May be a strange question BUT without this board I never would of heard of hybrid driving tips. No one at dealership mentioned HOW to drive to get max mileage.....just curious....LOVE my car but want to get more than 34mph from it....Have about 3200 miles on it so far....

 

To directly answer your question: Nope, not a word.

The only "instruction" that we got was the officially-required overview: "This is the instruction manual, here is the spare tire, have a nice day -- sign here." The same turnover process done for TCH and anything else on the lot.

That was typical of the rest of the experience... I came in with plenty of information and data and the dealer was about 80% worthless.

But, to put this in perspective, for me this was over year ago when the TCH was a new thing and Prius was sold to green folks that bought it by reputation and probably walked in with a check in hand and didn't need any sophisticated selling.

(of course, arguably, my personal experience is that Toyota sales staff didn't have to really work as hard on the "merits" of their product compared to domestic 'Big-3' sales folks)

So, keep learning -- and, by the way, wait for the weather to warm up and you'll do better.

 

It's sad when you know more about the vehicle than the dealer. He told me the consumption screen didn't exist. Thank God I came to this site long before I bought it.

The dealer instructions for me were basically what TCHconn got. Gotta love it!!!

Seaford,

Keep reading. You will get the feel for it. I find it's not only learning by reading but learning by "feel". You'll learn how to play the gas pedal.

 

Not everyone who buys a hybrid is fixated on squeezing every last mile from a drop of gas that they can. I imagine a large number of purchasers buy it because it gets better mileage on its own, without needing to take the extra steps needed for maximum efficiency. Others buy it for environmental reasons.
Many just buy the car to drive it, not to experiment to see if they can go from 35MPG up to 37 or more.
Just guessing here, but I'd say that they type of driver who would want the dealer to explain all the little tricks and techniques needed to improve their mileage is probably not the majority.
It seems like everyone at this forum is interested in better mileage techniques, but that's because of the nature of the forum. For every 100 forum members, like the enthusiasts here, there are probably 1000 or more 'normal' drivers who don't know, nor care.
I can't imagine my parents (assuming they were to be purchasing a hybrid) sitting there with the dealer as he tries to explain the difference between stage 3 and stage 4 or pulse and glide or the proper tire inflation for front and rear tires.
Traditional cars can be driven to maximize their mileage also, yet dealers don't sit there and discuss driving techniques.
I don't expect a dealer to run a class on efficiency, since their goal is to educate you about the car, sell it and move on. I don't expect a computer salesman in Best Buy to teach me how to partition a drive so I can dual boot.
As with any technologically intensive product, the best advice is always to read the manual. Manuals are written in easy to understand language (for the most part) and provide a great deal more information than the salesman could deliver in the 10-15 minutes that they will spend with you.

 

But you would expect for them to know the major features of te vehicle right? You wouldn't expect them to tell you features don't exist when they do would you?

I agree with the rest.

 

Oh sure, but I know they're only kids (in some instances) selling cars and not automotive experts. I read the entire manual before I got my TCH and during the walk through I was helping the salesman with some of the aspects of the car.

 

Sounds as if my sales rep goes to the head of the class, relatively speaking that is. He had been driving a hybrid and told me about some of the fundamentals such as the engine is going run until it gets up to temp and then it can move in and out of EV mode. He also mentioned that the mileage will improve when the weather would warm up. Not a lot of detail, but at least it was something compared to the previous posts.

Of course I really learned how to drive the car to get the best FE here on GreenHybrid.

 

"You have to wait for the READY light to come on, then you go"

Yep, he was a kid. And I kind of surprised him. I showed up at 08.30 one morning, the poor kid hadn't even figured out his tie knot or how to unlock the showroom door.

I told him my finance requirements, trade-in value, credit score and what color I wanted... then I gave him 90 minutes to get me out the door. 85 minutes later I was driving home in my new car.

I asked him briefly how to access the Blue Tooth setup he just gave me a sheepish look. I told him don't worry about it.

By the way... I tried the same process a day earlier at Claremont Toyota and that poor schmuck was so flummoxed that I had corrupted his scripted greeting and sales process that he just kept babbling at me. After about 20 minutes I thanked him for his time and went home.

 

How about the dealer who told me you cannot get a hybrid with mud guards??? GEEZ....Bought from a different dealer anyhow..better price and knowledge............

THANKS for all the driving tips here........

 

I already knew a little about the car and read the complete manual after a bought my TCH. The sales rep gave me a tour of the car and a test drive when it arrived. I had already test drove a TCH almost 8 months prior to that and wasn't ready to purchase until August of 2007. I did drive home from the dealer after signing all the paperwork trying to figure out how to turn up the brightness on the dash lighs. I got home and read the manual and set it. I'm very happy with the TCH. There are some things that could be improved but overall.........it's a great car.