The Last Time I Got This Excited Over A Car...

....almost 10 years ago Gen2 Prius was pretty exciting...went all out with a Shark Fin...and a cargo net...got the sun shade for the window too...Saris roof rack so good, sadly no longer made...and a Thule cargo box

PS welcome to Prius Chat

 

I never was before. But I love my Prius. I've never liked a car as much as this one.

 

Before the Prius maybe the 240D and 300D but the VW diesel Rabbit was nice. They should have named it the Sloth.

 

My 5 liter ford mustang convertible. I would accidentally squeal the tires a little going over bumps because if would make my foot wiggle.
Got as good mileage as my big 4x4 pickup, ate tires at an alarming rate.
25 years of that, and I was tired of it ( 3 different ones ).

 

I guess I'm too old to get excited anymore.

And all those 60 mpg tankfuls are becoming rather boring now.

(I'm glad you're excited. Just don't read the thread: "What I don't like about the new 2016 Prius". It's depressing. )

 

'91 miata. now i could not care less. i love my prius though!

 

Not there yet, maybe 3 more months. Then what to do for excitement? Oh, Drs visits. Yahoo!

 

94 Miata....

Everything since then had been just a transportation appliance.....well.....almost...

 

Mine was the Mazda Miata. Ordered it before they were released and my wife an I had so much fun with that car. I remember racing down old tank trails on the Army base we lived close to, and driving top down to the ocean playing Beach Boys music on the cassette player. That car was so much fun to drive. I really love how my VW Golf TDI performs. Best engine and transmission (DSG) combo I've ever had, and I consistently get 40 mpg overall for the last 5 years and 120k miles. But alas, I know now that I am spewing the air with 40 times the allowable limit, so its time for a change. The only hybrid I had was a 2006 Honda Insight (the original two passenger model) and got 58mpg overall for the life of the car, 5 years and 110k, but there were a lot of sacrifices with that car, felt like driving a rubber band. J

 

The one bike that really got my attention was the first 4 cylinder, a Honda CB750. Very commonplace now, but at the time I was entranced. Never got one though.

 

I was quite excited when I got my Gen3, but not as much as I am excited in getting now the Gen4. Probably because I know exactly how it works and I simply cannot wait to get my hands on my new baby and simply go up up up with fuel savings

 

Like it more everyday and discover something new. Trying to figure out how to adjust the ICS sensitivity or range.

 

To an extent how excited one get's about a vehicle purchase is often commensurate with one's financial resources.
For most of my life, while I have always striven to own vehicles I have at least "liked", I haven't been able to afford the luxury of a vehicle as a pure excitement purchase.
It's only recently where I've been lucky enough to make purchases like The Prius, that had as much leaning towards non-utilitarian transportation, and more towards tangibles and intangibles I just enjoy.
I've loved most of the vehicles I've owned, most my life. But purchase for excitement reasons, hasn't been something I've often been able to afford. Most of my life, owning a vehicle excitement was primarily based on the fact that I got the "excitement" of NOT having to use public transportation.

 

Remember my first new car during the Vietnam war. We all bought one out of Officer Training because we could. On payments of course.
Prius two is the most bang for the buck.

 

It took quite some savings to buy my Gen3. And I would keep it if, lucky as I am - I admit that, I could not get a Gen4. Truth is also that if I had to keep the Gen3, I'd have to buy now 2 set of wheels (winter and summer) both 6 years old, and the value of the Gen3 is still ok for resale.
So with less than 20k€, not a small sum I admit, I am getting hopefully a much better, much loved, car with a lot more (useful) tech as the one I will give back and hope it will help reduce the fuel consumption of somebody else giving back some 20-30mpg car...
Because my Gen3 for 10k€ is an amazing deal. It is like brand new.
Still I have the luxury and the financial capabilities (also due to savings and not doing a lot of other expensive things in my private time), to get a Gen4, so I will get it and be excited about it and not feel guilty of getting excited about it

 

I don't mean to suggest people "shouldn't" get excited about vehicle purchases.
Life is too short to NOT enjoy something, if you can.
I don't mean to suggest people should feel guilty about being excited about an automobile purchase.

Even my lower budget, more utilitarian purchases, I always tried to buy something that at least I thought I would enjoy.
In fact, I always tell people, DON'T buy something you don't like or aren't excited about before you buy it, because if you don't like it before you buy it...you most likely won't like it after you buy it.

Even though that isn't always true. Because as a very young kid, I bought a $300 Toyota Corolla that looked like wrecking yard bait. I thought I'd just use it for a short period as a daily driver, point A to point B vehicle. I wasn't very excited or enthusiastic about owning it. But since it cost less than a bicycle, and I needed something at the time, I felt I had little to lose.

But the thing was SO reliable, that I learned to love it. It really was the vehicle that made me respect Toyota's in general. It probably belonged in the junk yard, but the thing simply would not die. I learned to love it's "personality". It was still running strong when I traded it in on something "supposedly" more exciting.

I generally like automobiles. It would be hard for me to NOT be excited about the chance to own one.

 

Most exciting and fun car for me to drive and work on.............68 Mustang! Lets just say, I modded the hell out of it and gladly drove it only on weekends and to local car shows.

 

Most of the cars I have driven were not nice cars. My first car was beat up, had "lived" in the desert for 20 years, a Volkswagen. Rusting, missing door panels, a hole in the dash where the single speaker had been. It got me where I wanted to go but that was all. The nicest car I had was a 1984 VW Rabbit GTI. Loved it. Fast, fun, had a sunroof and a loud stereo. But, it was still over ten years old. And the transmission ate itself, pieces of it broke off inside and rattled around until it destroyed itself. Would have cost more than the car was worth to fix it and I was a college student without that kind of money. Then, I was given an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Not a cool car at all. But, my grandpa was kind enough to gift it to me and I was in no position to be picky. Drove it for a couple of years. I eventually got to buy a new 2000 Honda Civic, a base model, but still the nicest car I had owned.

So, this year, getting the Prius, I was very excited. I love the tech in the car, and it's fun to drive. It looks cool and my kids think it looks like a spaceship. I've worked hard to get to where I can afford a car like this. I had to work hard to rehab my credit after my ex-wife decided to scorch the earth in our divorce, defaulting on every source of credit we had. So, years of on-time payments, high interest rates, and slowly accruing higher credit limits, I finally got to where I was able to buy this one with 1.9%. By way of comparison, my last car, a used Pilot, I had a 9% interest rate on that.

In all, I earned my Prius. And I bought the nicest one because I plan to drive it for the next six to eight years.

 

I grew up with a 67 Mustang. Loved it.
If I win the lottery, I'll own another.