2008 driftwood pearl, package 6, GO Toyota, Denver Colorado

I had a 3m clear bra put on my 2007 Prius including hood, front of fenders. bumper, mirrors, and headlights for $300.

When it was totaled and I bought a 2008 Prius in Greeley, the dealer installed a 3m bra covering hood , front of fenders and mirrors for $350. For $850 that should include bra and tinting, otherwise find another installer.

 

Avanhall,

Order'g a foreign car is nothing like it used to be when order'g an American car. It used to be with a U.S. car that you go down a long list of available options (NOT pkg's) & add them to your basic car (or even delete an unwanted item even if it was normally tied in with another choice).It was basically a "custom" car being specially built for you alone. I don't know if you can still order American cars that way any more.

With Toyota & the Prius, you're not order'g a specific car, but only trying to get your dealer to match your desires to their allotment deliveries. There are currently 11 model variations [1 model 1220 (the stripped down base unit, mostly sold to municipalities & rental car agencies), 6 model 1224's (the standard version in 6 option pkg levels), & 4 model 1226's (the touring version in 4 option pkg levels)]. Now multiply the 11 by the number of color combinations available [9 paint colors with 5 of those having 2 interior choices for a total of 14 (5x2=10) + the 4 with only one interior color available] & you get a total of 154 variations of the Prius (just for the USA market).

I doubt if there is really any logic to their allotment system (at least that we can understand) other than the fact that most of the USA's 12 Toyota regions only allow their dealers within each region to order or get about 1/2 of the option pkg's (& maybe not all of the color combinations either) & the region chooses which ones (not the individual dealers). Some regions don't even allow the touring version for their dealers. That is why it is so hard to get exactly the Prius you want. The dealers are only trying to match what's coming in (of what they are allowed by the region) to the wants of the customers on their wait'g lists. And this difficulty with the regions governing what the dealers can get is probably why not too many of them even bother to try to work swaps to get their customers exactly what they want. Even though swaps can be done by computer while the cars may still be on the boats, usually to work a swap you have to give up a Prius another dealer wants & can't get, so if you don't have anything he needs or wants why should he give up a Prius that's already allotted to him. After the dealers see how much time they spend on the phone or internet with other dealers trying to work out these swaps, they soon realize how much unproductive time they wasted. I think that's why they don't generally like to do them.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

Hi again, Avanhall,

It certainly pays nowadays to be more educated than the salesperson of the type of product you are shop'g for. That way you can size up the idiots that have no clue what they are really sell'g & separate the BS from the truth.

Back in 1978 when I got caught up in the high mileage craze of the VW Rabbit Diesel & ordered one [with a long wait time until delivery (sound familiar?)]. It came in early to my surprise & since my other car was on its last legs, I decided to just let it die before putting the VW on the road. So I put it in storage for 2 years (I was nuts I know, but I was saving on the property tax for 2 years until it went on the road at a lower value). I couldn't get the dealer to drop the DMV & documentation charges, but they promised to honor the charge & do what was required whenever I was ready. The dealer delivered it to my house (for storage in my garage)on their plates, & I got to get very familiar with the car during the 2 years as I added various upgraded accessories & interior & exterior trim (that didn't come on my level car), items that became available in subsequent year Rabbits or even other model VW's. I also put an alternator pulsed tach (no ignition system in a diesel to wire a traditional style tach to) into a new instrument cluster & wood-grained dash. Basically I had fun improving on the basic car, but I hadn't done any research on the VW Diesel Rabbits.

In my many trips to the dealer for these parts, while stand'g in line to be waited on, I was approached on a few occasions by salesmen eager to try to sell me a new VW. When I told them I still had a brand new one at home that was getting the royal improvement treatment, I was asked repeatedly if I was willing to sell it back to them (as they were still having trouble keeping up with the demand for their diesels) & I passed up each opportunity to make a profit doing it. I wish I had been able to do some kind of research (I didn't own a PC back then, but I'm not even sure if the internet was around then either).

When the old car finally died & I contacted the dealer about them doing the paperwok & DMV stuff (that I had already paid for) so I could finally put the VW on the road, they said tough luck & refused to do it for me, so I had to fumble through the entire process on my own. Bastards!! When it did get on the road it wasn't long before the 1st major repair. In the winter weather the car cranked fine but refused to start. Called AAA road service & was told a 4 hour wait [I was supposed to be at work in one hour (with only a 15 min drive)], so they told me all they would do when they got there was to shoot some start'g fluid (ether) into it to get it started, but if I had some at home I could just do it myself & save the long wait.

Bad idea (I later learned) to introduce a combustible product into a diesel's intake manifold that normally supplies air only to be compressed till it turns white hot (due to the high compression ratio of 24:1), then AFTER the pistons pass top dead center the diesel fuel gets injected into the white hot air & self ignites. With the very volitile ether (fuel) already in the cylinder, as the piston starts its compression stroke the heat from the compression forces ignites the fuel BEFORE the piston even gets up to top dead center. The earlier-than-normal explosion immediately reverses the direction of the piston & the rotation of the crankshaft while the camshaft (which is belt-driven) is still trying to go in the original direction. The reversing crankshaft has more power behind it & slips the timing belt a few cogs [just enough for the pistons to hit all the valves (that are now in the wrong position when the pistons reach top dead center)]. An expensive repair caused by the failure of a $40 glow plug relay. I think the car was still under warranty, but VW refused to cover it because they said I had caused the damage by ignoring the warning (not to use ether) in my owner's manual. There was no such warning published until the 1980 or 1981 owner's manual (3 or 4 years after they released the diesel). I asked VW why they didn't notify the previous years' owners by a recall notice or mailing of a sticker to put in/on the owner's manual or on the air cleaner (or some other conspicuous location under the hood) & they said they didn't do it because it would cost THEM too much (a couple of dollars to them against a $600+ repair for us?) B.S.!!!

VW did a lot of shady things like that & that's why I would never buy any of their cars again. The service dept would flush your factory anti-freezeout & put in "normal" anti-freeze (contain'g phosphates) when the owner's manual clearly states to use ONLY phosphate-FREE antifreeze or damage to your cool'g system will result (because the phosphates cause a chemical reaction between the different metals in the engine block, head, & radiator that will eat out your $400 radiator or even worse). When I confronted them on this (discovered because they only charged $4 for a gallon of anti-freeze on the repair order instead of the $16 per gallon for the phosphate-free type back then), they just said to me "don't believe what you read in the owner's manual" yet I saw many customers buying radiators for their Rabbits.

And at least 2 or 3 years after I received a recall notice for an engine hose that was to no longer be used (because it would suck all the oil out of the crankcase & deliver it up into the valve cover or intake manifold to be burned up & destroy your engine), they still had cars with engines that had the BAD hose on them. When I confronted them again on this situation they told me to mind my own business.

I was soon to experience 2 badly cracked blocks in short order [not because of the bad hose which I had them replace on my engine(s), but because of bad engine design. Without adding any more headbolts to the 4 cylinder gas engine (from which the diesel was derived), but boring it out to a larger displacement (weaken'g the block a little), then increasing the stresses on that block (by raising the compression ratio from around 8:1 to 24:1), you would wind up with a blown head gasket (& a cooked block once all the coolant leaked out), a warped head, or a cracked block (the mechanics were even crack'g the blocks doing the required headbolt retorquing). On my 1st cracked block I wasn't aware anything was wrong until the engine seized up while driving, & on the 2nd one I lost the whole corner of the engine (I did see a lot of steam/smoke coming out from under the hood, but by then it was too late anyway. The diesel mechanic at the dealership told me when he was in VW's diesel school, he saw a notice/list that there had been some bad blocks cast & if your engine # was on that list you would get a free engine replacement. He also said that he saw a copy of the same service bulletin come into his dealership & get filed in the service writer/manager's book. When I asked up front to see the list, they told me no such list existed. I went back to talk to the diesel mechanic & he told me they were lying to me up front.

I found out once I experinced these problems myself, that in talk'g to other diesel Rabbit owners, these were all-to-common occurances [the cracked blocks, blown head gaskets, warped heads, jumped timing & destroyed valves (sometimes pistons too), eaten out radiators, & seized engines from the crankcase being sucked dry]. I wish I had been able to do some research or at least taken up the dealer's offers to buy back my diesel Rabbit while it was still in storage before it even got registerd. I couldn't afford any more repairs on that car, so after 3 years of use & only 45,000 miles on it I parked it & let it rust (with the hopes of someday convert'g it to gasoline power, but that day was never to come. I got stung so bad on my 1st new car ever that this time with the new hybrid technology, I got busy a year & 1/2 before order'g doing research & trying to learn everything I could about the Honda Insight & Civic Hybrids & the Toyota Prius. I vowed never to be burned like with the VW again. Now fortunately we have great sites (like this one, PriusOnLine, HyHi, & the like) to learn from ahead of time. Let's put them to good use & become smarter than the dumb-nice person dealers. Education is power!!!

Wow, I didn't really mean to go off on a rant & hijack this thread like I did, but the thing you said about the dealers lying to a lot of people really got to me. Now, back on topic as regard'g refundable deposits. Each state has its own laws covering deposits & if they are refundable or not. In CT a dealer can't keep your deposit & MUST refund it unless you order a custom -built vehicle or the dealer installs special equipment on your vehicle (that can't be returned to the supplier once installed, or that nobody else is likely to be interested in buying). In cases such as this the dealer may keep the deposit amount collected for a custom-built vehicle or is allowed to collect & keep an amount equal to the value of the un-returnable added equipment. I suggest you check your state's regulations. I'm getting tired now & haven't the wits about me to check my spelling & punctuation, so I'm hoping this is understandable to any of you who have read my post this far. Thanks & good night.

Ken (in Bolton,Ct)

 

good friend

Bump! thx !