What's with the dealers?

[FishHawk]

I've had my car serviced at two local dealerships and both times I had to tell them about the tire pressure and not to overfill the oil. It seems to me that they don't know this car and treat it just like the other models.
FishHawk

[galaxee]

most techs won't deviate from the repair manual specs unless requested by the customer- something about not getting fired... :P

[eagle33199]

I'm guessing it really just comes down to experience... It's easy for them to do a Camry - they've had 30 years experience on them! But the Prius is very new, a little different, and not too many people know about all the particulars.

If everyone takes the 5 minutes to educate their tech on things like you did, then they'd all get better a lot quicker than their current guess and check method of customer dissatisfaction.

[dandude505]

I think each dealership is suppost to have one Prius tech-- Toyota trained one or two, depending on the size of the dealership. I understand that in order for the dealership to sell prii, they need at least one tech... But often, the tech isn't in certain days, or they are so backlogged from the many prii that need to be serviced, that other techs service the extras. Often there are prius specefic procedures that they dont know...

Good luck...
DES

[sonny]

My Prius tech did not know that the backup beeper could be turned off????

[hobbit]

This is precisely why the *independents* have to come up to speed
on hybrids of all kinds, especially the prius.
.
http://www.auto-careers.org/schedule.html
http://www.artsautomotive.com/Hybrid.htm
http://www.veejer.com/hev.html
.
_H*

[Beryl Octet]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FishHawk @ Nov 13 2006, 06:50 AM) [snapback]348111[/snapback]</div>

I've had my car serviced at two local dealerships and both times I had to tell them about the tire pressure and not to overfill the oil. It seems to me that they don't know this car and treat it just like the other models.
FishHawk
[/b]

I'm surprised about overfilling the oil, since that is not good on any car, but I can understand why they might only set the tires to the manufacturers' recommendation.

[Charles Suitt]

<_< In shopping for my just delivered 2007 Touring Edition, I had one "Internet Salesman" assured me that the ONLY LEATHER was "Port Installed." His dealer had several Prius in stock including one Package 5 (Port Installed Leather) and one Package 6 (Factory Installed Leather) and we wanted to make a real comparison. I suggested he check the "Package 6", after which he discovered I was right. The "port installed" is easy to spot due to a little tag "Liquicell Comfort" - a thin pad installed under parts of the port installed leather. The Factory Leather included a leather-wrapped steering wheel and vinyl armrests and center console cover, different in some ways from the Port Installed. We insisted on the Factory Installed. Many of the Prius in stock in Texas have port installed leather and Package 5. If you do the port installed, a couple of other things are different.

We are in the "Houston Texas Distributer" 5-state area. I understand that Packages vary from region to region, but this is the case here.

I must comment that the original oil-level was exactly on the "FULL" mark, unlike the 'normal' overfill times past.

[richard schumacher]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Nov 13 2006, 01:02 PM) [snapback]348232[/snapback]</div>

I'm surprised about overfilling the oil, since that is not good on any car, but I can understand why they might only set the tires to the manufacturers' recommendation.
[/b]

Apparently the shop manual still says to add four quarts, which is an error. 3-1/2 is usually the most that will fit, and exactly 3 works perfectly well (as well as most convenient for those who supply their own oil).

[rfred]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Nov 13 2006, 08:16 AM) [snapback]348131[/snapback]</div>

most techs won't deviate from the repair manual specs unless requested by the customer- something about not getting fired... :P
[/b]

I respectfully beg to differ with that statement - at two dealerships I have specifically asked for them to leave the tire pressure alone and to not overfill the oil. My requests in both instances were ignored. On one hand I wish that I were ignorant and could just take in the car, have it serviced and never know the difference. Since I do know the difference and have had my requests ignored at two different dealerships I think that this is a huge issue for Toyota. Our very special cars should not be placed at the mercy of people who are going to treat them like "any other Toyota."

It is Toyota's responsibility to educate their technicians to properly take care of our cars. Otherwise, they should put up a large banner attesting to the fact that the facility is not "Prius safe."

End of rant.