adizon's 2010 Prius V

Let me be straight, I never thought I would own a Prius. Never cared for the look, nor mpg, the tech, nothing. I had always been into faster sportier cars (that I could afford). In the beginning days of driving I was all about the VW and Audi scene, sprinkled with a couple lifted Jeep Cherokee's in between. Then when the 2002 WRX came out all the hype got me curious, so I checked it out, photoshopped the heck out of it, and still hated the look regardless of how it had performed. Ended up buying an A4 Quattro, suped it up a little and it was this car that had become the first car I ever took to the track. I was hooked.

A few years later and ended up taking a friend's WRX for a test drive. After getting behind the wheel of that car I began to see the light, I finally saw what all the hype was about. It was fast, even stock it had put a healthy grin on my face. By this point I was willing to overlook it's aesthetics for performance. Eventually I gew to like the looks of the WRX, in a boy racer kind of way. Not long after I ended up buying one used. So from 2004-2013 my 2002 WRX would go from stock to a track worthy, daily driven mini beast. It was no Porsche, or Corvette, but it held it's own having a ton of STI upgrades such as, turbo, intercooler, dyno tuned, Brembo's, STI gearset, as well as KWv3 coilovers and much much more. Oh and on the track my WRX was so much faster than my Audi.








Soon after we adopted our first kid, it was time for my impractical, loud (wasn't that bad), baby waking WRX to go to it's new owner. As sad as that was, the loss was redeemed with the Unicorn of the Subaru Forester world, an Aspen White, manual, 2008 Forester XT Sport, that the previous owner had already done some tasteful power mods bringing this inconspicuous box on wheels at about 335hp and 355 ft/lbs/trq. and only a couple pounds heavier than my WRX, this Foz was a beast. Handling was enhances with both WRX and STI suspension, quicker STI steering rack, and STI brakes. So good, and still fit the kids, and relatively quite since I had an oem STI catback exhaust.









Ok, so why did you even buy a Prius? Well 14 months after our 1st boy, boy number 2 came. Over time on one income, a family of four, living in the SF Bay Area became harder and harder to manage keeping finances up. Something has to give. The Forester was the only asset of great value that I could sell, buy a Prius and still put a good chunk of cash in the account to keep my wife at home longer with our now 1 and 2 year old. It was the responsible thing to do. In addition the Prius would be at least $1k a year cheaper on gas, and nearly $200 on insurance. Plus the Prius has such a great reliability reputation, and relatively low cost to maintain compared to my Subarus.

Not knowing very much before buying a Prius, my mechanic had suggested at least a trim level III or higher. So after obsessively shopping daily on both Craigslist, cars.com, and autotrader, and creating a Google spread sheet listing, cost, color, trim, options, and locations, I finally found and bought a Prius at a great price. I had no idea what it was accept that it had the leather, backup Cam, Nav, JBL sound, and was in the color I wanted in the 2010-2011 Gen III. Winter Gray Metallic. I found out after buying it was a Prius V.

Over time (a lot slower than my previous cars) I do intend to do some mods like suspension and wheels. Hoping to do TRD springs, rear sway, and Koni struts. Then wheels, so far I'm thinking FRS/BRZ or Prius Plus wheels (nothing crazy, not slammed, just sporty). Would love to do the Prius Plus Ground Effects kit, but that would have to wait for a long long time.

Here she is the day I bought it. First shots












first mod bought before I even bought the car was the shift knob.







After having the Prius for the past 3 and a half weeks it's not so bad. MPG is far better than my 20.5 mpg on 91 gas. It's definitely growing on me. I'm glad there is a small community of Prius nerds to chat with. Thanks for visiting, looking forward to personalizing my Prius.

 

Yeah got it on ebay after seeing it in one of the threads here. I thought if I ended up with a Prius with the plastic-like steering wheel I'd try and get the sporty leather jdm looking wheel off of e-bay to match. Since the car came with the leather steering wheel, I'm happy how it is for now! Simple, clean!

Thanks man!

On top of that we traded our 06 Subaru Outback for an 08 Honda Odyssey. Two cars swapped out within 6 months. Harsh reality is here, but along with that reality I get to have this!!

Thanks for the heads up, I'll keep an eye out! Do folks usually get this from their local dealership, ebay, or another online source?

 

It all depends on the year, mileage, condition, how much money you make, where you live, etc.

For the SG models (04-08) they can go as low as $9K to something like mine sold at $18,750. High KBB is $14,650. Like any other car you mod, most take a hit financially as far as recovering mod costs. Insurance is a little more, mpg is in the low 20's on 91 gas (on the track it can get as low as 10 mpg always on boost).

Thanks for the link! Didn't know that Tom Tom had a role in the Toyota Nav!

 

One of the things I do to help combat buyer's remorse, as well as fulfill my OCD tendencies is to research the heck out of whatever it is I want to get. In this case as mentioned in my 1st post, I "eventually" would like to lower the car and get some wheels. I did my best to represent a realistic lowered stance (thinking the mild drop of TRD springs) as well as lighting on my Photochopped composites to get an idea of what I may like. Please disregard some of the "large" brakes in the comps. Now onto my OCD . . . .

stock wheels lowered, thinking TRD springs would suite my needs


brz/frs wheels


Corolla S wheels


BBS SR machined


BBS SR Anthracite Gray


STI brz special edition wheels


STI BBS painted black 17x7.5 5x100 15.7lbs


STI BBS silver


Rota SDR


TSS Gray Painted


TSS Hyper Silver


Prius Plus, well we all know what those would look like in real life. My sheen may be off.



What do you all like?
~gus