Hybrid Head-to-Head Day

[gtn12130]

OK guys, I need your help on this one!!

Hybrids are doing great here at Toyota and in Chicago. I want to help educate potential buyers on hybrid vehicles (Prius, Camry & Highlander). I need your input on my latest idea...

I am planning on coordinating a "Hybrid Head-to-Head Day" in conjunction with other Chicagoland dealers that offer hybrids. Toyota, Lexus, Ford & Honda. I wanted to have 1 or 2 "expert salespeople" from the respected brands and dealers demonstrate their cars and offer test drives on a closed course. Also this will present a worry-free, hassle-free & pressure-free experience for people to get behind the wheels of some of todays hybrid cars. Obviously, I am going to make sure the Toyota products are in the limelight because that is what I believe in and trust. I still would like to offer the other manufacturers because if it is a hybrid, it is helping, right?

I am asking for some input behind the idea and what you guys think! If you have any suggestions that I should impose on the event, by all means, let me know!

Thanks for the help in advance!!

[efusco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gtn12130 @ Apr 19 2006, 08:41 PM) [snapback]242409[/snapback]</div>

OK guys, I need your help on this one!!

Hybrids are doing great here at Toyota and in Chicago. I want to help educate potential buyers on hybrid vehicles (Prius, Camry & Highlander). I need your input on my latest idea...

I am planning on coordinating a "Hybrid Head-to-Head Day" in conjunction with other Chicagoland dealers that offer hybrids. Toyota, Lexus, Ford & Honda. I wanted to have 1 or 2 "expert salespeople" from the respected brands and dealers demonstrate their cars and offer test drives on a closed course. Also this will present a worry-free, hassle-free & pressure-free experience for people to get behind the wheels of some of todays hybrid cars. Obviously, I am going to make sure the Toyota products are in the limelight because that is what I believe in and trust. I still would like to offer the other manufacturers because if it is a hybrid, it is helping, right?

I am asking for some input behind the idea and what you guys think! If you have any suggestions that I should impose on the event, by all means, let me know!

Thanks for the help in advance!! [/b]

Get some owners out there too, not just sales creatures...some 'real people' that can talk about their personal experiences with the various cars and that can express the various emotions and pluses and minuses. Folks that have already gone through the decision making process and decided on one vehicle over another and what swayed their decisions. Have them bring their personal vehicles, mods and all, to show off.

Make the drives/course long enough that people can get a feel for how to manipulate the hybrid system and get a taste for what kind of gas mileage it gets on a specific kind of route/terrain.

Have some vehicles that are 'stripped down' to show the various parts, where the battery is, where the inverter is, etc...ala Hobbit's "naked Prius".

Have some comparison charts for fuel usage, emissions, etc.

Have some handouts to web sites such as PriusChat, PriusOnline, GreenHybrid, HiHyChat, etc.

Do not have anyone out there that is a bull-shitter!!! People HATE being lied to or finding out someone made up an answer. Either have a certified tech out there to answer questions of a more technical nature or be absolutely sure the 'experts' really know their stuff. And if anyone gets a question they don't know the answer to you should either have a computer available to look up the answer and find out then and there or take that person's name and explain that you don't know the answer and don't want to give any false info and will get back to them with the accurate information as soon as you can look it up.

There's probably a lot more, but nothing's coming to me off the top of my head.

[daronspicher]

What is your goal?

"Come look at the cars that you can't go buy anytime in the next 5 months."?

Chicagoland is pretty much a self serving self centered short attention span wealthy suburban crowd. I'm not sure they'll leave your demo with a good impression of hybrid once they see how great the cars are, but then find out from these dealers you bring that the cars are a 4 to 8 month wait.

I guess I'm not sure what you are hoping to do with your event.. maybe you can speak to that...


To me, if we had 40,000 hybrids on the lots around here, what you are suggesting would be great for our commuters, tollways and environment.

I'm pretty sure the masses in Chicagoland are not ready to "get in line" for a new car. They'll just go buy a new tahoe tomorrow and pay cash.

[Amyshubby]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Apr 19 2006, 10:42 PM) [snapback]242448[/snapback]</div>

Have some vehicles that are 'stripped down' to show the various parts, where the battery is, where the inverter is, etc...ala Hobbit's "naked Prius".

[/b]

Evan,

That is a great idea. I learned a lot about Hybrids since I bought the Prius, but trying to look at it from the point of view of someone who doesn't know that much about them (people are still asking me if it needs to be plugged in), I think showing them the guts of the vehicle is very smart.

I would also make sure the sales people are ready with info to counter the inaccurate info out there. People still tell me they are under the impression the hybrid will not save me any money over the long haul, especially considering the 3-5k I will need to shell out for a new battery in 3 years.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Apr 20 2006, 05:49 AM) [snapback]242552[/snapback]</div>

Chicagoland is pretty much a self serving self centered short attention span wealthy suburban crowd.
I'm pretty sure the masses in Chicagoland are not ready to "get in line" for a new car. They'll just go buy a new tahoe tomorrow and pay cash.
[/b]

What a rude and unhelpful comment.

People from all walks of life are interested in hybrids, for a variety of reasons. It would be (and is) wrong for you to paint all of them with one broad brush.

[TonyPSchaefer]

Get some owners out there too, not just sales creatures...some 'real people' that can talk about their personal experiences with the various cars and that can express the various emotions and pluses and minuses. Folks that have already gone through the decision making process and decided on one vehicle over another and what swayed their decisions. Have them bring their personal vehicles, mods and all, to show off.[/b]

Oh me me. Pick Me!! Oh oh oh oh oh. Me ME!!

Chicagoland is pretty much a self serving self centered short attention span wealthy suburban crowd. [/b]

Well thank you very much for stereotyping and sumarilly catagorizing me. I truly appreciate the sentiment and can't wait to see how you totally didn't mean any disrespect to existing board members from Chicago.

I'm pretty sure the masses in Chicagoland are not ready to "get in line" for a new car. They'll just go buy a new tahoe tomorrow and pay cash.[/b]

You're probably right. The question is "why." It's exactly BECAUSE there aren't many hybrids on the road that people don't think of them as options. It's BECAUSE there are hundreds of thousands of SUVs "off-roading" on Lake Shore Drive that people feel they need to have one. It's exactly BECAUSE more than 7.5 million Chicagoland drivers have never driven a Prius that they don't put it on their list of cars to check out. And it's BECAUSE people's only exposure to hybrids is all the misinformation and misleading "reporting" bouncing around on the various evening news programs.

Waiting list be damned! If you need a car today - this afternoon! - the Prius is not your car. But next year, when you're thinking about rototaing out your existing commuter car, consider a hybrid.

And just because you can picture in your mind that there are only brand-new, shiny, leather-clad, pimped-out SUVs rolling the streets of Chicagoland don't make it true.

gtn12130, Make sure you post this idea on the Chicagoland forum. I know there are members here who would love the opportunity to educate and demonstrate. Say the word and we are there!

[Bill Lumbergh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(gtn12130 @ Apr 19 2006, 09:41 PM) [snapback]242409[/snapback]</div>

OK guys, I need your help on this one!!

Hybrids are doing great here at Toyota and in Chicago. I want to help educate potential buyers on hybrid vehicles (Prius, Camry & Highlander). I need your input on my latest idea...

I am planning on coordinating a "Hybrid Head-to-Head Day" in conjunction with other Chicagoland dealers that offer hybrids. Toyota, Lexus, Ford & Honda. I wanted to have 1 or 2 "expert salespeople" from the respected brands and dealers demonstrate their cars and offer test drives on a closed course. Also this will present a worry-free, hassle-free & pressure-free experience for people to get behind the wheels of some of todays hybrid cars. Obviously, I am going to make sure the Toyota products are in the limelight because that is what I believe in and trust. I still would like to offer the other manufacturers because if it is a hybrid, it is helping, right?

I am asking for some input behind the idea and what you guys think! If you have any suggestions that I should impose on the event, by all means, let me know!

Thanks for the help in advance!!
[/b]

Wait wait....you sell cars? Like, for a dealership? Here's a question: When's the last time you lied to someone to get their money? Sorry, but when stealerships come to me asking for help on selling cars, the last thing I want to do is help them get other people's money. Good try, though.

[hobbit]

"... have some vehicles that are 'stripped down' ..."
.
and/or point 'em at the webpage about it.
.
With a little more work, one could achieve a car *much* farther
apart than that -- for instance, pulling off that big plastic schnoz
bumper on the front would reveal much, like the coolant storage
bottle, the aluminum sub-bumper and how it connects to the frame
and has the airbag sensors right there, etc. The whole dash-top
panel could be floated out a little ways to reveal all the nifty
stuff up near the firewall. Some of this would render the
car mostly undrivable for the day, which was one of my major
considerations since I had to get the thing to the show and back,
but if this is being done at a dealership they should be able to
get it very naked in short order.
.
What would *really* rock is having a moveable cutaway transmission
like in the pictures... somebody really should take a wrecker and
turn its HSD into a demo piece one of these days.
.
_H*

[Amyshubby]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boxster...WRX...Prius? @ Apr 20 2006, 10:01 AM) [snapback]242586[/snapback]</div>

Wait wait....you sell cars? Like, for a dealership? Here's a question: When's the last time you lied to someone to get their money? Sorry, but when stealerships come to me asking for help on selling cars, the last thing I want to do is help them get other people's money. Good try, though.
[/b]

Sometimes I can't believe the negative comments on this board.

I guess anyone selling anything is "trying to get other people's money". Hey- don't direct anyone to Priuschat because there is a link to support the website and another to order an extended warranty and you don't want to help them "get other people's money"

This person posted a message asking for help in selling a car that almost everyone who belongs to this community believes in. Why assume the worst?

One of the criticisms I have of Toyota is that their dealers know far too little about the Prius and about Hybrid technology. If someone is trying to learn about how to remedy that, or even how to better sell the car, what's wrong with helping?

As I said in my response to the ridiculous comment about Chicagoland, don't paint any group with such a broad brush.

Are their dealers that will lie? Yes. There are good and bad people in every profession. Ascribing a set personality trait to any one profession is wrong.

Except doctors. Them I don't like.

Just kidding Evan.

[efusco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boxster...WRX...Prius? @ Apr 20 2006, 09:01 AM) [snapback]242586[/snapback]</div>

Wait wait....you sell cars? Like, for a dealership? Here's a question: When's the last time you lied to someone to get their money? Sorry, but when stealerships come to me asking for help on selling cars, the last thing I want to do is help them get other people's money. Good try, though.
[/b]

This gentleman followed every proper procedure to become a site sponsor. Has placed several paid ads on the site, has offered help on the site previoiusly, has kept his sales updated on the site. He now wants to have a program to allow the public to see all the available hybrids head-to-head as a project on his own time. Wouldn't you have loved to have participated in an activity like this before getting your Prius? And wouldn't you even consider going to such an event even now just to have the opportunity to test drive these various other hybrids in a setting where you're not going to have a dealer breathing down your neck and pressing you for a purchase the whole time?



I think your comment was abrupt and just as stereotypical as the Chicago comment, and I think it's unfair. I, too, am highly skeptical of dealers with good reason, but everyone gets a fair chance and this gentleman has, thus far, shown himself to be straightforward, honest, fair and dedicated to hybrids.

[gtn12130]

WOW...where to start? First of all I appreciate all the positive response and suggestions! They are all great and I will implicate as many as possible. The more ideas, the better. You guys have been a big help so far!

For all of those "negative" comments, I don't know what to say. I love my job and especially hybrids! Yes, it is unfortunate that I have the title of "Car Salesman", but so be it. Trust me, I am skeptical of the car salespeople also! I work in a very competitive dealership and I know how it can be. I am one of those guys who is trying to NOT have the negative vibe attached with my name. Take it for what it is, but I have several clients that I have dealt with from Priuschat and it has been nothing short of GREAT! Ask them.

And the Chicagoland comment...in the words of Harey Carey "HOLY COW"!!!!