Prius Prime won't be available in FL ?

When you make pit stops, or motel stops, find places to charge so you can offset some of the ICE usage. See if the ChargePoint or other charge station locator does any good. That should be interesting!

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Good for you!! We have to "Vote" with our wallets. It doesn't hurt to mention your bad experience with these leeches to everyone, particularly Toyota Corporate whenever you speak to them!

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^^ You quoted something I wrote a year and a half ago. Since then, I've had my Prime for 5 months. Didn't have to fly out anywhere - bought local - probably paid too much - dealer was not at all unpleasant, but quite naive about the product.

I don't use a smartphone so I can't "see" charging stations while driving. I can look them up in advance, which is how I plan vacations and long trips in general, for all things hotels, restaurants, filling stations (COSTCO's), sightseeing, etc. Plenty of resources out there about places to fill with electrons too, like Find every public charging stations for electric cars | ChargeHub

I did charge up once on the road, and for free, because it was next to where I was camping, and the property owner leaves all of their camping hookups on 24/7.

 

With the twin plague of Gulf States Toyota & Southeast Toyota down here, I'll probably go to the right coast or back to the third coast when I need a new car.

It'll be fun to guess what Toyota's going to have in ~10 years...

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I prefer knuckle-dragging, mouth breathing, sales executives.

Bob Wilson

 

You prefer them to what? Government officials?

 

Bob Wilson

 

Isn't that what I said??

 

As I have posted before, google Jim Moran Enterprises, the SET exclusive and perpetual distributor. It answers all your questions about SET and corporate Toyota. BTW when I bought my first 2012 PIP I had to buy it in Virginia, right across the border from NC.

 

I've already informed our nearest Toyota sales manager that they are losing sales. He knows it, but apparently can't do anything about it.

 

It's a regional level thing. The local people have no control.

 

Apparently, Toyota buyers in the Jim Moran/Gulf States areas aren't fond of dealing with those stealerships.

"Two of the distributors remain in business today. One is SouthEast Toyota in Florida, which controls all Toyota sales in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and North and South Carolina. The other is Gulf States Toyota of Houston, which runs all 150 dealers in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. Both distributors enjoy a 100% monopoly. If you want to buy a Toyota in any of these states, you are buying from a dealer who buys it from them.

Since dealers have no choice, they pay what the distributors charge them. One 4-Runner SUV that arrived on a Georgia dealer's lot in December from Southeast Toyota carried extras like carpet mats, window tint, daytime running lights and a "value package," which added $873 to the sticker price On top of that, SouthEast Toyota billed the dealer for a $900 administrative fee.

Gulf States Toyota plays the game slightly differently, but the result is just the same. An FJ Cruiser it shipped to a Texas dealer recently was loaded up with a $2,251 "Extra Mile Option Package" that included such questionable features as a "door sill enhancement" and "custom tape stripe." Then came the "Vehicle Shield Package" at $349 with "lusterizing sealant," "sound shield," and "sealant cleaner." These are the kind of charges that give dealers a bad name. All of that helped jack up the price of the FJ Cruiser from a reasonable $24,135 to an exorbitant $32,873.

Says an executive at a big dealer group with outlets all over the country: "Clearly it is more expensive to retail vehicles in the areas served by the distributors."

With its lineup of durable, environmentally friendly vehicles, along with an unmatched record of sales success, Toyota enjoys an enviable reputation in the United States. It has single-handedly popularized hybrid gas-electric vehicles, for example. Why does it need middlemen in the South and Southeast to siphon off its profit? Since Toyota services the rest of the country without distributors, these two are clearly superfluous - especially for a company whose cars practically sell themselves.

Toyota executives often express puzzlement over puzzlement over the merely average sales satisfaction ratings that the automaker gets from J.D. Power and Associates. Could the additional pressure imposed on some dealers by the independent distributors have something to do with it? That's a question you'd expect a company like Toyota that believes in "customer first" to want to know the answer."


Feasting off Toyota: part two - Mar. 12, 2008

http://www.autonews.com/article/20071029/ANA06/710290312/u.s.-distributors-gave-toyota-a-toehold-in-a-mysterious-new-market

LG-H918 using PriusChat mobile app

 

Thank you for that insider information! It is truly appalling what these lizards are getting away with. I suppose the best that can happen is the continued, growing exodus of buyers to "fair practices" states for their Toyota purchases to pressure those dealers and Corporate to stop these ripoffs, and hopefully eliminate this 3rd party practice. I don't know what other leverage consumers have! ☠

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Uncle Bob, you're being unfair to the poor ape!!
Let's call them, stench-emiting, decomposing putrid pond scum!! Take it from there!

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So they are not selling them, but I hope they can service them. Bought my Prime in Vermont, but winter in Georgia. I'll talk to the service manager first. I'm only talking about oil changes and rotating the tires. 5K, 10K, etc

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I won't pay any feudal lord a stipend for a non-factory installed option so he can please his emperor.

I'm willing to go elsewhere to buy the car I choose, if the serfs here refuse to sell me the kind I want at a price I'm willing to pay.

It would give me great joy to write a polite letter of denigration about someone who tries to give me a load of dung. Especially at a Gulf States Toyota dealership.

The one I go to for my free Toyota Care is owned by Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway. Wonder how that happened?

LG-H918 using PriusChat mobile app

 

Oil shouldn't be a problem; I'd have America's Tire rotate and balance your tires for free as needed; they appear to be nationwide. They will perform this service whether or not you purchased the tires from them!

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You go girl!! I'm with you!
Consumers need to become more proactive, like you, instead of just caving in to sleazeball practices!!

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Yeah, I know. That's our whole complaint. And that of the sales manager, from his tone.

 

Kind of nationwide. I really liked them when I was working for a few months in So. Cal. many years ago. In FL, they are called Discount Tire for some reason, but there are only 11 of them in the entire state. Mostly in the Orlando or Lakeland areas. None in or around Tampa.