Prius lessons
May. 18th, 2012 09:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fbhjrThe Toyota dealership where I got the Prius had a new owners appreciation
dinner last night. They promised to give us advice on maintaining the car,
operating the car and improving fuel economy.
As I’m trying to get the best mileage out of the car, I thought they might
have some good advice.
The dealership is across the street from where I work, but not so
convenient for my wife, so she told me to go on without her.
There were about 2 dozen new car owners there. I was the only Prius
driver. The PriusC I have is still new enough that they don’t have fliers
for it yet, and they don’t seem totally sure what to do with them.
The corner of the showroom they were having the dinner was very sunny. I
got there early and picked the only spot with any amount of shade.
This was remarked on by several other folks as they came in.
At my table were two little old ladies. The younger one I’d guess to be
around 70, not sure on the older one. They seemed very happy to be having
a meal they didn’t have to cook.
On my other side sat an older Russian couple.
“You have the seat in the shade,” he said. “And, you picked on where it
will stay in the shade for the most amount of time. You must be good with
geometry.”
“I’m a mechanical engineer,” I said.
He sat in the seat next to me.
“This is where the shade will move once it passes you,” he said. “I am
also an engineer.”
Across from me was a man and his son. The father had just bought the son
his first car. Until he said that, I had guessed the son’s age to be about
12. So, keep that margin of error in mind for my guesses of the other
folks there.
Sadly, their tips for operation and such were basically “you should get
your car serviced here and use Toyota parts”. It took them a lot longer to
say that.
“You should take your owner’s manual out of your glove compartment and put
it somewhere you’ll look at it,” the service manager said. “Will you all
do that for me?”
“No,” I said.
“Why not?”
“I downloaded it to my iPad the day I put the deposit down on my car and
had read the whole thing before I took delivery. It seems inefficient to
carry the paper one around.”
The service manager just looked confused when I said that. The other
engineer laughed.
They did have a quiz on how often to get cars serviced and what gets done
at what amount of miles. I won a $10 gas card for it. I could have won a
lot more, but you were only allowed to win one.
At the end they had a raffle for a large TV.
“If you win, we’re going to take your picture and put it on our facebook
page,” the service manager said. “You don’t have to let us do this. But,
you don’t have to win a TV either. It’s up to you.”
The older of the women across from me won it. I’m pretty sure it was
larger than she was.
No idea how she handled the facebook issue.
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-18 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-18 02:07 pm (UTC)It seemed a bit like a church pot luck dinner. Meatballs, chicken legs, lasagna, salad.
Snce the first 2 years/25000 miles of service was included in the price of the car, I was planning on going there for my service anyhow. Especially as I can drop it off in the morning and walk the rest of the way to work.
I could have done without the "campfire" aspect of the service stories:
"A women came in here one day who hadn't had her service done here and the people she used put in a non-Toyota oil filter. Her engine had melted!"
no subject
Date: 2012-05-18 02:13 pm (UTC)Yeah I had that from the dealerships from my '99 Camry, and for my current Soob.
I'll get "dire warning" fliers about using non-approved [Toyota] parts now and then.
Funny how other Engineers seem to find you....Did you try to see if he could be a better Smoking Dick?
*evil*
no subject
Date: 2012-05-19 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-27 04:32 am (UTC)