Prius Deliver Drama

[daniel]

Originally posted by SW03ES@Dec 21 2005, 09:21 AM
Unfortunately you've learned something about Toyota today.

The Car=Good

The Dealers=Not so good

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I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, because, as SW says, Toyota dealers generally are "not so good."

When I was shopping for my previous car, in 1988, I had narrowed it down to Toyota or Honda. I also included one American-made car, to be fair, but that car was clearly not as good. In the end, the choice came down to dealerships, because between the Corolla (not sure, I think it was the Corolla) and the Civic, the cars seemed equal. The Toyota dealer lied to me, telling me the Civic was carburated, when I knew it was fuel-injected, told me flat-out I could not pick the options package I wanted because every car was sold before it hit the lot (sound familiar?) and if I didn't buy it someone else would, and generally acted as though he'd be doing me a favor if he sold me a car. He also told me that Consumer Reports lied about American-made cars because they wanted to ruin the U.S. car industry. (He sold Buicks, or something, as well as Toyotas.) This dealer also had a very poor reputation for service, never completing work on time and promising, but not delivering, courtesy rides at specific times.

The Honda dealer was 100% honest and above-board with me, went the extra mile to get me exactly the car I wanted (he traded with another dealer to get my color) and acted as though I was the most important person in the world. After the sale, they gave me a loaner even if all I had done was an oil change, and the work was ALWAYS done BEFORE the promised time.

Honda's policy is to require their dealers to treat the customers well. It's a decision made at the very top level of the corporation.

Toyota's policy is to give their dealers a free rein to sell their cars however they darn well please.

Nothing less spectacular than the '04 Prius would have lured me away from Honda! And I still wish it had been Honda that had developed the Prius, or that the HCH had been designed with a similar technology.