Well, My Block is Rockin and the other Prius Owners Appeared

[Tempus]

Every year our Neighborhood Block Party is in front of my house, and it's going full bore. Battle of the Bands, food, Tie Die, games, raffles, Fire Trucks, Politicians, etc. etc.

But, what's funny is I finally met some of the other Prius Owners in the area. I've seen the cars, but never been able to track them down, but since my car is sitting there anchoring the block party, they all seem to be gravitating over to say hi, which is an unexpected bonus.

Hopefully I can steer some of them to the online community. They don't know what their tires are inflated to, if their oil is overfilled, and have never heard of Mud Flaps, EV buttons, XM Radio, Backup Cameras, or bike rack hitches. Poor lost lambs

[efusco]

Originally posted by Tempus
They don't know what their tires are inflated to, if their oil is overfilled, and have never heard of Mud Flaps,  EV buttons, XM Radio, Backup Cameras, or bike rack hitches.  Poor lost lambs

You must bring them into the folds of the Church of PriusChat so that we can witness to them and help save their hybrid souls!!

[LeVautRien]

It's incredible how huge the knowledge gap is between those who seek out the information online and those who don't.

I wonder what percentage of Prius owners do look online for useful information on their lovely car.

[mshappe]

Originally posted by LeVautRien
It's incredible how huge the knowledge gap is between those who seek out the information online and those who don't.

The fascinating corollary to that is how often I've spoken with dealers and clearly knew more about the ins and outs of their product than they did! None of them were totally ignorant, but there's a clear lack of deep training.

[LeVautRien]

Originally posted by mshappe

The fascinating corollary to that is how often I've spoken with dealers and clearly knew more about the ins and outs of their product than they did! None of them were totally ignorant, but there's a clear lack of deep training.

Oh certainly, I know I know more than just about any dealer. Most of them know the basics, that's certain, but they don't know specifics.

In all truth, though, they really don't need too. It'd be nice for buyers if they knew that such information was available online.

Thinking about it, though, if I was a dealer, I'd want to have that deep knowledge. Certainly, I wouldn't want to overwhelm the average consumer with facts about low-rolling-resistance tires or the coefficient of drag, but for the buyers who wanted to know, I'd love to supply the information.

[Dianne]

Once upon a time, I considered myself an expert in the details of the cars we sold.. I started with Toyota way back in 1980. It was a snap back then to know everything there was to know. As time's gone on, we now have 5x the models with submodels under all those. Who the hell can remember it all? We have resources to look all of this up. I am lucky if I can remember how much gas my own Camry or Solara holds... and it's easy to look things up online or in resource books.

As for Prius, the car has sold itself, but there was a time (year 2000-2003) when it did not sell itself and most of us know the ins and outs of that car (the classic) but candidly, when selling the 2004, it's pretty much an ordered-take-a-name-car and when someone asks me why they should buy it, I usually do not push it. Why try hard to sell what I cannot get for months and months? It's aggravating.

Dianne

[LeVautRien]

Oh I totally understand where you're coming from, Dianne, and I certainly am not dealer-bashing by any means. Toyota dealers must have the hardest time of all because of the plethora of cars. And you are of course right, that there's no reason to supply the details on a car that sells itself.

I guess that I was simply thinking from my own perspective...I am an informational sponge, just by nature. I can't remember things I did four years ago, but I can remember final Jeopardy questions from eight years ago. :mrgreen:

In the end, I think maybe the dealership on the whole could produce a special information booklet. Nothing dealers have to remember, but just a booklet to give a Prius buyer after making his purchase. If people knew how the car worked, as well as how to drive the car for better MPG, it might help the long-term sales prospects of the cars, as people do seem quite apt to complain about the 'low' MPG numbers.

[Tempus]

So I buttonholed all the various candidates for City Office who were swarming like moths to a flame.

I told them it was a disgrace that with DC being the center of the areas air-quality suffering, with Code Red days a dime a dozen, the City does nothing to encourage, or even recognize clean fuel alternatives. Especially when the surrounding jurisdictions give Tax Credits, HOV access and such.

Then I went and got the other Hybrid owners to do the same

One of the candidates started talking about putting Hydrogen Fueling stations around town. I suggested that maybe Hybrid or CNG busses would be a more practical use of the money.

I really doubt that there will be anything done that costs any money, with the City's artificial (congressionally induced) lack of income, but maybe we'll get our own license place out of it.

Of course that means I'd have to give up my "Taxation without Representation" plates, but maybe we can get both on the new ones

[DaveinOlyWA]

my salesman attended a class on the Prius, so he knew more than average. but salesmen are people too. they learn a lot more by doing and touching and feeling, etc. but the Prius is rare even at a Toyota dealership!!

So the normal method of getting familiar with a new model isnt as available. he said he cant remember the last time he had so many offers on the two demo Prius'.

to give you an idea of how well thought of the Prius' are. one of the demos has already been tabbed for courtesy car/loaner car duty.

i told him he should put the other on E-bay...probably get more than the original sticker for it despite its used condition.

[mshappe]

Originally posted by DaveinOlyWA
i told him he should put the other on E-bay...probably get more than the original sticker for it despite its used condition.

One thing that impressed me about one particular dealership I dealt with is that they would not let go of their demonstration Prius for any amount of money. Considering there are several Twin Cities area dealers who did not have Priuses that could be test-driven, I thought this was a very wise move.