Mandatory undercoating in the Southeast Region?

In many cases, undercoating *traps and holds* water. Duh.
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_H*

 

Wasn't that also the line of crap the salesguy used on the nice couple buying the car in the movie Fargo?

Depending on your climate, a "real" undercoating may actually make sense. For example if you live in the Rust Belt (Extensive road salt in winter) like I do, every car and truck 4-5 years old already has rust starting. A good oil spray tends to keep the rust away.

If you are leasing or intend on trading every 3-4 years, never open the hood. Otherwise, it may make sense to look into optional protection. I don't think a "one time" undercoating can actually help, perhaps make the car a tad quieter inside.

If your Dad had the agreement in writing, he should insist on getting the undercoating and other extras taken off the sale price.

 

as far as i know, SET does all those things at port, and SET is the one who makes the money, not the dealerships. it's just a distributor thing and they do it for the extra cash.

i didn't specifically order my car, i was just told that they were given allocations and whatever they got is what i could choose from when i got to the end of the waiting list. of course, this is back when there were 6-month waits for Prii... and of course the toyoguard was added when i picked my car up.

i imagine at this point things have changed, but i'm not sure if SET is treating Prii like other cars (like Danny's Matrix) so it may not be the dealer.

where in NC is your dad?

 

I was able to work with a dealer in NC (Barbara Katona at Scott Clark's Toyota City in Charlotte) that was willing to help me configure a car while it was on the boat and 'pre-port.' It was scheduled to have the 'Toyoguard' protection package which is installed at port by the SE distributor; I said I didn't want it and she struck it from the order. Toyoguard includes both the undercoating and a paint protector, I don't think you can keep one and not the other.

I was willing to drive from Atlanta to Charlotte to work with this dealer. All other dealers pretty much had a 'you get what you get' attitude. Check them out if you are within driving distance.

 

We bought our '05 right off the dealer's lot in Henderson, NC and it did not have Toyoguard, window tinting or any additional undercoating or exterior treatment of any kind. Nor did the other Prius they had on the lot at that time. We shopped NC dealers almost exclusively when we learned that VA (Mid-Atlantic Region) dealers could not get us a car with Pkg 5.

Most of Prii listed on NC dealers' websites already had Toyoguard or Toyoguard+, as well as "documentation fees" up to $529 (but averaging more like $299-399). Henderson got our business because they had exactly the car we wanted: Seaside Pearl w/Pkg 5, but none of the extras we didn't want except pinstriping, which we could live with for the $78. They even absorbed their doc fee (already the lowest we found at $95) in the discount they gave us on options we did request, such as carpeted rear trunk mat, locking lugnuts, splashguards, and the Matrix-style rear bumper protector.

Much to our surprise, there was also no attempt to sell us anything extra when we drove the 140 miles to Henderson to close the deal. (We did all price shopping and negotiations by email.) Very pleased with this dealer and highly recommend them to anyone shopping in central NC.

 

I bought mine off the lot in Tifton, GA and the only extra it had was leather seats which I like. No ToyGuard or other BS, and no added markup or attempted sales. The dealer here in Albany (Fairway Toyota - the usual rip-off artists) did add all that crap and that is why I drove the 45 minutes to Prince Toyota in Tifton.