Scion tC Forums banner

My (incomplete) tC is here early!

1601 Views 18 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Sesame87
I am completely enthused right now! Instead of waiting until April to make the long-awaited trip to Toyota of Greenville, my parents headed over there on Friday to "talk money," then my mom drove away with the car yesterday without me.


Here's what happened:

My dad and I went by Toyota on Thursday night after closing just so he can see the car again. Luckily there were two Flint Micas on the lot: one base manual, and one base automatic. Once again he fell in love with the color and the car itself, and hinted about purchasing it the next day.

After I woke up the next morning, my mother told me that we would be heading over there to do a test drive sometime that afternoon and I was very excited. Since I had been obsessing over the car since September, I never had the chance beforehand to drive it myself. Around 3pm we arrived and asked to test drive one of the cars on the lot. There were the two Flint Micas and a Black Sand Pearl one available, and the salesperson let us drive the BSP one off the lot. Problem: there was no gas in the car. He let us drive away with it but the gas light was blinking! My mother and I had to put gas in ourselves. Speaking of gas, my mother was the one doing the majority of the driving. She only let me drive from the gas station to my house which is only a 30-second ride. But don't get the wrong impression, she thinks the car is pretty but has no intent to buy it whatsoever in the future.

Finally we make it back to my house after my 30-second drive (whee. . .). My dad approached us and told us that he had been talking to "Poncho" (my dad's name for Jose, our 20-something sales rep whom we've known since September). Supposedly my dad went to "Poncho" and told him that he was there to buy a Flint Mica Auto with Side Airbags and a Rear Lip Spoiler and would write out a check that day for the car. He completely forgot the other options I desired: the mudgards, rear bumper applique, and carpet mats. I even printed out a sheet from the Build Your Scion page for him to give to Jose, but he didn't bother to bring it. Unfortunately there was a problem. Rice Scion of Greensboro, NC had a Flint Mica Auto with Side Airbags, but absolutely did not want to trade the car for anything. Period. The manager of ToyoGreenville was going to trade the BSP one that I drove with the Door Speaker Upgrade, Mudguards, Rear Pedestal Spoiler, and a lot of other "nifty" things for the FM one just for us. No luck. So my parents tried to convince me that the extra airbags was a ridiculous option and how they kill more than save. I had to tell my brother-in-law, an Allstate Insurance agent, to convince them that I was making the right decision.

So a few minutes later my mom drove the car back to ToyoGreenville. She still wouldn't let me drive it. "Poncho" and the manager talked to us again, and the manager said how much he was fighting for the car. Later that evening "Poncho" called and exclaimed "We got the car! We got the car!!" After 5 hours of not knowing the fate of the car, I was thrilled with the result.

The next day my mother and I went back once again to ToyoGreenville to see the car. It was gorgeous, except for dirt and grime from the 200mi trip it had in order to get here from Greensboro. The first thing I noticed was that the rear lip spoiler was missing, even though both "Poncho" and the manager said beforehand that the car already had that option. "Poncho" let the car be detailed for an hour and a half while my mother signed the documents. Since I had nothing to do except wait, she let me leave for a while and told me to come back by 5:30pm which was when the detailing was supposed to be done. I arrived back 6 minutes early, but my mother was nowhere to be found. She had driven off with the car without me! Therefore I wasn't able to have my first "key-giving ceremony."


As for installing the options, I have to take the car back probably in the next 4 or 5 days which is when the parts will be here. After that, I'll be the proud owner of my own customized tC. Once it's done, I'll definitely post pictures of it in the sun, even though my digital camera is on its last leg.

So far there are 311mi on the odometer. No hatch rattle, no paint chips, no leaks from the moonroof, tires grip well, brakes work fine, none of the usual complaints I hear about the car. The one minor thing that bothers me is the new car smell is very faint, and that's mainly to blame on the fact that my mother made me haul food from my grandmother's house this afternoon. Arg.

And that's my story!
See less See more
3
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
Thats quite a story!!! Congrats on finally getting it.
lol, very nice. Congrats on the new car. I hope you enjoy it. You should probably change your signature now that you have it
.


(Off-topic) There's a Door Speaker Upgrade?
See less See more
good for you. hope you like your new car.
Originally posted by Pharohz@Mar 27 2005, 03:56 PM
lol, very nice. Congrats on the new car. I hope you enjoy it. You should probably change your signature now that you have it
.


(Off-topic) There's a Door Speaker Upgrade?
I changed it.


On the Scion website under Scion Builder, "Door Speaker Upgrade & 100 Watt Amp (w/ or w/o Bazooka Subwoofer)" is listed under the "Sound" options. I personally thought that the upgrade sounded worse than the normal speakers, but since others had test driven the car beforehand they probably tweaked the sound options poorly.
See less See more
Congrats, I've had to wait for almost 2 weeks for my FM tC. They kept trying to get me into a Super White one, I wouldn't do it. The car's supposed to be in tomarrow, so I'm excited.
What happened with the spoiler? They might have taken if off in order to trade the car, i dont know if the OEM spoiler is taped on with 3M adhesive, or actually bolted on. If they promised it was on the car, you should track it down...

Good luck.
The spoiler is a one way option. Holes in the deck lid after install. No way around it.

Congrats and welcome to the owner's club!

Neither my Indigo Ink Pearl, nor my Flint Mica had options on them when we got them. Mori and D just ordered the parts, and service called us for the install. No big deal and definitely no problems. We've all had to be patient for something!
Congrats on the car


Don't worry about the new car smell. It'll return as soon as the car airs out a little. I know this from experience because I'm always ordering take-out Chinese food, which most of the times, is VERY stinky!
See less See more
You should have gone to Toyota of Easley, but what can you do?...p.s. Dad works there.
Yay! About time
Now you can drive yourself up to the Dragon's Tale at the end of May and party with the rest of us
...and you're close!!!
See less See more
2
nice work. my buying experience was not nearly that involved, in fact my tc was almost dropped into my lap. I just went up there to look at them and see if they had some good financing options, before i knew it i was signing paperwork and my g/f was whining about having to drive the volvo back(she wanted to drive my new baby home....yeah right!)
Thanks everyone for the congrats. It's a great feeling to be a tC owner, but too bad there are so many on the road here now.


A little update for what has happened over the past 2 days:

The weather here has been very messy -- rain, thunderstorms, tornados, strong winds -- so I've had my first few experiences using the tires on wet roads. They feel as if they grip the roads the same as they do when the roads are dry, and the brakes work very well.

I noticed also that the car drives exactly like my mother's 3-year old C-240 Mercedes Benz. The response of the steering wheel, the feel of the tires on the road, even the quietness of the engine are very similar to her car. I suppose that's another feature that makes the car feel "expensive."

Yesterday I read through the manual while sitting in the car, taking notice of all the buttons and features of the car. I played with the Audio features for a bit and made my radio presets, changed the SSP to SSP Feel, and set my welcome message to "Saionu" ("Scion") in Japanese Katakana. (I know a bit of Japanese, and just had to do that for kicks once I learned how to do it.) I also put in a CD-RW and was surprised how it actually did read the ID tags I made when I burned the CD.

As for keeping the car clean, I'm already obsessed about that.
In fact, after I woke up early yesterday morning I went with a very soft towel into the garage where the car is, made one end of the towel slightly damp, and with great care I wiped the dirt from the rain off the sides of the car. Then I lightly dried off those spots.

To Duckman, the new car smell is back in full force.


I'm still waiting to hear back from "Poncho" about when to bring the car back to have the options installed. It should be another 2 or 3 days. For those who had their options installed by the dealer after buying the car, how long did it take?

That's all I can think of for now. I wasn't able to drive the car yesterday, and I miss that feeling already. But yes, Scion/Toyota continues to "move me forward."
See less See more
4
Originally posted by Sesame87@Mar 29 2005, 05:56 AM
As for keeping the car clean, I'm already obsessed about that.
In fact, after I woke up early yesterday morning I went with a very soft towel into the garage where the car is, made one end of the towel slightly damp, and with great care I wiped the dirt from the rain off the sides of the car. Then I lightly dried off those spots.
I know what you mean, I spent 2 and a half hrs washing and detailing my super white yesterday
Oh yea, let me know how your dealer install goes, I'm curious how long they're gonna take installing it all
This is a common phenomenon for owners in their early 20's up to about 32 or 33. By then you've had a few cars, and all the waxing and polishing time is spent doing other things. I know the finish on my tC will never be perfect, so as long as it looks acceptable to me by the 20 - 20 standard (20 feet at 20 mph) I'm good with it.

As Damon and I said on Sunday, your daily driver can't be a show car, it just doesn't work that way.
Originally posted by lo bux racer@Mar 29 2005, 10:57 AM
This is a common phenomenon for owners in their early 20's up to about 32 or 33. By then you've had a few cars, and all the waxing and polishing time is spent doing other things. I know the finish on my tC will never be perfect, so as long as it looks acceptable to me by the 20 - 20 standard (20 feet at 20 mph) I'm good with it.

As Damon and I said on Sunday, your daily driver can't be a show car, it just doesn't work that way.
That's true and all seeing most show cars are carried everywhere in a trailer as opposed to driven to work every day, but for me having my car as clean as possible is a must if I'm going to have a nice car. I don't often get time to wash either so usually I'm running through a carwash on the way somewhere, but on my days off when I have the time I love scrubbing her down myself and getting every little spot. Even if it only looks a little more shiny at 20-20, the difference will show when people come up to you in a parking lot and say "hey nice car!" and want to check it out. For me that's reason enough to make time to hand was it.
See less See more
What I do is drive the Accord if I'm running errands or am taking a quick drive somewhere. But if I know I'll be out for a while and can keep an eye on whatever car I'm driving, then that's when I'll use the tC. Plus the Accord has much better gas mileage when it comes to stop-and-go city traffic.

I did take pictures of the tC with my lousy 4-yr old camera. I'll take more once the accessories are added on: Lookie here.

QUOTE
Oh yea, let me know how your dealer install goes, I'm curious how long they're gonna take installing it all[/b]
I'm curious too. All I know is that on Saturday "Poncho" said it would take 4-5 days (not sure if he meant business days or including Sunday) for the parts to come in. He said "it won't take long for those to be put in," but no time length was given. Everything should look good when finished since I know ToyoGreenville has a good reputation for its installations and detail work. Plus the manager is very nitpicky about details and makes sure such things are done to perfection.
See less See more
1 - 19 of 19 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top