Charging at other brands' dealerships

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Larry_in_Seattle

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 26, 2014
Messages
164
Location
Shoreline, WA
What are your experiences charging your RAV4 EV at other brands' dealerships?

Yesterday I needed to charge in two locations not near any public stations. Both, however, were near dealers of other brands: Advantage Nissan in Bremerton, and Bickford Ford in Snohomish, WA. Plugshare listed both as "restricted". It was 27F out (brrrrr), and my visit to 3 school districts would cover 129 miles.

Both dealers were incredibly friendly, helpful, and accomodating. I arrived at Advantage and both of their L2's had shiny new LEAFs hooked up... all with just 1 light blinking meaning it would be a long time before they were full. I asked at the service department counter and immediately they told me there was another one around the side of the building that I was free to use. Of course the spot was blocked, but their charger had about a 25' cord so I parked 2 cars over. Charged there for about an hour during my appointment. (Which was all of 3 minutes walk away.)

Next up Snohomish. Again, just dropped in. A C-Max was charging at their lone charger in the front lot. Again, the service folks were super nice and, again, they had another one around the back. One tech showed me around back, said "Toyota makes an EV!!!!???" and wished me well.

I thanked both dealers profusely!

On the other hand, when I had the LEAF, at least ONE of the local dealers here would ONLY allow their own customers access to the L3 charger. If you bought elsewhere you were out of luck.

What's your experience? Kia? Ford? Nissan? Fiat? BMW? Tesla? or any others?
 
Larry:
I think the gods were smiling on you. On my one long distance trip with the RAV, I was traveling from my home to Carson Toyota (about 135 mi) so I decided to stop at the Nissan dealer near Magic Mountain (Nissan of Valencia). The service people were very kind and let me charge. They pointed me to a Mimi's Café two blocks away, but warned me that I should return before the sales people arrived. When I cam back, the sales manager told me to get lost. I went across the street to the Toyota dealer, but was told that they didn't let anyone charge at their station. The Chevy dealer down the block was charging some Volts but I was told that they didn't let anyone charge, I eventually ended up at the Northridge Fashion Mall where I could charge.

On a prior somewhat shorter trip to Hamer Toyota (90 miles from home, but they neglected to fully charge the car), the chargers at the Nissan dealer had a Leaf (has to be delivered tomorrow) and a Tesla (sorry, can't unplug him). Ended driving to a Kohls on CA-14 (I have to take I-5 home) and got home at 2am. This has completely soured my wife on the RAV, and is one of the reasons I am getting the JdeMO.

I realize now that I probably could have gotten home from Hamer on the charge I had, but I was new to distance driving then, and there are NO chargers between Santa Clarita and home, so if I didn't make it, I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night.
 
I've only ventured beyond my range twice intentionally, and once because I was driving too fast and burned up my miles.

The first adventure was well planned and with my wife - charge during a movie at a mall. We got unplugged after 20 minutes and had to hang out for two hours after the movie to charge and make it home at 1am. Now I carry a lock, but I haven't used it yet.

Second, someone I was picking up was running late, so I hurried to a recital. By driving 70+mph I eroded my miles and had to take my wife out to dinner later while we picked up a few miles at a horrible 4kW Blink charger. Barely made it home, but Slaters 50/50 was great!

Third, to Carson Toyota where they are AWESOME, but I encountered unforeseen circumstances - a film crew showed up to shoot a Toyota commercial and the charger was right in the middle of their setup. After a 40 minute delay the manager promised to charge my car inside and I was off. Unfortunately the tech forgot to push the "charge now" button and it didn't get started for another two hours. I was on a business trip with a colleague and we had to wait an additional two hours for the charge to complete so I could make it back to work / home. By then we were in heavy afternoon traffic and it took another hour on top of all.

So far, the distance outings are unfavorable, but I will continue trying. I have not yet tried any other dealer but will if I have to - I'll probably call first though. By the way, if they are commercial chargers at a dealer (eVgo, etc.), fight back and if you don't win, call the vendor and let them know.

I can't wait to get my JuiceBox so I can stow my OpenEVSE in the car - then I'll need to find RV parks with a restaurant nearby and learn to play that game. C'mon Jdemo!!!
 
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