Rumor: dealers reluctant to sell plug-ins?

I think your experience supports my argument.
You knew what you wanted, stated it upfront and the whole "dealership" sales experience was pretty limited to a test drive and purchase price. The "Old Time" sales man did NOT try to detour you from what you wanted.

Every experience is going to be unique to the person and also probably the dealership and potential sales person. BUT in this day and age, I really don't think sales people can afford to try to sell people something they do not want.

There's just too many avenues to gain information about all aspects of a vehicle as well as too many avenues to follow to actually purchase that vehicle. If you lean on a buyer, to purchase something they are not interested in...or think they aren't interested in, you are just going to lose the sale.

And I think more and more people today...know what they want in much more pre-educated terms.

 

Even Carson doesn't keep their PiPs charged up. It was explained to me as being due to the "don't charge and let it sit" admonition from Toyota.

That actually makes sense, though I suspect they could charge a few to even 50% so prospects could at least preview EV mode meaningfully.

 

good point. if they have an L2, it wouldn't take long to put a few volts into it, but they are still reluctant. probably too much work.

 

For sure, but as I mentioned there are a couple different stripes of buyers.
You still have the 'get me into a nice car/SUV I can afford' types, and I do not think they are so uncommon.

 

I still say "I think more and more people today...know what they want in much more pre-educated terms."

Of course there are exceptions.

I think modern technology, access to information, has changed not only the common buyer, but also potentially the whole buying process.

Back when I was a kid, my parents car buying process was often limited to word of mouth testimonials of friends, neighbors and co-workers. Perhaps a general idea of what they wanted.

But they often walked onto a dealership lot, with little idea about cost and options. This made it much easier for a sales person to steer them into choices that perhaps they hadn't heard about or even considered.

And they pretty much had to believe whatever the sales person told them. You only other avenue for comparison was going to other dealerships and other lots.

Not that my parents were bad car buying consumers. Just the time they lived in, somewhat limited what they could know and be aware of.

Things have changed. And I would say, continue to change.

I think we have reached a point where for a great many of people, the majority of their evaluation and decision making, actually happens at home before they even go to a dealership. That wasn't always the case.

 

No argument there. With some 7 Billion people on the planet, how can it be otherwise ? Of course it would no doubt be equally true to say "there are more idiots today getting misdirected and fleeced by salespeople than before." An increasing population has that effect.

I can remember stories from the 1970s of dealerships kicking customers out who showed up with Consumer Reports. The dealerships have obviously adapted to that 'problem.'

 

my dad was a chevy man, that's all he needed to know.

 

+1

Everytime I go to a car dealership I am the one that knows the car and the salesperson incorrectly labels lots of parts. I too was told that the Prius C's inverter was the battery lol.

It is hard to sell what you don't know, and lets face it but most salespeople don't know EV's and PHEV's. They know gas, they can sell gas.

When I bought my Leaf, the salesguy that I kidnapped for a 60% charge testdrive basically took notes and was asking me questions during the drive. Said I showed him more and taught him more than his "Leaf training" that Nissan makes them do and any of his co-workers.

 

Shame, shame. This is a poorly designed test.

To be meaningful you'd have to repeat the test with 20 more secret shoppers going to the same (or different) 85 dealerships and ask about conventional car details, as a control group, in order to gauge their knowledge. Then you could determine if lack of EV knowledge was any different than the regular uninformed salesmen knowledge level.

Mike

 

even worse, when i tested the gen III at a local toyota test drive day, the guy didn't know anything about hybrids. this was a TOYOTA employee.

 

It's not any better over here in E.U. I went to Toyota's salesperson to arrange test drive and negotiate the price only. I didn't even expect him to know much about Plug-Ins. However, he was very interested in my experience when I returned a month later. I tought him about EVSE, public charging stations, J1772 and Mennekes sockets, everything that's new and unique to plug-ins ... He was especially intrested why I choose PiP over the Opel Ampera (Chevy Volt). Typical salesperson I guess: seeking knowledge how to encourage people to buy cars from him.

As 3PriusMike suggested, the story is pretty much the same when buying a regular car.

 

I believe that - Toyota is currently using the Prius Plug in to meet it compliance in CA, and not sending them elsewhere. There were only 9 (yes NINE) available for sale in all of New England last time I checked. And huge volume dealer here are doing the same shady and ignorant tactics of trying to convince people interested in a plug in to buy a hybrid instead.

To the Prius Plug In, I say good riddance anyhow, because its such inferior engineering (I'm a Volt owner, though I still love my old '08 Prius for what it does as a reliable and efficient "old" car)

Toyota has made it clear that fuel cells are their new compliance strategy, and will likely go even more anti-EV to market it (as Hyundai has done) and that they have no interest in mass marketing any kind of ZEV long term. More customers will wake up like me and trade in their last Toyota (my Prius is next in line for that

 

Sometimes they simply just don't know how to charge it, or think they do but are wrong - as was the case recently when I went to test drive a used PiP. I called days before to ask them to charge it first. I confirmed the day of they would charge it - said they would. I arrived and it had zero charge and was running in hybrid mode. I took it for a few hours, drove to an L2 at a restaurant for lunch and charged it up half way (it only charged at a rate of 1.8 kW for some reason?)

BTW, this car had ~50,000 miles but only ~80 EV miles. Obviously a leased car that had never been plugged in.

 

good riddance.

 

Actually, I would say the engineering is phenomenal.
The vision and goal is misplaced. No one else has been able to get as much out of an ICE as Toyota.

Kudos to them for leading the way to those that want to use less oil.
Shame on them for not continuing to lead the way for those who want to use no gasoline at all.

 

they have no obligation. we all have our desires, and they have their own vision for the future. sometimes they line up and sometimes they don't. this is priuschat, we have leaf chat for those of us wanting more ev.

 

There was a lot of anti-penicillin sentiment in the beginning too.
FacebookAnti-Prius/185734231489792

 

Prius seems very under-advertised in our local paper. Not just the Plug-In, any kind.The last time I can recall, it was the Prius v and c, soon after their introductions. The original hatchback never shows up in the ads. Maybe they're selling themselves?

 

I may be mistaken, but I think CARB has decided to either disallow or devalue PHEVs in their ZEV mandate. I expect that to change, and then Toyota will have a clearer path to take advantage of gradual progressive electrification of the Prius. Somewhat ironically, that will happen when the HOV perk ends because then people will not have a perverse incentive to buy a PHEV but not plug in.

Addendum: The CFR nitty gritty.

 

Interesting... I just completed a 230 mile trip at freeway speeds >> 58mpg, lots of room for luggage. My 200+ mile mountain trips typically average 66 mpg. Did I say lots of room for luggage?