New Car, Seldom Fun

We ordered our (my wife's) new car on February 8.  It finally came in on April 5.  It is a 2013 Toyota Avalon Hybrid, and we had specified the color, the interior color, and that it have tinted windows.

When we went to pick it up, it was still out at the tint shop.  What?  Why wasn't it tinted when it was made? Turns out they don't do that.  If it is supposed to have tint, they do it at the "port," which for southeast Toyota dealers is Atlanta.  It's not really a port, just where they all get sent before they are distributed out to the dealers.  Well this car had already been sent to Hollywood, Florida without tint, but was the only hybrid available in the color combination we wanted, anywhere.  They apparently get a several thousand dollar premium on high end hybrid cars in Hollywood, and the dealer there was reluctant to swap it out to a dealer here in Birmingham (which is why it took so long), but he finally relented.  

So it arrived in Birmingham without tint, and they sent it to their local yokel authorized tint/radio shop.  When we picked it up, it had bubbles and wrinkle in the tint sheeting, some of which went away with time and some didn't.  That is exactly why we didn't want the local guys doing it, but hey, we wanted the car.  We also noticed that the right rear window tint was on crooked and there was a gap of untinted window at the bottom front of that window.  The dealer said they would make it right, so after we got back from my son's wedding and the Disneyworld trip, I took it to them and they gave me another Avalon to drive.  

A few days later, the original salesman drove our car back out to our house and was going to drive the loaner back.  When I examined the car, they had replaced the tint on all but the one window which was okay originally (some of the windows were done several times before the tint guy was happy with it according to the salesman), but they had left visible dirt specks between the glass and the tint sheet on the left rear window, something I was not happy with.  Also they had poked a hole in the vinyl of the door near where they worked on the right rear.  What a crew.  He took our car back and left us with the loaner.  While he was driving back to the tint shop, we decided we didn't want that particular set of local yokels near the car again, so we called the sales manager and told him not to let them touch the car, and if I had to, I would get that dirty window tint repaired at my own expense, but the hole in the vinyl was their's.  

Again they kept the car for several days, and the same salesman finally brought it back to us last week.  The tint is finally right (hope it lasts) and the vinyl guy at the dealer repaired the hole in the vinyl.  He actually did a pretty good job.  We know it's there, so we can tell if we look closely, but most people would never see it.

Other than that, we love the car, and it really does get 40 miles per gallon if I don't hot dog it, pretty good for a car that big.