It seems like a sin

What drives it home for me a lot of times is the engine shut-off: when you're sitting at a red, and everyone around is humming/pulsing, just throwing gas away.

 

One of the things that sold me on a Prius is the fact that Discount uses them for their taxi fleet and I see others have started to follow suit. I figure if it's big enough for a taxi and rear seat passengers, then it's bound to be okay for us. FWIW, the other 2 things are mpg and the hatchback design for easy loading/unloading/organization on our trips. We pick our 2014-4 up in a couple of hours and then we'll be able to see about overall comfort and quality. I don't get hung up on plastics vs other materials as long as they don't rattle. Based our experience with a 2010 model, my guess is the reviews of seat comfort, etc., is not much different than it was for our Montana van back in the day. I loved my 1970 GTO, but my guess is its seats were only comfortable at the time and would not hold up to reviews today. I don't expect the new seats to hold up against the seats in my 1988 Grand Prix though, the ones with the side, individual leg and lumbar adjustments. The only things they didn't have were heat and massage.

 

Got out of a Corolla??? Heck, I got out of a Corvette convertible--- and never looked back. I got a new girlfriend a few months back, and she was on her third Prius-- a new Prius V, which I drove some. I was impressed, to say the least. I also had a 2013 Lexus RX350-- not a $18,000 difference between that and the Prius-- especially at 1/2 the mpg. Traded the Corvette in on a 2014 Prius 4, about a week later I sold the Lexus to a little old lady at church that couldn't live without it..... got more than the price of a Gen4 Prius sitting there waiting now-- if I take a notion....
Needless to say---- I am on the Prius bandwagon.

 

I went from a 2003 CRV that I had to fill up once a week, to a Prius that I had to fill every 1.5 weeks, to a PIP I had to fill every 2.5 weeks to my current car that I haven't filled since I bought it in March.
I'm becoming less of a sinner all the time

 

I was just thinking today...
It's been just over a year with my Prius, and you get spoiled by the gas mileage.

You start to just expect it, and can sometimes forget how great it is.

But I recently took a long drive to the coast, and averaged upwards of 58 mpg for the trip. Round trip, I used less than a 1/3rd of a tank of gasoline.

My previous vehicle? A Honda Fit. NOT a gas guzzler by any means, in fact as a sub-compact, a vehicle Honda Markets as a gas miser.

But a trip to the coast with The Fit? Usually meant a refill at the end, and nearly a whole tank used. Plus while arguably more fun in the curves....the overall trip was usually more tiring and less comfortable.

I was lucky, or felt good when I got 270 or so miles out of a tank with The Fit.

With the Prius? 270 miles on a full tank and I'm not even really yet thinking about when I next need to fill up...I still have nearly 200 miles to go.

 

I am mostly driving the Prius, which is why I bought it. This has changed my expectations on fuel usage, and as a result I just about have a heart attack whenever I drive any of my other vehicles. Even my H-D only gets 2/3 of the mileage of the Prius.

 

That is amazing isn't it?
I used to have a Ninja 500, I estimated I got 50mpg at highway speeds- I was averaging 55 mpg (on gas after exhausting the EV batt) in my PIP!
It's just hard to wrap your head around the fact that a 5 seat car can get better mpg on the same roads at the same speeds (and in air conditioned bug/stone-free comfort) as a motorcycle...

 

You sound almost like me. I could barely get 27mpg in the city with my Corolla and now get about 52 with my Prius. Other than that, it's the same old crappy bumpy small car ride and when I put my back seats down I could haul (and have) just as much in my Corolla as my Prius and I paid a little over half as much for it. The Prius is still a plastic interior econobox that gets great mileage. But isn't that what it's supposed to be? I'm still enjoying my new Prius. But even with the great mileage it will never pay for itself compared to a Corolla. Pretty sure I never spent 12k in fuel the whole time Ive had it. The prius is my iPhone car. My Corolla is my "tough nuts" Casio GZ One military spec. "Drop it off a 3 story building, flush it down a toilet, get it from the septic tank and make a call after" car. Two totally different cars. One gets you to work the other gets you through a Zombie Apocalypse. There really is no beating the over all value of a Corolla

Just a reality check. Nothing more.

 

^^
Looking for car ownership frugality ? Run your car for 200k+ miles
Don't want to pay the added cost of features added to hybrids ? Buy used

If we start with 50 combined mpg, the hybrid burned 4000 gallons of fuel
A 30 mpg (combined) competitor burned 6666 gallons of fuel

Savings: 2666 gallons
2014 dollars:
@ $3.25 a gallon, save $8664.5
@ $3.50 a gallon, save $9331
@ $3.75 a gallon, save $9997.5
@ $4.00 a gallon, save $10664

 

Who drives a car to 200k? There would be nothing left of the interior of a Prius. At 3.65 a gal here I'm still over 2k ahead with my corolla. Plus, it's a tank!! Not knocking my Prius it's just there is a reason Obama once said to GM, "why can't you guys build a Corolla"?

 

I probably only travel 150 miles per week with a short work commute. Regardless what I drive, I wouldn't spend much on gas. My 2012 Prius Plug In has been a fun adventure and it fits my one way 9.8 mile commute perfectly. Currently at 75% EV with 9300 lifetime miles. I drove a 2004 Mazda 6 for about six years. One of the best car I've owned. With the four cylinder engine, under ideal conditions, I couldn't break the 29 MPG highway barrier.

 

Repent and move on.

We have one of both too, the [benefits of] hybrid would be virtually lost on my DW so the Rolla works well.

 

Anybody who actually sets TCO as a high priority and not a bullet point in some useless www harangue.

My '04 Prius is at ~ 170k miles. It is rock solid, and will probably become my daughter's car for the next 5 - 10 years barring an accident. THAT is value.

 

That would be 500k miles. I doubt the car will be around much past 300k, which makes me a pretty poor Nurse

All I have done for the Prius is recommended maintenance* + ATF oil changes. The car has lost a lot of its cosmetic appeal after a hail storm and a couple of bumps, but that makes it a perfect car for a child: not going to be stolen; no angst at the next bump and scratch; but mechanically sound and inexpensive to operate and insure.

*I take that back. In anticipation of the car being driven mostly by my daughter and away from me, I replaced the tyres, coolants, engine pump and thermostat as preventive measures. Now the only expected maintenance for the next 50k miles are filters and oil changes.