When getting my pre delivery walk around and operators check, my sales person told me to turn off the traction control while driving under normal conditions to improve MPG. After reading the owners manual it states to leave it on!! Thoughts?

 

The salesman is full of it.

In my car, the traction light blinks when there is slippage of the tires. It doesn't make a difference in MPG one bit. In fact, I bet you would get better MPG with it on than off if you consider the times you wind the engine out spinning tires in water.

Andrew

 

That doesn't make much sense to me, TCS has little input to anything but braking. I may be wrong on this one, I've not researched this alot, yet.

:twisted:

 

Yeah, that is a load of crap. All TRACS does is monitor wheel spin. If the wheels are spinning fast than the car is moving, brakes are applied to those wheels and power is reduced.

This salesman has also opened himself up to some serious liability. When you turn off the TRACS, you also turn off the VSC. VSC monitors the direction your car is moving relative to where the car is pointed. If it detects understeer (front end plowing) or oversteer (spin out), brakes are applied to the appropriate corners of the vehicle to straighten you out. Understeer is the number one cause of roll overs in SUVs. Understeer isn't dependant on weather and happens in emergency situations when you are trying to avoid an obstacle. The salesman has just told you to turn off a safety feature and he's an idiot. You can tell him I said so too.

 

rated gas mileage is base on "grandma" driving style

 

You mean, going 35 on the freeway in the left lane?? That's Florida right there, in all it's touristic glory.


:twisted:

 

This is the reason most consumers think Salespersons do not know as much about the products they are selling as they do. This guy is an absolute idiot. Print off these replys and mail them to his GM. Our dealership does weekly product training ( I should know,I teach it) and if I ever caught a salesperson telling that to a customer of mine They would be severly reprimanded. I appologize to you from all of the hard working certified dealership staff who actually know their stuff!

 

Next, he'll be telling you to turn off the airbags to save electicity. Just be sure to turn them on before you get in an accident or something...

 

Turn off traction control to increase mileage? It would have no effect at all unless you were getting into wheelspin _all_ the time, and even then the effect could be positive or negative.

Every time I hear a story like this I think "Wow, they can't get any more ignorant than that", but a week or two later I hear a story that tops (bottoms?) the previous one!

Scion salespeople: Please read those brochures that you hand out! Try to be at least as knowledgeable as your customers about the products you sell. After all, you only have three mono-spec cars to keep track of! If you don't know something, don't make up BS to cover your ignorance.

BTW, there are a few knowlegeable Scion salespeople around. This isn't directed at them!

George

 

Don't think I didn't notice that you almost said something nice about us here! LOL

(man I hope George can see the grin on my face right now)

 

yep, that's pretty stupid.

I had a Scion salesman tell me the jack is under the spare tire in the rear - it's not - it's under the driver's seat. I just looked at him and shook my head. Moron.

Imagine how ____ed his customers are going to be when they have a flat at 2am in the pouring rain in the middle of freaking nowhere and that can't find that damn jack that's 'under the spare tire' - lol.

 

when i bought mine, the salesman told me that unless i was driving in slippery conditions that i could leave it off....i leave it on all the time tho :?

 

My personal theory is that the _really_ ignorant Scion salesmen haven't figured out how to work "That funny TV with the typewriter keyboard" in their showroom and therefore are absent from this forum. This makes the salesmen on this forum quite knowledgeable by comparision!

George

 

Thanks for all the info! I set the computers on the showroom floor to www.scionlife.com and showed it to the salesperson, he called the rest of the team over and when I left 10min later they were still there lookin :D