Monday, January 12, 2015 Lost keys…can dealership make a new master key by VIN?--"yes ($150.00)" Monday, January 12, 2015 Dropped Prius off Monday, January 12, 2015 Received word “have to change ECU” ($1000.00) Monday, January 12, 2015 Authorized ECU replacement--"will be ready for your weekend trip to Charleston. Pick it up Thursday 1-15-2015." Wednesday, January 14, 2015 "Radio piece broken--Toyota of Greenville will take care of it…part is on order" Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Picked up Prius--1/2 dash lights out and no inspection done Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Talked to David (service manager) Wednesday, January 21, 2015 Dropped Prius off at Toyota of Greenville Thursday, January 22, 2015 "Bulbs burned out…have to special order" Sunday, February 08, 2015 5:00 pm on a Sunday…"Lead tech and service manager working on it now" Friday, February 13, 2015 loaner tags expired...can I drop by and change them out Monday, February 16, 2015 Picked up Prius Wednesday, February 18, 2015 Left message for Jim to call me Friday, February 20, 2015 Left message for Jim to call me Tuesday, February 24, 2015 Left message for Jim to call me Saturday, February 28, 2015 Emailed Jim about dash rattle and lights out Friday, March 06, 2015 Talked to Service manager (David) Monday, March 09, 2015 Dropped Prius back off and took a ride with Tech to identify rattle in dash Thursday, March 12, 2015 "Rattle is from gear shift mechanism…have to special order from Japan…TOG will cover this, however Upper dash is going out…if you want the lights back on it will have to be replaced ($800.00)" Friday March 20, 2015 @5:00 (while I was on the way to Myrtle Beach for a volleyball tournament) Received a voice mail "Prius is ready" Saturday March 21, 2015 Emailed Toyota of Greenville General Manager.
In light your experience, any thoughts about "Who should and should NOT buy a 2001-03 Prius"? Our +12 year old cars are going to enter a phase where Toyota replacement parts and technical skills are going to decline. The small cadre here and "Prius Technical Stuff" will soon enough look like the New Zealand, 'gray market' owners of the NHW10. Already NHW11 documentation falls into the 'used book' category. Then there is the problem of diagnostic tools. In effect, 'waiting for the wheels to fall off.' Then I keep getting +500 miles per tank. Bob Wilson
As far as I know, documentation for anything later than 2012 falls into the 'non-book' category - Helm, Inc., has been the distributor of the printed documentation, but no longer receives anything from Toyota to distribute except owners' manuals. All else is online at techinfo. So, we still enjoy the same documentation support as the latest and greatest Toyota models. Even that seems less of a problem with the wide use of Techstream, and the availability of a bunch of the diag information for other uses like ScanGauge ... not to mention the fact that our vehicles were early enough in the OBD-II game to still have blinkenlights as an alternative to scantools. I think it's really mostly going to be the inevitable decline in parts availability that starts eating into practicality. -Chap
Funny, in an aggravating, sad kind of way. These types of experiences have happened to me which is why I now try to do as much of this as I can myself. I simply can't trust a mechanic any further than I can throw him - and I have a bad back. So, how much did this adventure cost you, if anything? BTW, I love how you shift into the future on the last two entries. I suppose that's when you go into the future as the Terminator and wreak havoc on the dealership and its various managers. I hope all this works out for you - and your parting line to the dealership is "I WON'T be back."
I have only spent the $1000.00....no tax or shop fees added...everything else has been covered by their service department...forgot to add...they even gave me a free oil change...and every time the Prius was in the shop since 1-21-15 I have had a loaner vehicle for my use.
Picked up the Prius this evening...David (Toyota of Greenville General Manager) is a stand up guy...without his intervention the top console would have never been replaced! Everything seems to work fine with the car. Just wanted to share the "happy ending".
Black keys which are otherwise uncut, but have an X217/TR47 key section, are the most useful as these may be made into anything one desires ... Master or Valet mechanical bitting, Master or Sub-master electronic coding. Third-party keys are black perhaps because the manufacturer doesn't want to "dual inventory" his stock, and he knows that a gray key is really superfluous, as a black key may be made into a gray one, and, similarly, a gray one may be made into a black one, at least functionally speaking. Besides which, ePay sellers are charging a very stiff premium for gen-u-wine Toyota black keys (these have the logo on them), but no premium for a generic key (these have no logo on them).
