New Car: plusses and minuses

[jducoeur]

Not sure I've mentioned it here (it was a few weeks ago), but after something of an epic process, Kate and I have a new car. Let's talk a little about the good and bad.

tl;dr -- unsurprisingly, it is still the case that Toyota makes good cars and terrible dealerships. We're going to do a bit of name-and-shame here.

Good: The Car

The car is a Prius: we've known for a fair while that that was what we were going to get. At this point, for city folk like us, at least a hybrid is the responsible thing to do, but a plug-in doesn't look like it makes sense for us. (Installing the plug at home wouldn't be simple, since we live in a tiny condo complex, and all reviews say to only get the Prius Prime if you have a plug: otherwise, the added weight and bulk is a net negative.)

I quite like the car. Yes, it's basically a computer on wheels, and the complete lack of a key worries me slightly, but on a day-to-day basis it's lovely to be able to just walk up to the car, open the door, push the button to start it, and have music start playing from my phone -- it's a lower-friction experience than any I've had before.

The XLE is full of extras that we sort of rolled our eyes at, and some of them are a bit annoying. It is flat-out impossible to get into our driveway without the car freaking out and beeping frantically, sure that I am going to crash into something, because our driveway is just that narrow. OTOH, as we get past the Solstice, I am finding that the heated steering wheel and seats are a joy that I never previously knew I needed.

I'm still getting used to not having quite the oomph I'm used to in the old Honda, but that's largely by choice: the Prius does a fine job of gamifying mileage, and I'm willing to play along, leaving Power Mode turned off. I'm gradually building my reflexes to push the pedal more when I actually need to kick in the gas engine to get moving quickly, and when I can just ease my way along on the battery. (Just did an out-and-about to the suburbs and got around 58MPG -- I'm inordinately proud of that.)

My only complaint is that the XLE model lacks an AUX input, and it turns out that trying to run my trusty old iPod Classic (the device with the best UX in all of tech history, and a mammoth 160GB hard drive) through the USB port just doesn't work right: there's no way to do so and be able to use the iPod's own controls. And I'm disappointed to find that Android Auto doesn't work over Wifi -- I have to physically plug the thing in in order to use its maps, which is a nuisance and risks leaving my phone in the car. So all that massive computer power isn't entirely a net positive: in some ways, it's less flexible than the cobbled-together approach I've been using in our old car.

But overall, it's fun to drive, and a pleasant experience.

Bad: Two out of Three Toyota Dealers

The process of getting the car, OTOH, was by no means pleasant.

Part One: Watertown

Let's start with the worst of the bunch. We originally planned on buying the car from Watertown Toyota, and this should have been an easy sale. We knew precisely which models we wanted to take a look at (the LE, XLE and Limited versions of the normal Prius, and a Prime). We called them in advance, made an appointment, told them exactly what we wanted, and expected a smooth experience. Not so much.

When we got there, we were paired with an associate who I gradually came to realize knew far less about these cars than I did: more than once, we asked a question that shouldn't have been very hard, and he had to duck away for ten minutes to ask someone more experienced.

Worse, it became clear that they had paid no attention to what we said in setting up the appointment -- the cars we wanted to look at weren't on the lot. Twice, he had to leave us for almost half an hour to go to "The Annex" to get the right model. During those times, while we were clearly growing impatient (eventually furious), nobody else even came over to check on us, despite there being an entire cluster of associates sitting around chatting 20 feet away.

We had expected an efficient half-hour stop in, to try a short test drive and look at a few models. After two hours of wasted time (our associate had abandoned us again twenty minutes earlier), we gave up and stormed out.

I should be clear: I don't blame the associate, but I enormously blame Watertown Toyota -- he was clearly completely undertrained, and their handling of customers is inexcusably bad. I give it my strongest thumbs-down, for utterly incompetent customer service.

Part Two: Herb Chambers

I was practically blind with rage at this point, and ready to just go home, but Kate pointed out that Herb Chambers was just down the road a few miles. So we decided to just drop in on them and see what happened.

This was night and day a better experience. We were handed to one of the experienced sales managers -- he took us down to their underground lot, and talked with us as we poked around a few models. Then we came upstairs, and spent half an hour talking details. Unlike the situation in Watertown, he knew his stuff quite well: what the availability situation looked like (tight), what sort of pricing we might be able to get (not too much discount, because tight), what the expansion packages were, and so on.

We came out of that meeting much happier, and quite frankly, the sale was theirs to lose. Unfortunately, they lost it.

We were looking for a front-wheel drive model: I don't have anything against all-wheel-drive, but I'm mostly city driving under undemanding circumstances, and the AWD is overkill for our needs, so I wasn't willing to pay extra for it. So Kate called a few days later, ordered a front-wheel-drive car, gave them her credit card, and was told that it should be ready in a few weeks.

And we waited. And waited. And waited.

After 5-6 weeks, Kate called them back to see where our car was. The associate we had been assigned to (not the sales manager we had originally talked to), said basically, "Oh, we can't get a front-wheel-drive car."

That was it. No explanation for why they couldn't get us a new-model-year car that Toyota was advertising on their website. No apology for wasting our time. Not even telling us whether or not they had charged our credit card for the deposit. Just a factual "no", and that was it.

So this time, it was Kate's turn to have steam coming out of her ears. (Which happens less often than it does with me -- I've rarely seen her so pissed off.) She went online, and started looking for anybody more competent.

Part Three: Lexington Toyota

She wound up in an email conversation with a salesman from Lexington Toyota, who was, finally, actually attentive and competent. He got into the details of what was going on, which is that Toyota apparently just decided that people in the Northeast shouldn't use front-wheel-drive cars, and doesn't ship them here any more.

(Mind, they don't say that anywhere customer-facing, as far as we can tell. So I'm going to give a big black mark to Toyota Corporate as well, for being responsible for a good bit of this fuckup.)

Anyway, he found a front-wheel drive model in CT and offered to have it brought up for us, but it wasn't the right color, and he also said that he could just arrange the incentives so that the AWD version wouldn't cost much more than the front-wheel would have in the first place. And he could get an AWD that was the right model and the right color (bright shiny blue -- Kate quite loves it, and it's easy to find in parking lots) for us quickly.

The result was that we finally got the experience we had been looking for: someone who efficiently got us what we wanted, and got the whole sale done in less than an hour once we came down to the dealership. We drove away with a new car in far less time than the guy at Watertown had spent getting us basically nothing.

So to summarize: out of this little two-month epic, the dealership that proved itself competent, friendly and efficient was Lexington Toyota. They get a recommendation; Herb Chambers came close but missed; and I'm never going into Watertown Toyota again.

Comments

[writerkit]

Thing I have learned from my own adventures with "complete lack of key": you can open the key fob up and produce a key, and there's a spot you can stick the key close to so that the car will start even when the key fob's battery is dead. (It is good to be aware of this *before* you are panicking because your car isn't responding to the fob.)

[laurion]

Yup. My car is like this. I believe they have to give you that possibility. And even in cars that don't have a keyswitch ignition, there are instructions in the manual on how to get the car to read the otherwise dead fob. These fobs (IIRC), use an RFID signal, and the battery lets the fob transmit with active power (i.e. enough range) back to the car, but if the battery in the fob is dead it can still passively transmit. So in my car I can hold the fob to the car's ignition button as I press it and that is close enough for the car to validate the fob and start the engine.

[keshwyn]

Thank you for doing this writeup. Because our next car is likely to have to be a Toyota Sienna hybrid minivan (when the current Mazda 5 microvan dies, sob) and I will have to fight my way through Toyota dealerships at that point...

[laurion]

We've gotten our Toyotas from Acton Toyota, and been happy with them. But you shouldn't have to go that far for a reasonable shopping experience. I know of no one that has had a good experience with Watertown Toyota.

I know that wireless Apple CarPlay is out there, I'd think wireless Android Auto would be as well. I don't have it, but I don't mind because I rather like having the phone charging during the drive. It's a habit now to plug in when I get in, and to unplug when I get out.

I'd be willing to bet there is an aux capability on the head end, just that no jack is exposed to the user. Car A/V places could add a jack somewhere. I've done it when I replaced the head end in my old Toyota.

[jducoeur]

I'd be willing to bet there is an aux capability on the head end, just that no jack is exposed to the user. Car A/V places could add a jack somewhere. I've done it when I replaced the head end in my old Toyota.

Intriguing idea. You may well be right -- the high-end Limited does claim to have an Aux input, so it's quite plausible, although it wouldn't surprise me if there are software implications as well. (That is, something has to tell the Audio UI that that jack exists.) Worth thinking about: thanks for the suggestion!

[loosecanon]

Any auto shop that advertises a keyless remote and stereo equipment can do this for you, connected or just power, in any configuration you like.

I have installed several switched power ports so my passengers all have access to charge, and I can charge battery packs while driving, but they won't drain the vehicle when it is off.

Congrats on the new vehicle. AWD is worth the trouble of having, and it may be better on your insurance as well.

[fenicedautun]

As an add-on, Herb Chambers partly redeemed themselves when the original sales manager called me (after we bought the car) to say they had finally been able to secure a FWD. Now, if they had told us they were still trying and given us a timeline, we might well have waited, but their lack of communication was inexcusable. But he was trying to get us the right car.