How Much Communication with your Salesperson/Dealer?

My salesperson was not very communicative. I called or e-mailed him almost every day. He only called with major updates (like- your car is sitting on the lot). He said that he was excited by my enthusiasm, but I think that he was really glad when my car finally got there (5 weeks) so that he could get some peace. Overall the buying experience was good. He was good on his word with everything that he told me, but I'm like you- I wanted a daily update even if nothing changed.

 

Welcome! Future Prius Owner
The first salesman i dealt with was not so good! Was on the list about a month without much communication,unless i made the call.After the month i could tell it was time for a change,salesman kept telling me what i wanted to hear untill i found out he wasnt totally honest with me on some points like where i was on the waiting list.I got my depoist back and went to dealership no.2! Very nice guy,we clicked very well,no big sales talk!just the facts mam :lol: Told me about 2 to 3 months wait!maybe sooner because i was very flexable on the color and package.He said he would call at the end of first month with a progress report or sooner if something came up.Well!! after 3 weeks i was shopping and saw 2 #7's on another dealerships lot.One was availible due to a cancellation,you can guess what i did! I took it home the next day.Salesman was professional and seemed to do all the right things!.Well! thats my story.From what i hear from others!For the most part salesmen or woman are lousy at returning calls and keeping you updated unless you happen to buy right off the lot.Im sure there are good ones out there!But myself and others i know have had some hard times with auto sales people.My advice is while your waiting!Look around,call or drive by some other dealerships!Buying a prius right off the lot happens more than you might think.Good luck and let us know when you get your prius.Its a real special car and i love driving it.

 

I think this will depend very much on the salesperson/dealership.

I drove into the dealership with my Solara and drove out with a Prius, so that, in theory, ends the buyer/salesperson relationship. But I've had a couple of minor issues, and the salesperson has been right up on them. For example, my accessory package included a cargo net, and a day or two after driving the car home, I realized it wasn't there. Now, with the Prius, you can't just buy one and and put it in--it has to be installed (rather, the hooks have to be installed, not the net itself).

About a week after the sale (today, actually), I went to the dealer, he wrote up the work order for the service department, offered to drive the car over (service is around the block from sales), and left me a message that afternoon asking if everything had gone OK.

 

In our experience, we placed an order with a very nice sales person, and called that dealership three weeks later for a status update only to find out that this salesman wasn't working there anymore, and that the car was delayed a month from their original ETA. As it turned out, this prompted us to call around again, and this new search yielded our two Prii within 5 days. The really funny thing is that even though we canceled the order with the original dealership and got back the deposit the second week of June, that original salesman called us about a week ago to say that our new Prius was on the lot ready for us to pick up!

So, for the original poster's question, once every three weeks is apparently too long. Once a week sounds reasonable to me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HerkyHawk @ Jul 26 2006, 08:10 PM) [snapback]292872[/snapback]</div>

I e-mailed the dealer to find out if they had a car on the lot (they had 3) then I went there in person that afternoon and said "I want the silver one" - filled out paperwork -drove it away about an hour later. I had driven one before (my father's) so I did not even need to take a test drive.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(HerkyHawk @ Jul 27 2006, 01:21 PM) [snapback]293267[/snapback]</div>

Care to share? Everyone loves a good "bad dealer" story

 

I have wondered this same question. I am currenly in week 9 of my 7 to 10 week wait at one dealership. They have been completely uncommunicative (is that a word?) I also have a depost at another dealer and I am in week 2 of my 4 to 6 week wait there. They have called me twice. These wait times were what the dealerships quoted me.

Not sure what it all means but I have been calling and bugging the salesperson at the first dealership. I'm told the Magnetic Grey pkg #8 is hard to come by.

 

I'm so glad I didn't read this stuff before I went shopping for mine. I would have been terrified. As it is, the dealer I went to gave me an OVER-estimate of my wait time when he said 2 weeks. I bought the extended warranty there because he came off the list price by a lot, and everything checked out beautifully when I picked up the car.

The only thing they didn't do for me was put the rubber plugs back in the holes underneath... which took me all of 10 seconds.

As for communication, I didn't hear from them until my car was 1 day away, but considering that was 9 days after I put down the deposit, I'm not complaining.