If you think Toyota doesn't watch our site.....

Toyota snoops *all* the forums. They stay strictly hands-off and
never participate or answer questions, because there are too many
lawyers. Sometimes they take ideas back, but it's all run through
a complex vetting process heavily influenced by marketing before any
of those ideas would see reality in future models.
.
It's sad to think of Toyota engineers laughing their asses off when
people try to figure out how the car works. They probably *want* to
tell us how we're doing, but are prohibited from ever letting on.
.
_H*

 

That's good to hear. Blogs the world around are being listened to, because their members are often more passionate about the blog topic than the "real insiders". In terms of sales/marketing, having a large community form around a product or service is an absolutely awesome value for the company also... I have no doubt Toyota is

Take a look at the Tivo community online, or say, for example, the Mac community. Everthing from rabid zealots serving as evangelists, to biting critics who say the things that need to be said, all the while buying your products and services with fervor.

I've sent this spreadsheet to friends who have been interested in the Prius... revelations abound!

 

Thanks for that! It's keen.

 

Good, let's hope they've heard me and the rest banging on about Plug-in hybrids!

 

I work as a consultant / contractor in my field. In the last 3 years, I"ve had 14 months of 100mile round trip, 5 months of 72 mile round trip, 2 months of 20 mile round trip, and most recently began a minimum of 12 months 130 miles round trip commute.

This last one is the one that finally put me over the edge into ordering the Prius.

So, I've been on the job for just over a month and about every 4 working days I need to fill up with about 29 gallons of diesel for my pickup. I tracked it right on the first month and based my comparrison on the Prius having gotten 47mpg. When I fuel up with diesel, I check the gas price if I were to have been there filling up the car.

After a month, I would have saved the earth 112 gallons of fuel, and my cost difference would have been $360.

Here is my web where I track such a thing:
http://d.spicher.home.comcast.net

 

We found that out early on, when Danny actually traced a link back to a Toyota summary website. Soon after, it was password-protected.

So perhaps if one wanted to try to make a point with Toyota, one could engage in public debates that others find annoying...

 

Almost 2½ years ago a Toyota UK employee popped up on the UK Prius Yahoo group (under the excellent pseudonym of "Toyota Mole") and invited a group of us to a preview of what was the referred to the 2004 Prius in June 2003. They laid on some nice sandwiches and the Rally Prius with a film of parts of the rally, and we had a good photo opportunity for both the new car and the rare sight of our 20 or so Classic Prius lined up.

They asked as lots of questions on our views etc, but unfortunately, despite some very strong opinions (including mine) against choosing a space saver spare wheel (the pre production sample model had no spare wheel at all, but a couple of Classic owners dismantled the boot (trunk) floor trays to make sure a full size wheel would fit), that exactly what we ended up with.

Also we raved about the SmartEntry/SmartStart (now known as SmartKey, I believe) fitted to the sample car, and the idea floated that it would be available with a reversing camera instead of beeping sensors. When the car was finally launched here in January 2004, neither were available. Finally, there IS talk that they might become available in the UK in 2006. We shall see.

Regards

PeteB - 02 Silver 'Classic' - 71k miles
Luton UK
Life mpg 51.41 ~ 42.81 ~ 5.49 ~ 18.20
(UK ~ US gal ~ I/100Km ~ Km/I)

 

hello Toyota! can I get a co-op job? Thanks

 

I have to be honest, I cannot help but wonder who has time at Toyota to be dredging the boards for information. Well, maybe their marketing departmetn does. And I suppose some of their engineers might. But I do know this, when they take a new design through the vetting process, they rely heavily on the marketing department to help determine which features should be developed, improved, included or deleted based upon already existing knowledge about vehicle consumers. Now, they might be able to use our conversations to determine what to ask when a new design is unveiled for consumer approval, however I'm not all that inclined to believe that we are the genesis of all improvements to the car. If we were, I'm sure the seat issue would be solved. They are about halfway there with the leather offered for 06.

Anyway, if Toyota is listening to us in the forums, that is great. But I can assure you, that a little 2-way communication would be nice every now and then.

 

That makes a lot of sense.

My major in college was marketing. I'm really curious what they had to say in that document.

 

Toyota would have to be obtuse NOT to monitor these boards, even if they had to pay the equivalent of one full-time salary, year-around, to do it (I know that's not the way they actually do it, or assume so).

Do you know what companies pay to arrange, host and analyze the input from focus groups? I once participated in a 1-1/2 hour sit-down focus group, with 14 others, for $50. About half the others seemed uninterested in what was asked and being discussed, and offered little or no input, so the money spent on them was wasted.

Here's a "voluntary-captive" focus group of, in a given time frame, hundreds, offering detailed input 24/7/365. None of us are bored, indifferent folks off the street with respect to the product. And we make available to them our input in neatly categorized form---well, to a large extent. No need for a mole to read every post as, for example, they would on the Yahoo boards.

If I were Toyota NA I'd order up weekly or monthly summaries of concerns (and praise) voiced here as a matter of routine.

Now, if we could just prevail upon Danny to work out a gentleman's agreement with Toyota to leak to us advance information on pricing, design changes, etc., in exchange for the service we provide.

 

Not that Toyota is doing this, but you should be aware that it is common practice for companies to use forums to highten products. Companies will hire external people to 'infiltrate' forums are start threads on new or up and coming products.

It's just another way of doing business and is considered by many as a legitimate way of marketing.

 

Would be nice if they actually did something with the common complaints/requested features with the steering wheel, seats, JBL audio, mushy suspension, ev button, lack of dealer installing other options, etc etc that's been bitched about for years.

 

I think this was discovered by Greenhybrid.

 

I think this was discovered by Greenhybrid.