Jestersix

Looking at buying a Prius

Gomer

Gomer

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Howdy folks.

I am considering buying a new Prius and I am looking to get a bit of advice from the experienced here.
For those who own (I know at least Mike does) or have owned one etc , what are your thoughts on it? Any major issues or concerns or even regrets?

I just checked briefly and the financing rates seem a bit high (or could be my lack of experience). Are they expected to drop anytime soon? I know that sometimes there are periods of very low and even zero% interest financing. Anyone know of anything like that coming up?

Thanks for any advice!
 
Can't help you for financing as I don't know anything about that, I just wrote the Toyota dealership a check in the full amount :D

I personally love the car, it's got just as much "zip" as any other small compact, yeah you're not going to win races, yeah if you like to drive fast on the freeway you'll get crappy gas mileage, if you like to accelerate as fast as you can also crappy gas mileage. However as far as functionality, it has more room than a compact, hatchback + seats fold down to give you lots of room in the back for hauling large bulky stuff, too small for a 4x8 sheet of plywood, but I put 15 or so sheets of 1/2" 3'x5' concrete backerboard for my bathroom remodel (about 50 pounds per sheet too!). I wouldn't try to tow anything with it, but it works fine. Yes it doesn't accelerate as fast as a v6/v8 on the freeway, but if you got some balls it's not an issue (translation: gun it, and don't get all pussified if you see a car way back), but hey it's not a sports car so why should you expect it to act like one.
 
get a carolla. it is several thousand less the the prius, with great gas mileage.
BTW i work for toyota, not a dealership but the company. and many many more people drive corolla's or Yaris's then the prius.
 
[quote author=LordHelmet link=topic=3691.msg42867#msg42867 date=1210475309]
get a carolla. it is several thousand less the the prius, with great gas mileage.
BTW i work for toyota, not a dealership but the company. and many many more people drive corolla's or Yaris's then the prius.
[/quote]
Carolla?? And you work for Toyota?? ;D :D
 
i bought one 7 month ago for my wife,i end up drove more and more then my lexus.i love how it's only cost me $30.00 to fill up instead of $80.00.the best way to get a deal on this thing.start email those wholesale management at each dealer and tell them what u want and see what the best price they're can offer u for the packet u looking for .gl


lapsan
 
Go through costco or CSAA and try to get fleet pricing via the fleet manager. Dont talk to any sales people at the dealerships. U should be able to get a vehicle a couple hundred dollars over invoice. I purchased my 2006 civic for $2oo over invoice
 
[quote author=LordHelmet link=topic=3691.msg42867#msg42867 date=1210475309]
get a carolla. it is several thousand less the the prius, with great gas mileage.
BTW i work for toyota, not a dealership but the company. and many many more people drive corolla's or Yaris's then the prius.
[/quote]Ditto, My g/f and I were looking into it, but after crunching some numbers, and talking a a few of our "geek" friends, we went with the carrola.On our last trip to Santa Barbara we got ~43-45mpg, and we don't have to feel bad about the whole battery thing.......
 
There was something on the news a few days ago about how they compared several hybrid cars and how long it took to save money on gas for these cars. The Prius was one of them and I didn't pay too much attention where it ranked but it took between 1 1/2 and 3 yrs, depending on which hybrid, before you save any money compared to a simular car with regular engine because of the higher price tag.
 
Well the whole "saving money" bit you really need to take with a grain of salt, all the anti-hybrid (i.e. pro-SUV) people out there usually compared the Prius to something like a cheap civic or Corollla, however if you're going to go there, why not compare against a Porsche? They're not the same car, the Prius is a meld between an economy car as and a mini-van/stationwagon. The interior is roomier than a compact, but not quite mini-van level, and while it's not quite mini-van worth of storage you can do, the hatchback + folding seats make it very usable where as compact cars usually are not.

If you just want to save money in a commute you might want to go with a Corolla, it'll be cheaper and the difference in gas isn't going to pay itself off for a while, but if you want to use it for more than a commute and don't have a secondary car (like a truck or suv) then it might be worth a look.

Hitting numbers, if you have a "flat commute" (i.e. maybe freeways and more or less flat city streets), you can expect 55-60mpg as long as you don't drive 80+ on the freeway, and if you drive 10k miles a year with gas at $4 a gallon (lets assume it stays steady *laugh*), that's about $700 a year on gas, now with a car that only gets 30mpg, you'll be spending $1400 a year on gas, so depending upon the price differential you really won't save that much a year on gas, however as Lapsan said there is something nice about only paying $30 to fill up. And I don't drive a Prius because I want to save money anyways, my commute has been reduced to 3 miles a day to work for christ sakes, I got the Prius so I'd use less gasoline (hence oil) period, so it's kind of like buying environmental friendly products that cost a bit more. (regardless of what Jeremy says ;)).

Oh yeah, and never having to go get a smog test kind of rocks :D

Oh and I wouldn't get your panties in a twist about the batteries, recycling will more than take care of them after they're gone, and if you're worried about how dirty it is to mine nickel, there is WAY more nickel used in the chroming industry to make all those other cars shiny than is used in all the Prius cars out there.
 
blah blah blah i love my prius!!!


j/k. they are nice cars. i just had to get something with a little more getup. i drive a camry.


and i may work for toyota, it doesn't mean i know how to spell the names of their cars.
 
If you want 'zippy' you could get one of these but not sure if there's enough room to get a bucket of RC bacck from the LFS.

http://www.teslamotors.com/
 
[quote author=LordHelmet link=topic=3691.msg42867#msg42867 date=1210475309]
get a carolla. it is several thousand less the the prius, with great gas mileage.
BTW i work for toyota, not a dealership but the company. and many many more people drive corolla's or Yaris's then the prius.[/quote]
You wouldn't happen to work on the line would you? Just wonder, I have a friend that had been doing doors but got hurt.

Sorry for the highjack!
 
Check out this link, pretty interesting:

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/amorylovins/43/rethinking-the-cost-of-hybrid-cars.html
 
I never really liked those "cost to own..." comparisons whether for or against hybrids unless they compared the same cars, so hybrid accord vs non-hybrid accord, hybrid civic vs non-hybrid civic, hybrid prius vs... wait there's no non-hybrid version, so why choose a corolla, or civic as a comparison car? Why not a minivan or a station wagon which has more in common as far as total interior space that's usable.

Although I didn't get my Prius to save money, I bought it when prices were "obscenely low" at $2.50/gallon (2 years ago), and I wanted a new car, that didn't use a lot of gas period, but having placed enough crap on my roof it needed interior space as well. Now I still can't get a full sheet of plywood in my car, but I can get a sheet of concrete backerboard (13 in fact when I redid my bathroom :D), and having done a recent trip to Yosemite, my average gas mileage was 48.7mpg, which is pretty good considering all the hills and what not. Which put the trip at about $30 just to get there.
Also while I'm not some screaming treehugging hippy, I do try to do my part here and there, even if it does "cost a little more"
 
I love my Prius. I get average of 52 MPG and 57 MPG on good days, but would I buy a Corolla. The answer will be "yes". Corolla can be pushing to 50 MPG depend on how you drive it and it sure cost less then Prius.
 
Accord and Civic at 24 and 29 mpg...

I heard on Saturday that Ian's friend gets 30mpg on his Corvette. I see some Corvette owners are getting 38+ mpg :D
 
Corvettes are so light that as long as you don't drive it like a corvette you will get 25+ mpg. I have a coworker who gets about that much on his 05 z06 vette.

Btw the prius will more then likey be built right here in the bay area by 2010 as this is the largest market in the country and toyota. They are nice cars, I just have to drive something with a little umph.
 
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