Generation III reliability concerns

Argh I have a few dilemas here. My bro works for Toyota so I don't need to go to any dealer to ask for help. I get whatever done I wanted. BUT the rattling shouldn't be there in the first place, and I call it now The Rattlus. Everything goes wrong I complain it to Toyota GB HQ and not the dealer because I don't want to ruin any relationship so a bit stuck otherwise I would have gone to them all the time.

Whats wrong with your wipers? Why are they dodgy?

 

Raised the headlights in my '07 and in my '10, but also tied a string to the wrench. I thought I had the patent on this. My lawyer will be in touch.

 

My Toyota dealer in Munich was one of the additional reasons I decided to take the Prius.
Attentive and nice with customers. I was there with my parents and while I was there with the sales guy, my parents were approached 3 times (!!!) to ask if they needed any help. The sales guy was also not pushy, arrogant, or "know-it-all" and helped me patiently in any german-language related problems I have had. He *did* know how to sell a car.
I was at another dealer in Munich and I decided to turn them down - I was there 3 years ago to check the Prius 2 and they haven't changed a bit. Annoying, a bit unfriendly & arrogant. Plus they wanted to give me about half for my Polo compared to the other dealer and valued it in a very weird and un-transparent way. There were even inconsistencies in their pricing wrt the official pricing (higher prices, that is....) on some accessories.

 

Dodgy might be the wrong word to have used but they wouldn't clear the screen fully - they left a wet, fuzzy bit on the screen where they drivers side would overlap where the passenger side one had just been. Had done it since new when in rained heavily (all the time in the UK ) and at first I thought it was some sort of wax on the screen because of it being a new car. When it didn't get any better I mentioned it and got it sorted at first service. Remember thought - first 10k service for me was only 3 months due to my crazy mileage, so I didn't have to live with the issue for long.

 

Do any of our American friends have good Toyota dealers? I have read of many dealers who have been lacking, but I'm sure there must be a lot of good dealers out there in the USA?

 

Nope, all dealerships with Japanese manufactures suck. They think they are so much better that they try to cheap out every chance they get.

 

Our local dealership has been good, although we haven't asked them to do much.

The dealership where we bought ours was very nice. We had zero problems with the sale, and they were completely upfront and honest.

Tom

 

I could not disagree with you more. Prior to my G3 Prius, I owned an Acura. Sunnyside Acura in southern New Hampshire was the finest dealership I have ever dealt with.

Next best, is Ensign Toyota in Logan, Utah. They have been courteous, thoughtful, honest and respectful.

It is all dependent on the experience an individual has had personally with a dealer. There was another post several months ago absolutely railing against Ensign Toyota (the same dealer).

A story comes to mind ... the new move in ask how are the people in this town? ... how were they where you moved from? Nasty, arrogant, rude was the reply .... then that is what you will find here.

You know therest of the story ... had the people in the old town been kind, caring and friendly ... that is how the people in the new town would be.

How many "Japenese" (manufacturer) dealers dealers also sell American cars? Do they "suck" too, or just when they sell the Japanese brand?

 

I really can't read anymore after that statement.

-Brad

 

You do big mileage very quickly. Which Oil did they give you? So far they only have 0W-30 oil and the manul recommends 0W-20 synthetic oil, so I bought my own and I chaned mine at 3,000 miles. I don't buy the 10,000 mile oil change.
I am surprised they didn't give you a new set of wipers. I think they do a standard prices now? £20 pounds each.

 

I disagree. It's definitely a case of YMMV.

I liked Toyota Sunnyvale (in CA) for both sales and service. Same goes for Nissan of Fife (in WA) but they're too far. The service dept of Falore Nissan in Sunnyvale has a good rep too.

My parents and I had a very bad sales experience at Capitol Nissan of San Jose, CA and an ok sales experience at Falore. I was present for both. The guys at Lexus of Stevens Creek (in CA) were very friendly.

I try to avoid dealers who have bad reviews and/or bad rep on message boards/forums for that particular make. Example: I've heard very bad things about the service dept. of Eastside Nissan in Bellevue, WA and at least a couple Nissan dealers in Nor Cal (closer to SF).

 

I have to read this entire thread still but fwiw people saying they've done 10-15k and no problems, that doesn't mean much. I would expect no issues on any brand now--even Chrysler or VW--in 15k.

My sense from being on car forums for a long time is that Toyota has probably slipped a tiny bit--not enough most will ever notice--but many other brands have gotten quite a bit better (e.g. Ford).

 

They did replace my wipers

 

I had a Toyota pickup back in 1980's (185,000+ mi), a Corolla wagon through the mid 90's (194,000 mi) and currently a Camry '05 (75k) and my new Prius with just over 1500 miles. I also had a Honda Civic which I traded in at 167,000 miles. The Honda was much more costly for maintenance- clutch, brakes, tires, electrical, radiator. I did the same amount/schedule of maintenance on the Honda as the Toyotas. The Toyotas all creaked a bit, but change the oil/wipers/occasional bulb, rotate the tires, and wash it now and then-and you will go for more and cheaper miles than any car I have heard/read about. Hondas are second rate compared to Toyotas IMO.

In the long-run, Toyota has proven best in my experience and in all the literature. The recent problems are out of proportion to the long term track record. Remember too, the Gen III Prius is an evolution of the I and II, and while it has many updated features, it is not a whole new vehicle- it has evolved to greater excellence.

 

That's great then. So the wiper issued solved? I want tos get the wipers replaced as well.

 

Probably true. I think, though, that the first year of most new vehicles has a disproportionate quality problem. I remember something about mazda5s have issues with fires during their first year and something off about the 3 as well (both are good cars now). This isn't always the case, but there is only so much QA that can be done until a car is being driven millions of miles by thousands of people doing whatever crazy stuff people do.

 

Actually, most problems occur in the first 5K-10K miles. The JD Powers survey is a measure of that. Material, part and design flaws generally manifest themselves much latter, but my expereince is that if a car usaually has few, or no problems after the first 10K miles, good chance it's a keeper.

The observation that the reliability of other cars is getting better is spot on. I'm NOT sure toyota reliability in general, and the prius specifically, has slipped. I think it's more a case of other manufacturers catching up.

 

Ain't it awful, when the critics and the Media need to make a buck and they do it at your expense.
"Give me the facts ma'am, just the facts."

 

Yep problem solved so I guess it was a dodgy wiper from the start. It appears I am not alone with this as I'm sure there were other threads on here with the same problem.

 

I disagree with your first point. Also, JD Power's VDS isn't near long enough (nor do I trust them much). What % of cars out there are 3 years old or less?

From comparing http://businesscenter.jdpower.com/JDPAContent/CorpComm/News/content/Releases/pdf/2010034-vds2.pdf vs. http://businesscenter.jdpower.com/JDPAContent/CorpComm/News/content/Releases/pdf/2007088.pdf, some brands show correlation while others are way off. Then compare their top models per segment between the two.

Some of the top in the VDS are a joke. They gotta be kidding about the Saturn Sky and the Pontiac Soltstice. They 07 models of those have lousy reliability ratings. I think they're there by default because there are almost no cars in the "compact sporty car" segment. The 07 Chevy Monte Carlo seems unlikely too. CR has insufficient data for that year but almost all the rest of the years were terrible.

I do agree w/all of your 2nd paragraph though.