I Finally Took Delivery of My New Prius Today

CONGRATS !!! Driving will be fun again. B)

 

CONGRATS HyDee! What a way to start the new year huh?

 

Good for you!

Look out for Marin John. If you don't know him yet (infrequent poster), he had a bad experience with Toyota of Marin and would like to burn them down. But if your experience was good, well...good!

 

I have to wonder if dealers do not acknowledge this site since there is quite abit of information that would undermine sales tactics and extended warranty sales. My sales person (who is a prius classic owner) had all kinds of info but when I mentioned how much good information I obtained here he changed the subject rapidly... hindsight leads me to belive it intimidated him and I dont particularly mind that a bit.

 

before i get way OT, just wanna say congrats to HyDee

now. i can't tell you why dealer salespeople hate sites like priuschat above and beyond the reasons listed above here. BUT i can tell you why the guys over in service hate sites like priuschat.

[DISCLAIMER: this is only my opinion. i am not yelling at anyone, just expressing a couple of my thoughts, things i've seen and stories from the shop. feel free to disagree with me, i'll engage you in a good conversation along the way.]

let's face it. everyone here is paranoid about the service their car receives. most people still think that the guy under the hood of their car is a moron (despite my recent campaign to give the guys some credit) and don't trust a word their service department tells them.

then they go on to a web forum and hear about some recall that doesn't apply to their car, and how this and that are always taken care of under warranty, and how so-and-so had this fixed and wow his problem sounded exactly like what was going on in MY car recently.

then they take all this back to service and hand the tech a thread written by a few people with real tech knowledge and a bunch of people speculating, and INSIST that the guy to do the service indicated in the thread, relevant or not. (and in defense of any of you who have taken a PC thread in to service... sometimes it is called for. i am referring to completely irrelevant things people just insist must be done to their cars here) and the tech knows that if this service isn't done, what will happen? the owner of the car will head back to that website and lambast the hell out of the tech, the service department, the dealership and toyota for not doing the "right repair," whether it really was right or not.

this place is a big speculation mill. even the folks with tech knowledge and shop experience are offering their "best guess" because it is 100% impossible to correctly diagnose a car without seeing it yourself. you can be pretty damn sure but can't confirm it without seeing it. i try to reiterate that from time to time and try to remember to use the word "if" in my translations of DH's explanations. it does have to go to service and be looked at in 99% of cases. you can give your best guess based upon past experience and what the owner is describing, however only the person who has the car up in the air and can hear the funny sound it's making will be able to make the final decision.

now because this car is a relatively new thing, we DO have reason to be paranoid as to whether or not the car is working okay. is that noise right? did it do this before? and of course, everyone is welcome to take their car to the dealer and pose their question and have it investigated to their satisfaction. but when the tech feels pressure to replace, say, a perfectly good rack and pinion (which is what happened in DH's shop recently) because of some website... now that is why techs don't like places like these.

oh yeah. they also don't like being told what to do in most cases... would you like if people came in to your workplace all the time and told you how to do your job based upon a forum discussion?

that said, this site has offered tons of good advice to those who needed a question answered and been a good catalyst for people getting good service. and in the case of a difficult problem, the more minds the better IMO. people go in to the shop armed with at least an idea of what might be wrong. there are also a lot of techs out there who miss things and this kind of forum provides feedback to the vehicle owner. i say this often enough too: seek out the thorough ones and stick with them. but there has to be a balance here. techs shouldn't have to be afraid not to do something to a car because the customer read something on a forum and expect it to be done. they should be able to explain to the customer why it doesn't need to be done, that's part of their job duties, but if a customer has no trust in mechanics and is thoroughly convinced by the forum threads he/she read, it's a lost cause from the start.

[end. if you're irritated with me, go back and read the disclaimer above. then post your reply.]

 

Good post. I would only add that anyone is free to get a 2nd opinion from another dealer. The idea here is to verify the diagnosis before maybe more damage is done. What would most people do if confronted about a similiar situation with their own doctor? Same thing....2nd opinion.

But Galaxee is right. Good judgement when using forum information needs to be balanced.

ta da bump. Thats all folks.

 

If Senator Dr. Bill Frist can make a diagnosis based on an amateur video, why can't we jump to equally valid conclusions, based on speculation on a web site?

I agree with you, Galaxee. PriusChat can raise as many issues as it helps solve. I think sometimes we get sensitized by PC threads. After reading about coolant pumps making weird noises and some dying, I started listening to mine. It's fine, but I was listening.

The Prius "Doctor" has to have the patient in front of them, or over their head, to really determine what's going on.

And HyDee, CONGRATULATIONS!

 

I think some of this angst with service techs could be helped along with more personal interaction... I know at most dealerships now adays you speak with a service consultant basicly a service sales person and the person who works on your car remains a faceless pawn of the dealership. I miss the days when I had a real mechanic who looked at my car, spoke with me and wrote up my bill (he was a great guy but retired a few years ago). I think more interaction would allow people to draw more accurate conclusions and feel confident in their tech. I know thanks to Prius chat I met Rick57 who is a tech in my area and I know that if I have any issues or need service beyond a simple oil change I will be headed across town to his dealership.

It is hard to place faith in someone you never see, and that is a sad fact since I am sure many if not the large majority of techs are quite qualified to service your cars and keep us happily in a well working Prius.

[you made very good points Galaxee]

Thanks,

 

tideland, i wasn't calling anyone out at all. i hope you understand that. i'm just saying that some people get sucked into paranoia by the things that they read about and insist that they get done, etc, and that it is a downside of having this kind of forum out there. as far as the techs around here, really they're just trying to help you walk into the shop feeling more confident with at least an idea of what might be wrong. it's still up to the guy who gets your car in his bay to decide what's happening.

i'm not sure if that addresses what you were saying, but i wasn't trying to offend anyone.