Results after 10600 miles and 4 months

I bought my Prius in April in Puente Hills, Calif. I paid about $200 below list. I submitted a request for quote on Autobytel and got 10 hits almost instantly. I bought it tyhe next day.

I live at 7850 Ft in the mountains above San Bernardino in Upper Moonridge (Big Bear Area). I was worried about the ability of the mightly little car to make it up the hill. On the contrary I find that most of the cars ahead of me are taking the turnouts as I am over running them.

I get 45 MPG no matter what I do. This includes up the hill, down the hill and at 80 MPH on the flatlands where I can.

I had a sunroof put in (aftermarket by the people who put them in for Lexus and Infinity) - works good and doesn't leak. I had two tone leather put in and chrome rims.

So far I wouldn't trade it. If I won the lottery, it would still be my daily work car.

I have noticed that when in the intersection, don 't try to jam on the accelerator and turn left before the oncoming car. Give yourself some more room. It hesitates a little bit when jumping off the line - a small price to pay for the other benefits.

What about this extended warranty? I see that you can pay as low as $690 and as much as over $2000. I would like to get an extended warranty directly from Toyota. I'm leary about a brand X extended warranty.

That's all for now.

 

Regarding the sunroof I had installed, I had it done at Airstream Sunroof in Huntington Beach, CAlif for about $745. This is my second sunroof I had them install. Both times it looked like it was always there.

I will bring have access to my digital camera down this weekend and will take pictures to attach on Sunday of the roof and leather.

The two-tone leather was a real deal. While I had the car in at the sunroof dealer, the leather company saw the car and asked them to ask me if I'd loan them the car for a couple of days to shoot some pctures of the finished car with leather for a magazine ad. They said they would do the job for their cost of $300. I did it. The leather looks great. They did the console in vinyl because it gets such constant use they said it would be better and they were right. That is working out better.

I noticed that the suede-like fabric on the console was getting ratty looking after only a few months. The vinyl still looks great.

One last thing - the chrome rims. When I did the deal at the Toyota dealer I had them throw in the Lexus chrome rims I saw for $1000. Even though they were 17" on the display, the salesman said they would know that the Prius needed 15" and it wouldn't be a problem - wrong. On the day of installation, they figured out that the Lexus rims don't come in 15" size so they gave me a catalog and I picked out some rims that I liked but didn't come in chrome. They had them chromed for me and it looks great.