Do (or should) Toyota dealers provide courtesy charging for Toyota Primes and Plug-ins?

Tthey would save a money in ev for test drives if they would just charge them up. No need to burn any gas at all, and the display would show 199 mpg which is a lot more impressive than the 54 or so you would get (assuming decent driver) in HV mode. Just goes to show that they either don't know or don't care about selling primes.

 

That's what I use, well, mines a cheapo Schwinn, works fine.

Regarding the oft repeated refrain of this thread, that the dealership owes you anything more than a prep'd car, eludes me. Put yourself in their shoes; you're in love with this thing (to put it politely) and will buy it anyway: where's the upside. Seriously: cut the check, off you go.

 

Bought my prime at bernardi toyota in framingham mass. They delivered it to me with a full tank, fully charged battery and a scratched bumper.
Bumper is being fixed next week. No arguments about it and it sounds like they will doing it the right way

 

that's where i got my pip. how many primes did they have left?

 

Half of the chargers in Huntsville are at dealers and locked up at night.

Bob Wilson

 

Where I come from, we just call that STUPID!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
AChoiredTaste.com

 

We call it SouthEast Toyota.

Bob Wilson

 

Not to necessarily side with dealers, but the current cut-throat pricing of Primes particularly on the East Coast, and Northeast can't be helpful to dealer margins in the long haul. I know many here have some pretty potent vitriol for some dealers (and I'm sure it's frequently justified), but many dealers are good business people trying to make a living. They provide support to, have genuine interest for, and care for us clients. These GOOD GUYS/GALS need to be called out so all of us can support them and avoid the scum! I was a vehicle salesman for some 23 years, never in my wildest dreams thinking I would or could ever be a salesman!! Prior to becoming a salesman, I viewd this as a disgusting, dishonorable, skanky job (not a Profession). Yet I was amazed at the level of PROFESSIONALISM I encountered in this industry. Yeah, there are skanks and lizards, but there also are kind, caring, honest professionals who WILL treat you square.
My standing joke to clients has been, "If you can't trust a salesman, who can you trust?! Yeah you can trust a politician, a lawyer, your Ex, your general contractor, your teenager, your doctor, and so on!"

Somebody once told me that "the reason people hate salesmen is because salesmen are the ones who get into your wallets!!"
But remember, you DO have free will; you can always say "No!"

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
AChoiredTaste.com

 

I'm OK with the sales folks who handle retail but I don't expect them to know the technology like this retired engineer.

The problem is SouthEast Toyota Region has a well deserved, bad reputation. I've seen some rumbling about Gulf Region too but with Toyota HQ in Texas, I suspect they are on a shorter leash.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm in Capital region of NY and I see LOTs of EV's in the parking lots around here at work and we have no place close by to plug in. This is in an area of colleges (university heights), gov agencies, hospitals/medical buildings, hotels and commercial businesses- yet there's not one charging station in the immediate area! The closest one is almost a mile away (and free) but my job doesn't allow me the flexibility to be away from my station for the amount of time it would take to get there and back on a good weather day; and definitely wouldn't be able to get there and back in a timely manner in the winter or when it's pouring rain. And when I asked about plugging it in at work, that was an emphatic no-way in heck. I'm seriously thinking of putting an ad on Craigs list to inquire if any of the locals would allow me to park out in front of their place to charge for a fee in the winter, because I couldn't make it there and back on a charge. I'm going to guess the same may happen in the summer now when I have to run the A/C for any extended period of time, but so far I've been able to use it sparingly and still make it home.

 

@HPrimeAdvanced: I don't know what you mean about pricing of the dealers in the northeast being cut-throat. If anything they don't want to deal.
At least in NYS. The state is giving the incentives, through dealerships that have registered through them, it's not the dealers.
And actually the surrounding states were discounting the pricing more so than the dealers in NYS were doing. (Possibly to draw buyers from NY due to the states EV incentives.) Plus the New England Boston and NY state dealers got a greater cash back incentive than the New England VT dealers got from Toyota at the time I was looking.

 

@MMBH, is it that imperative that you charge during the day? You can charge overnight at home? The plug-in IS a hybrid; it's not the end of the world to run the engine once in a while.

 

It's obviously not imperative to charge during the day as it's a gas/electric hybrid

BUT.... in the winter, there is no way I'll be able to fully make it to and from work on the initial charge I'll obtain overnight at home-
due to the extra drawing power of running the heaters and fans
(for example, to keep the windshield clear enough of condensation to see out the window.
Not that I'm not used to having to wipe off the windshield while driving in the winter anyway being a prior Generation 2 Prius owner in the northeast, but I digressed.)

So although obviously not imperative, it would be helpful and appreciated to have the option of charging locally near my place of employment.

Plus, my response was in regard to the fact that somebody noted in their post that there weren't many EV's in use and that's why there's no infrastructure. But the numbers of EVs in use is definitely not the case in this region. Grant it they are not up to 50% or more of the vehicles, but, they are not rare either. And as I noted, this is an area where there are 3 universities, a regional medical center, numerous medical complexes, hotels, and gov agencies! (If logic was used as a basis for siting a charging station, this would be one. I'd think that if anyone put one in and it was reasonably priced, all of us with EVs working in this area would be using it regularly if it were in half a mile of us, which is totally realistic based on the location I just described imho!)

And yes, I purchased a EV hybrid to get the best of both worlds as well as the comfort of knowing that I could use the ICE if I need to, but I'd prefer not to use it and there is no logical reason that there isn't a charging station within a half a mile of all of 3 universities and a regional medical center, medical complexes, 2 hotels and all the commercial businesses. But obviously I must be in the minority and off my rocker to think such things

 

Your fighting a lost cause, however your car has a very good charge function, all you have to do is push the button.

 

I don't think it's a lost cause. If I want to go just shy of a mile (0.9) or extend the range to 2.1 miles there are 10!!!!

 

The demand for EVs is not there yet, the price is too steep. Until more Americans are able to afford an electric, say at $15K they will not be popular, some don’t even understand them. The businesses will never concede to our demands of a free chargers at every block just for < 5% of EV, Hybrid or whatever auto ownership. When multiple chargers come about, the installers will want a nice profit, so expect to pay .30 to .50 per KWhr or more. I paid $400 for a home charger, actually $800, I have 2. Most of America is not willing to do that, save Prii Chatters. Take a Economics course. That’s reality. Like it or not.
Nobody cares or understands what you want, with the exception of us PCers. Push the charge button.

 

I respectfully disagree. If that were true then, why are there 10 within a mile of each other in some spots? It would make more sense to have spread them out so that there was one every half mile radius then on top of each other.
Plus, I wasn't stating that aside from the dealerships, that they should even be free (just reasonably priced vs gauging people; especially if they were obtained through the state incentive programs, which were taxpayer funded!)
And this area has one of the biggest markets for Chevy EV's and Nissan EV's (along with Tesla apparently as well.)
So added to the fact that this immediate location would be a logical location for siting at least one EV charging station for a fee for people to use, I respectfully disagree that there isn't enough demand for one here; especially when there are TWO gov buildings and the state is promoting EV and solar!!!

 

How long does it take to get a decent amount of charge at a charge station? An hour, or two, or three? Someone should build one, in hgh priced commercial real estate territory, let you camp there, stocking up on charge, for free?

 

Again, I don't know why you are harping on FREE!!!! I did not say it should be FREE!!! I noted it should be reasonably priced vs at rates that gauge people!!! Especially if they used the incentives provided by the state which were paid for from us taxpayers, who in NYS pay excessive taxes plus higher electricity charges than many other regions of the country!!!! The only time I noted free, is for the dealerships!!!! But if businesses were given tax breaks or grants to put them in, then why not pass along the discounts????

 

If it's a viable economic model they will get built.

I don't see though, why electric utility taxes taken from everyone should subsidize charging stations for a few.