Well, My Block is Rockin and the other Prius Owners Appeared

It's incredible how huge the knowledge gap is between those who seek out the information online and those who don't.

I wonder what percentage of Prius owners do look online for useful information on their lovely car.

 

The fascinating corollary to that is how often I've spoken with dealers and clearly knew more about the ins and outs of their product than they did! None of them were totally ignorant, but there's a clear lack of deep training.

 

Oh certainly, I know I know more than just about any dealer. Most of them know the basics, that's certain, but they don't know specifics.

In all truth, though, they really don't need too. It'd be nice for buyers if they knew that such information was available online.

Thinking about it, though, if I was a dealer, I'd want to have that deep knowledge. Certainly, I wouldn't want to overwhelm the average consumer with facts about low-rolling-resistance tires or the coefficient of drag, but for the buyers who wanted to know, I'd love to supply the information.

 

Toyota product

Once upon a time, I considered myself an expert in the details of the cars we sold.. I started with Toyota way back in 1980. It was a snap back then to know everything there was to know. As time's gone on, we now have 5x the models with submodels under all those. Who the hell can remember it all? We have resources to look all of this up. I am lucky if I can remember how much gas my own Camry or Solara holds... and it's easy to look things up online or in resource books.

As for Prius, the car has sold itself, but there was a time (year 2000-2003) when it did not sell itself and most of us know the ins and outs of that car (the classic) but candidly, when selling the 2004, it's pretty much an ordered-take-a-name-car and when someone asks me why they should buy it, I usually do not push it. Why try hard to sell what I cannot get for months and months? It's aggravating.

Dianne

 

Oh I totally understand where you're coming from, Dianne, and I certainly am not dealer-bashing by any means. Toyota dealers must have the hardest time of all because of the plethora of cars. And you are of course right, that there's no reason to supply the details on a car that sells itself.

I guess that I was simply thinking from my own perspective...I am an informational sponge, just by nature. I can't remember things I did four years ago, but I can remember final Jeopardy questions from eight years ago. :mrgreen:

In the end, I think maybe the dealership on the whole could produce a special information booklet. Nothing dealers have to remember, but just a booklet to give a Prius buyer after making his purchase. If people knew how the car worked, as well as how to drive the car for better MPG, it might help the long-term sales prospects of the cars, as people do seem quite apt to complain about the 'low' MPG numbers.

 

my salesman attended a class on the Prius, so he knew more than average. but salesmen are people too. they learn a lot more by doing and touching and feeling, etc. but the Prius is rare even at a Toyota dealership!!

So the normal method of getting familiar with a new model isnt as available. he said he cant remember the last time he had so many offers on the two demo Prius'.

to give you an idea of how well thought of the Prius' are. one of the demos has already been tabbed for courtesy car/loaner car duty.

i told him he should put the other on E-bay...probably get more than the original sticker for it despite its used condition.

 

One thing that impressed me about one particular dealership I dealt with is that they would not let go of their demonstration Prius for any amount of money. Considering there are several Twin Cities area dealers who did not have Priuses that could be test-driven, I thought this was a very wise move.