Toyota's new owner welcome event-- Disappointed, were you?

I just went to my new owner welcome event at the Toyota dealership this weekend and I have to say I was very disappointed that they did not talk at all about the Prius. They just did a general overview of the warranty info which was OK, but it was all just very general info. I wrote down on the comment card that they really should think about doing a new owner welcome for Hybrid owners separately from regular car owners since the Prius and the other Hybrids are so very different from the regular cars. I mentioned that there are a lot of things with the Prius that new owners are not aware of, like jumping the Prius battery is a very touchy issue and can lead to serious damage like one of our members is having a problem with right now.

How many of PC members went to their new owners welcome event and if so did your dealer talk at all about the Prius and give any info about it other than the Hybrid battery have an 8yr warranty? That was the ONLY thing they mentioned during the entire 2 hour event.

This event varies by dealer. We didn't have one at all.

Tom

Servco has one monthly for all new owners except hybrids. They have one for all new hybrid owners every two or three months.

My dealer didn't have one, and doubt they would be worth going to, even if they did, salespeople are idiots and customer care is almost non existant.

Why is this? Most of the time it's true. I have experienced a few good salespeople; ones that knew their product and were interested in working with you to understand needs, wants, and options. Most seem to fit the plaid wearing, fast talking, huckster stereotype. Does the job attract this sort of person, or does it mold people in this way. Perhaps it is a byproduct of commissioned sales.

Our Prius salesman was a nice guy, and treated us well, but he didn't know anything about the Prius. I knew more about the Prius than he did, just from reading PC while waiting for ours to arrive.

Tom

It seems to be normal for salespeople, they change from one dealership to the next, and never make an effort to learn their product, all they need are basics and then the con job begins. I actually had one salesman one time, ask me why the engine was sideways on a car I was looking at, I looked at him and said, because its FWD and the engine and transmission drive the front wheels, he was excited to know that.

Just the nature of the business, thats why I hate to deal with salespeople, I usually try to deal with sales manager or owner of the business.

Our Toyota Dealer's new owner event did not have anything specifically geared towards the hybrid, per se. But when we got into the mechanic's lair while on the facility tour, the mechanic had one vehicle on the floor as a display and it was a Prius. By and large, all questions for the mechanic was from Prius owners, and Prius owners stayed behind to continue chatting while the remaining people continued on the facility tour. I thought having the Prius on the shop floor was a nice touch and a nice invite to open the floor for questions and chat.

Re: salespeople... my salesperson was quite knowledgable. I don't recall him telling me anything that was wrong, and as I recall, he had two family members who owned Prii (he himself didn't have one, he said, because his wife liked big SUV's. )

Edit: We bought from Fairfield, not Davis. Friends of ours bought from Davis and did not receive a welcome event, nor did they receive a 'thank you' plant as we did.

I never had a welcome event. IIRC, there weren't ever welcome events for any of the other Toyotas my parents bought either. The ones we have/had in the family come from a total of 3 separate dealers in the Bay Area.

our dealership in Wallingford had one, and it was a big waste of time. They gave us a dinner (wife got food poisoning) and a gift, but they didn't talk about the prius or any other cars. Sales manager said welcome, introduced a couple of people and that was it, no sales pitch, no talk, nothing. wondered why they even had it

once you bought the car the dealer couldn't care less about you. plus the less you know the more you can damage it and be forced to go to them for costly repairs (if its under warranty they bill toyota)

No welcome event at my Toyota, and I've bought two cars from them.

My last car, a Subaru, had one, and served us dinner and gave away prizes. Enough that everyone won at least one. I got a travel mug and a LL Bean blanket. They seemed to care more, but it was pretty much on the surface.

Frankly, I got the postcard/brochure in the mail, read it, and put it in the recycling bin with the rest of the junk mail. If the dealer had something important, meaningful, and interesting to tell me about the car they had a captive audience when I went to pick it up.

While my sales person did give me a pretty good tour of the car, I already had some experience with my parent's car. The orientation I got may not have worked so well for someone who'd never been in or driven a Prius before.

In any event, the "Welcome Event" sounded like a made to order marketing opportunity that was designed to separate me from more of my dollars.....

Besides, if I want esoterica or advice about the Prius, I can always come here with out having to sit through more sales pitches.

My dealership holds New Owner seminars every month. It was about two months before they let me know that one was being held. So when I went, it was not as a complete newbie, but someone who had (believe it or not) actually READ the owners manuals (cover to cover).

As most others have stated, it was based 100% on conventional cars/SUVs. Included in the meeting were three Prius owners and me (TCH). The Prius owners asked some questions (like what was the purpose of the "B" on the shifter), but it was obvious that the "service manager" was not fully versed on the hybrids and made a mistake by not having a hybrid tech at the meeting. Also, I could tell by their faces the owners were even more confused after hearing the answers. During a break, I got with them and asked if their questions were answered. I straightened out their confusions (and put in a HEAVY pitch for PriusChat :cheer2: ).

I agree that it would have been MORE adventageous to have a seperate seminar for the hybrid folks.

I thought my dealer did a nice job with the welcome event. After some food & a pitch to use their service department, everyone went back into the service area where they had a least one car of each type that was represented at the event. They had 2 Prius - one up on a lift & the other with the hood & trunk open & the batteries displayed. The techs answered all kinds of questions - very informative. Then they gathered us all together again in the area where they do service write-ups & did an airbag demo so we could see/hear what happened when an airbag is deployed. Everyone's car was washed while we were inside & when we left, a goodie bag was on the front seat. I thought it was very worthwhile.

These are dealer events, not manufacturer events. The dealer wants to be your pal, the first one you think of when you want to spend more money.

My dealer (Koons Toyota of Annapolis) did the same dealer/service spiel at their "New Owner's Event.".

Basically had everyone there assured if they did not go to the dealer for every scheduled maintenance as per the manual they would instantly void their warranty. Also told me the HID bulbs are covered under the warranty which I later learned is false.

Zero -vehicle specific information. UNSAT waste of time.

I went. They asked for a show of hands for some of the models, including the Prius. There was some interesting stuff. Also pizza and sodas. And a raffle. Almost everyone won something. I think I either won a license plate frame or a T-shirt, I don't remember. Everyone got coupons for a free oil change too.

It sounds as if some of you actually had a better time than I did. They did not have any Prius on display for us to look at all and did not even talk about the Prius at all. I would have enjoyed it better if that at least spent a little time on the Prius as there were certainly enough Prius owners at the function. I saw so many Prius on the lot and they were all people at the function.

Oh well, at least I am learning a lot on PC and know that I can come here with my questions.

I haven't heard of any welcome event, but my dealership offers two free oil changes per year, a 10% discount on parts, and 1 year free roadside assistance. Better than a dinner, in my view.

When our Toyota dealer had the Welcome event that I went to (in 2007) they had sandwiches and fruit, gave a general talk about the dealership and warranties, then split us up into regular and hybrid owners. We got the tour of the dealership and they had a Prius up for us to look underneath. One of the techs talked to us about maintenance and showed us the online manual stuff they have been trained to work with. In general, was somewhat useful and interesting.