Naebody in Particular

we just bought at used 2008 prius from koons toyota in tysons, and have already had two vaguely disturbing experiences about the on-going “unintended acceleration” recall already.

first, before we even bought the car, we asked them about the recall … and the salesperson said that, since our car didn’t have all-weather floor mats, it wasn’t subject to the recall.

unfortunately for that claim, the next day we did a quick “check your VIN” search on the toyota recall site which reported that the car was not only subject to the recall, but that the remedy work hadn’t yet been completed.

fine, no big deal — especially as the car was missing its floor mats when we test drove the car. no harm, no foul.

we pushed the issue with koons, and they replied that it was just a misunderstanding, that the accelerator pedal recall on the 2008 Prius was “just issued late last week” and that they would certainly fix the issue before we came back to buy the car the following night.

(according to Toyota, the 2004-2009 Prius was part of the November 2, 2009 announcement to address floor mat entrapment — but i’m not an expert in the nuances of the recall, so i’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.)

the next night, we went back, asked if they had done the work. they replied they had.

we asked for documentation, in case there were questions if we ever tried to resell the car. they said that they couldn’t print it out that night because the service department was closed, but that we could pick it up the following week.

we asked if they had found the car’s floor mats. they replied they had.

fine. great. we bought the car, joined the cult of the hypermiling prius, and were happy.

fast forward to yesterday, when we got around to taking up the paper, temporary, “we respect your car” floor mats up from the floor.

first, i noticed that the floor mats were the wrong color, and has wear that was entirely impossible for a two year old car (worn all the way through the carpet to the rubber backing) so were obviously from an older model year.

(koons seemingly grabbed some other floor mats they had lying around, and tossed them into our car. that’s borderline scummy in my book, but not out-of-line for what i’d expect from a used car dealership — even for a car with the “certified pre-owned” label.)

but then i noticed that the floor mats were unsecured — which is what led to the recall in the first place.

(did i mention we have a 6 month-old child?)

now, either of these situations alone — saying our car wasn’t subject to the recall vs. “fixing it” with incorrect, unsecured floor mats — and i’m thinking it’s just a bad day at the car dealership.

put the two together, and koons doesn’t seem to be taking the toyota recall very seriously.

now i’m nervous that maybe they didn’t even replace the accelerator pedal — i mean, heck, how the would i know if the work was done or not? — and am more than a little nervous asking for the documentation that the recall work was done.

so, i’ve sent emails to one of koon’s managers and to our sales consultant — haven’t heard back yet — and we’re going back into koons on monday for some light repairs the agreed to make during our test drive.

with any luck, they’ll have our floor mats waiting for us. i hope to god that they aren’t going to give us any grief — give us our proper floor mats, and actually secure them this time.

until then, we’re removed the floor mats and are again using the (now oddly ironic) temporary “we respect your car” paper mats.

we’ll see what happens — and report back once we hear back from them.

based on what i’ve seen so far, i’m not particularly optimistic.

UPDATE: after some legalistic-sounding resistance (saying they were only obligated to fix the pedal, not do anything with the floor mats) they have agreed to get us the correct floor mats, and properly secure them. yay!