Car Shopping Experience

This is not related to shopping for an I Miev

..........But found this interesting and wanted to share
& ask if others have had a similar encounter......

Discussing cars with my friend he mentioned their lease (VW Rabbit, 170 hp) was coming to an end soon.
They are about to make a lifestyle change where both he and his wife are retiring, downsizing their home, etc.. all changes related to retirement.
He has a <12 year old Buick gas guzzler, that he hope to get a government incentive to put it down, or sell privately.

His initial thoughts are to move to 1 fuel efficient car.
He is not sold on BEV or Hybrid cars and completely turned off by their pricing.
He wants to lease.
I mentioned the car show and suggested he might consider the affordable Toyota Prius C.

So we headed off to the Toyota dealer ship......
We saw the 5 door Yaris sport edition and he like the shape, size , traditional interior, & back seat room. ...could not find a Prius C in the showroom.
They let us wander through the showroom and offered a sales man to help us several times.

Finally we asked for a sales person inquiring about the Prius C
He said the only had one outside as a demo and offered to show it to us & a test drive.

As we were discussing the Prius C , its 2 km electric only mode came up.

The sales person started to cut down fully electric cars.
" Electric cars are not ready yet. they don't have a long enough range, we are now testing them in California, the heating systems are not strong enough for this climate, .... etc.

I cut him - off stating that I owned a BEV & know how they perform, which left him lost for words of criticism.

I believe he has had many inquiries from clients on fully electric Vehicles.
This was obviously why he was rehearsed in cutting them down, attempting to steer them away, since he had nothing to offer to compete.

The test drive went well and the sale person was courteous, accommodating and informative..
Told us there is up to a 3- 4 month waiting period for a Prius C.

My friends reaction..
First words - Econo Box
Didn't like the futuristic center dash set up
Found the sloping roof low head room
Under powered
Skeptical on taking it on a longer highway trip
Same size as the Yaris 5 door
Little economic gain on gas mileage difference between the Yaris for the initial price outlay

He may very well lease another VW

My Reaction - ( to car shopping )
It's a jungle out there.

My Reaction - ( to the sales approach)
Cutting down others products does not make yours better.
It makes me loose credibility towards the one doing the cutting down.

To some extent, he was just parroting the Toyota company line. They really believe in hybrids for their ability to compensate for the inherent drawbacks of ICE in midsize passenger car applications, but they're pretty lukewarm about PHEVs, much less BEVs. The custom shop Toyosla RAV4EV says it all - it may as well have COMPLIANCE ONLY stenciled on the side in dayglo orange lettering.

While the Prius hatchback (we own a Gen2) and Prius V (I persuaded a friend to test drive one while shopping for a crossover/SUV to replace her old Highlander, she bought it and loves it) are impressively practical family cars, I think the shopper described here is pretty perceptive - the Prius C is really more of a marketing gimmick, the Prius for people who can't quite afford a Prius. Not to disrespect it too much, but we're talking about a Yaris hybrid with some Prius-shaped sheetmetal and interior cues.

We test drove one ourselves last year before buying our i-MiEV. Behind the wheel, its personality is undeniably more Yaris than Prius, and much to our surprise we flat out hated it (I actually preferred the Scion iQ, which we also drove). Rough, slow, cramped, and deadly dull, the Prius C is an immeasurably less pleasant urban runabout than the much-maligned i-MiEV. Given its lack of charm, the marginal MPG advantage over already efficient alternatives like the Yaris or Fit makes the Prius C a questionable value even in C2 trim (which is almost impossible to find), and downright silly in C4.

Oh, and the punchline from our test drive probably tops the above story in terms of salesman BS. When the sales manager perceived that we were very interested in plug-ins and disappointed they didn't have a date for the PPI, he tried to tell us that third parties could readily convert the Prius C to a PHEV (you can look this up for yourself to understand exactly how idiotic a suggestion this is for someone shopping for a new car). I stared at him as if he'd started speaking in tongues until he just stopped talking (kind of petered out into a mumble), then I turned back to the floor salesman to continue the conversation (which also went nowhere when they tried to lowball my hypothetical trade-in by over $1500).

We'll be back for a close look at the PPI whenever they condescend to sell them in New Mexico - my wife's not inclined to write a big check to Ford for a C-Max Energi, which I can understand (I do at least want to test drive it, but for my part, I'm leery of M$yFordTouch). They may not be anything super-special any more, but we still kinda like Toyotas. Toyota dealers not so much.