights all go out (and at some point they will) there is an extended warranty, but it usually just misses you. Yes, that is by design. At any rate, the issue is likely the combination meter if all your dash lights go out, but your car still runs. You may also have issues getting it to turn off.

I found a fix for mine that took seconds and didn't involve me spending any money. It was from someone who had already spent money fixing his and then still had to use this sequence to turn it back on.

• Without stepping on the brake press the start button
• Now press and hold the "info" button while turning the headlights on and off 3 times.
• When the diagnostic screen appears on the console, press the start button without stepping on the brake.
• Display comes on and you can now turn the car off and start normally with display.

For me, the screen did not turn on so I just pressed the power button and the lights all came on. I pressed the brake and power then everything came on. I almost cried because I thought I would have to spend at least $600-800 to get this fixed.

If at first you don't succeed, keep digging around on the internet until you find what you need! Have a great day everyone!

 

Just bought a 2019 LE to replace my wife's dying 2007 Imprezza. We looked at a Prime for grins (a little too rich for our wallet) and had a brief argument with the salesman who insisted it was an EV and that it had no gasoline engine. When I pointed to the engine specs on the window sticker he huffed and went inside to confirm with his manager. It took 5 hours to get out of there with the car we knew we wanted and the salesman said "I'd ask if you had any questions, but you know more about this thing than I do." And I know VERY little. But he was right. For one thing, I read the window sticker. They gave us no useful info at all and couldn't answer any questions. The guy didn't even know, or wouldn't say, what their incentives were. If we hadn't needed the car quickly and known that their price was in the ballpark, we'd have walked. Happy with the car, but the buying experience was terrible. I'm grateful for this forum to fill in all the many blanks!

 

I wouldn't do that though, more of a safety feature. Would keep someone jumping into your car when just unlocking the driver door

 

Was nice of him to be candid.

 

I wish someone had told me you can't jumpstart a hybrid like you would with other cars. Luckily, I already suspected you couldn't do it and checked this site for reassurance.

 

christ this would've been good to know before.....

 

That they can change the reverse beep to 1. I had to find that out on here.

 

They do not mention it in the Customizations section of the manual?

 

I bet this whole thread would be a lot shorter if the only stuff you were allowed to wish the dealer told you was stuff that's not in the manual anywhere.

 

I will say my Gen 1 Prius owning salesman spent 45 minutes in the car reviewing and demonstrating its features before we even drove it. He knew we were familiar with our son’s Prius.

 

Same here when we bought the first time from Todd at Tampa Hybrids. The next five cars, I guess he figured that we knew the ropes by then. But I've seen that he still spends lots and lots of time getting new owners acquainted with their Prius.

 

You CAN jump start a Prius; the instruction's in the Owner's Manual. That said, you want to be VERY careful to not swap cables (neg for pos), or "short" (providing the electricity a short-direct path from pos to neg, that can ruin your day...), and carefully follow the connect/disconnect order shown in manual. And consider it a stop-gap measure, just to get you somewhere safe, then charge or replace the battery.

 

Although this was the first car I bought from him personally it was the 4th car our family purchased from him and the 3rd Prius. One of my cars was purchased from the same dealer but a different salesman. Even then Sam made sure he said hello to me when I picked up that car.

 

that the car has a blown head gasket :/

 

OUCH.

I wish mine had told me they weren't actually going to fix the chip in the windshield (as verbally promised). And that they were giving me only one keyless remote. (I got my car delivered from CA so I didn't realize this until the transporter handed me "the key.")