The $492 "Donut" Spare Story...

[Godiva]

It wouldn't hurt for you to walk into the middle of the service lounge and announce in a loud voice what a ripoff that dealer is. See if they lose anymore customers.

Well, I'd buy a new spare somewhere else and then take the old tire with me in my trunk. Rather than the service bay (after all, they've already bought their cars) I'd drive to the front where the sales people are and wait for a few customers to mill around. Then I'd open the trunk, throw the tire into the middle of the showroom and warn all potential buyers what kind of business they're dealing with.

I find not only is revenge best served cold, but with a little aged provolone and a cold bottle of merlot it can be real sweet and satisfying.

[Godiva]

The dealer's comment: "Well, even if it was in an accident I wasn't required to tell you." They joys of South Carolina law...

California is different.

A local car dealer just lost everything after being convicted of grand theft for lieing to a customer about a salvaged vehicle. It had been welded together in a manner that two experts indicated rendered it unsafe. He told the customer it was a salvaged car but didn't say anything about the welded frame. Big no-no. He got five years probabtion, was required to surrender all his vehicle dealers and vehicle salespersons licenses and is prohibited from selling vehicles for five years. He paid more than $19,000 in restitutions and must perform 20 days of public work service.


Used Car Dealer no more

[jayman]

I find not only is revenge best served cold, but with a little aged provolone and a cold bottle of merlot it can be real sweet and satisfying.

Mmmmmm sweet and satisfying .....

Sorry I'm right in the middle of cooking supper.

[Mystery Squid]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beacher\";p=\"92562)</div>

It all worked out for him though.  Six days later, my wife totaled the Camry.  A couple of days later I went back into see him and said,  \"You know that Camry you sold me last week?  I need another one just like it.\"[/b]

Bingo!

You see, that's why I'm not too worked up about this. In the end, do I really give a fat flying f*&k? No. I could have just as easily stopped off at a huge junk yard on my way home, and picked up a suitable spare for $20, or less, unless the Prius has some bizarre wheel structure, and I really doubt that. Point is, I got the car I wanted at a price point that was agreeable, so I'm relatively happy, moreso when I'm driving her...

HOWEVER, in the end, the only way to measure how good a dealership really is, is to see how they handle problems when they arise. Sure, I could go into the sales lobby on a crowded Saturday morning and make a scene, but Beacher illustrated something far more important than making said scene. By doing the right thing, that salesman got repeat business, and a good post on the internet read by a fair amount of people. He didn't go above and beyond his duty either, he simply DID THE RIGHT THING. Which I guess in this day and age, only happens at the Mercedes/Ferrari dealership....lol

With a car like the Prius, one which is so unique that I actually get many requests at work by people wanting rides at lunch time, what do you think is one of the first questions they ask?

Yup.

"Where did you get it?"

Usually followed by, "...and how were they?"

IF I say something like, "they sucked...", it's very likely the next time that person hears about the dealership (particulary when they have a huge presence in the Boston area), they're going to say something amongst the lines of, "Oh, I heard that dealership sucked, and the guy that told me is pretty credible..."

Just recently a woman I work with said she wouldn't go back to a particular Volkswagen dealership. She's credible too, now how do you think I associate said Volkswagen dealership? I wouldn't go there simply because of her opinion.

I've actually come to expect this sort of thing from huge "high turn around" dealerships. No matter how they sugar-coat it, or what they tell you to the contrary, they want you in and out as quick as possible. The salesman has bills just like the rest of us, and any time not spent pursuing a sale just takes away from their bottom line. Funny thing is, I've had smoother, and far more courteous transactions at little po-dunk dealerships where you might imagine the success of their business is far more precarious. You know, the kind you find next to a gas station somewhere run out of a trailer. Hmmm, maybe they're like that for a reason, because they DO in fact have something very material to lose when it comes time to make the lease payment.

So, in the end, I've expressed the flaws, brought to the surface how they performed when the most trival issues arose, and I can't even come close to lying (something I suck at anyway) by saying I had "Good" (much less "Excellent") experience.


As a side note to this little mis-adventure, I was slightly surprised to get a call from the salesman today asking me how it went... Makes me wonder if he actually saw the post, as I know people who work at that dealership sometimes post/lurk here... Well, if so, maybe they'll take note, do better next time, and the next person will have nothing but praise, and goodwill towards salesman and dealership. Like most businesses, you win some, you lose some, and hope the win column is far greater than the lose column. I'm happy, I got my Prius, and they made their cash.

To quote a lame TV show, "Life goes on..."

[Mystery Squid]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarinJohn\";p=\"92578)</div>

Whilst sitting in a finely-tuned theater on Naboo only a modest stones' throw from Lucas Valley Road and Skywalker ranch wherein all Uncle George's creations are pre-screened, and awaiting the opening of Episode III, I was busily going over in my mind my upcoming 15,000 mile service when where did my mind stall?  On that famous doughnut and how in the year and 1/2 that I have been racing around in my '04, I have not once checked the air pressure in said doughnut.  \"Must remember...\".  The last new Toyota I bought I was so dismayed at that poor excuse of a spare that I mailed the new doughnut COD back to Japan  with a note explaining that after paying mucho dinero for one of their products the least they could do was provide a REAL spare.  As we can all see, my mild protest did not reach proper ears.  Anyhoo, III was good for sound effects, visuals and tying much together.  May the farce be with you and our uncle who the local paper recently voted 'Best neighbor in the County'.  Shoot, I coulda, woulda, shoulda had that title if MY income were in the hundreds of millions each year, leaving me time to put my fantasys on the big screen in the sky.  Of course I'd still drive a Prius instead of a midnite blue BMW...[/b]

LMAO!!!

Niiiiiiice! 8)

[Frank Hudon]

I do believe the Corolla and the Prius use the same donut

[Ormond]

So do you think they took your original good spare and swapped it with an old used one?

If and when I get one, I will definitely check out the spare!!

Thanks for sharing your un-excellent adventure!!

[DanMan32]

One thing that wasn't made clear originally, was that the car was bought used. I would have to assume this however, as I would find it appauling to see a damaged spare in a brand new vehicle.
But even as used, being such a late model vehicle, and being purchased by a dealer, there should be a 90 day bumper/bumper warranty from the dealer, over and above what's left from the factory. Even if it is "Certified", the spare could easily be overlooked. How many of us remember to even check the pressure? I am sure the dealers don't when they rotate your tires, though they should, unless you have junk in the hatch making that difficult (guilty as charged).

I certainly give low marks to my dealer, for a few reasons: They charged WAY over MSRP, they lied about doing so, they wanted to (and subsequently did) charge me for turning on the passive mode on the alarm which we all figured was a simple matter, they kept my car 2.5 hours to do the oil change, tire rotation, and the alarm setting, claimed the alarm setting took the 2 hours, found out it does NOT take 2 hours to do the alarm, never recorded my visit for the oil/rotation/alarm with Toyota's central database (my other visits are recorded), they had NOTHING to put on my car when I came in with an unfixable flat. Not even a used tire of correct size unil a new one was obtained so I could get off the donught.

[popsrcr]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(paul16451\";p=\"92531)</div>

Which is why carfax.com is so important...
[/b]

As an off-topic FYI - I just bought a used car. I got carfax to check the possible cars out. While I have the subscription, I decided to see what carfax said about my parent's RAV4. Said nothing important. Qualified for their buy back, etc.
That's all fine except for the photos I have of the driver wheel folded under the car, transaxle damaged, fender and hood crunched, etc, etc.

DO NOT TRUST CARFAX!!! They can only give you the info reported to them.

[Danny]

Great story, Squid! I wish I had taken the time to read it yesterday!