I got spoiled being able to drive my (at the time) husband's hch while he was away for a couple of years. After I relocated to the other side of the country to stay with family I found that I just couldn't stand regular cars and having to gas up once every week (and sometimes twice). It was the reputation for reliability, easy maintenance and high levels of customer satisfaction that tipped the scales in favor the Prius. And what other car is there that has its own cult and gains you a free 10 year membership with purchase?
Well, it was a mix of environmental considerations and economic protest. A couple of years ago it became clear that the automobile operation line-item in my budget was getting steadily larger and there didn't appear to be any reason to believe that it would shrink anytime in the foreseeable future. With that realization came the understanding that while I couldn't really control the size of the line-item, unless I could make un-realistic changes in my life, I could control where I spent it. The choices were pretty cut and dry: I could just carry on and give all of the line-item to big oil; or I could give a large chunk of it to Toyota or Honda and doll out little dribbles to big oil. To my way of thinking that was a no-brainer, the company with the best hybrid was going to get the money and big oil could have what was left. It may not be much, but sooner or later enough people are going to do something similar. The smart energy companies should already be looking for other things to do (besides chasing the whole hydrogen fool thing.)
+1. I did not get rid of my other car, but sold my old '96 minivan. In Nov. of '07, I had a bad dream that gas prices will increase by next year so I decided to get the most fuel efficient small car in the world today.
I do home health physical therapy for a living - so I do alot of stop and go driving, averaging around 10 miles between patients. I was driving a 04 outback and would get around 26-28 mpg around town. My husband was driving our 99 protege and it was dying. So it only made sense for me to get a car that was much more efficient and for him to take the subaru for his 10 mile daily commute. I've had my prius for 2 weeks now and i'm averaging 48-49 mpg (it has over 700 miles already - had 36 when I got it). I have two kids 3 and under and I drive a prius and I love it! I'll never own anything bigger than the subaru (it's the biggest car i've ever had) and I hate the soccer moms who feel they have to have a SUV....and I refuse to ever own a minivan.
I've been obsessed with them from the start, and my parents decided to buy me one for college. It's great because I can be green and also save on gas, since I have to pay for that myself. It's also made me a much safer driver, what with braking really, really slowly and not accelerating on city streets - now I have an incentive. (Oh, how the economists are right about that.) I never knew how to parallel park before - no idea how I passed my driving exam - but thanks to the rearview camera I can do it in one or two motions now. I named it Pip. (This was long before I knew that also referred to the bars of gas left - I had in mind the LOTR character.)
It was a combination of things. Gas mileage--my current vehicle (06 accord 4cyl) gets about 26-27 mpg, which is fine on my 60 mile round trip commute, but at 200k miles on it, pieces are falling off. For mileage sure, I could have gotten a used Civic, paid cash for it and done the same thing I'm doing with this car--driving it till the wheels fall off. But, that brings me to the next point: Reliability. I had great luck with my first used Accord, but the second nickel-and-dimed me to death with problems. Besides the reputation of the Toyota brand, I wanted to get a new vehicle that would be supported by the manufacturer. So between those two things, and the fact that Prius is commanding an amazing premium in this area so far as I can tell, the TCH was my choice, and hopefully I'll be getting the keys to one in a month or so
I wanted a new car because of our first baby was coming and wanted a safer car with a hatch. We had an old GEO Metro sedan. I chose the Prius because of it's low emissions. That was really the main reason. It is just a bonus that it looks great, is very reliable and full of cool gadgets. I'm very happy with it.
Gas Mileage, Reliability (its a Toyota), but when I test drove - I thought I would probably end up getting that Camry anyway, but the technology of the Prius was so cool to me that I was sold.
Previous car (95 Wrangler) was well beyond retirement. I'd put in about $1300 in the past year & it seemed to want more. All signs were converging toward Prius. Removed the Thule roof rack, and the rest of her went to trade-in. Never looked back, but ... every so often, when I least expect it, I do a phantom gear-shift -- I do miss the manual transmission.
Necessity. My wife broke her left ankle in February, and would be unable to drive stick for a couple of months. We had already been talking about replacing her car (a 5-speed 1994 Sentra) and couldn't see any point in buying something with worse mileage, so the Prius was an obvious choice. That said, we've been delighted with the new car (2008 Barcelona Red, Package 2, about $1000 below MSRP).
It was ironic. We were celebrating Earth day on the sunday before (4/22) taking my daughter to learn about the oceans at the Aquarium of the Bay in San Francisco. We talked about the prius for the longest time but my it wasn't economical since I owed more on my then lexus then it was worth. Gas prices hit 3.81 I think that day and since we were talking earth day, my wife and I took the plunge and showed our daughter we can take responsibility for the earth. She knows the prius as the "saving the earth" car. Do we get money savings? Sure do. Enough to offset the losses from the previous car? maybe in 5 years when the prius is paid off, but responsibility always came with a price and for us, it was the best thing to do and it allowed us to teach our daughter valuable lessons in doing what you can to make a difference.
gas mileage! enough said. i think a hybrid is a good long term investment. and i was tired of shifting my own gear... and now i'm kinda bored because i'm not able to shift my own gear.... :tongue1:
I'm in the same category as Brodie here. As a student of ecology, watershed restoration and a land conservation intern It is hard to understand the problems associated with fossil fuel use and not act to reduce my own negative impact. I try my best to limit my hypocrisy. lol
We bought this car two years earlier than our general plan. <------ The reason is entirely my fault, my car had an electrical fire. She was waiting for the Volt... She likes the Prius and since they have them out now, and they are quite a dependable ride, we opted for one of them now.
I bought mine in Sept 05. It was time to replace my Jeep. I was tired of $50+ fillups and didn't really need anything the Jeep offered. At $30k for a new Jeep, I opted for an 05 package 5 (I think - whatever the best was ) and added leather to it. It ended up being about the same as a Jeep would have been and had more I'm saving about $4k a year now by driving the Prius with gas prices at their current high.
Ordered a Prius this month because: 1. own a V-6 Passat that gets 22 mpg 2. love that space with the hatchback! How many bags of pine bark will fit in there? 3. think the technology is cool! 4. Think the car looks distinctive and modern 5. ready to help out the environment 6. Ok, I've been secretly coveting them for years covet covet covet
