d2mini's 2012 Prius Five Progress Thread

Thanks!

Maybe I can get the wife to post next to the rack.

 

In Houston proper we have Memorial Park which is full of mountain bike trails and only two miles from my office. Then there is another large mountain bike park on the south side of town, and a smaller one on the north side.

 

Playing with my iPhone after coming off the trails and loading the bike back up.

 

Thanks!
It's the Yakima Holdup and yes, it will definitely fit a Pista. Are you going all hipster on us?
It fits any normal size bike, it also fits larger bikes up to 48" wheelbase (my high-racer recumbent is 48"), skinny tires to fatty fat tires, and it folds up to be one of the narrowest tray-style racks I could find.

 

My LKA seems to work fine when I've tried it.
I almost never use cruise control though so I won't say I'm 100% positive there is no effect. But nothing I've noticed so far.

 

Well, it looks like my days here are numbered.

It's funny... because if anyone was to ask me how I like my Prius, or rather if I would recommend one, I would whole heartedly tell them YES. It's a fantastic piece of engineering when it comes to fuel efficiency. It's plenty peppy enough when it needs to be. It's got rock solid reliability. It's got all the tech and gadgets anyone would need. And speaking of solid, it is built pretty well and feels pretty solid compared to other cars in it's class, ex. the Mazda 3. I had a 3 as a rental once and when i got back to the airport and got in my Prius, it felt like getting into a Mercedes in comparison. But as much as I would recommend this car, after 1.5 years I just don't want to drive it anymore and here is why.

When I first started researching the Prius is was because my commute was changing from 10 miles one direction to 34 miles one direction. That ended up being a jump from 10k miles per year to 25k miles per year (weekend driving distances stayed pretty much the same). I've had a lot of cars previous to the Prius. I love cars and they are a bit of a hobby of mine. My favorite cars are german built and this is what I've owned the most of with Audi being my favorite. When i take a break from Audi, I tend to end up back in one. So with this in mind, knowing I'd be making a bit of a sacrifice, I started researching into others that have made similar decisions. I found people coming from various high(er) end cars like Porsche, Audi, BMW, etc and joining the Prius family. Most of these people said they had zero regrets. The Prius was that good of a car. Well, I'm here to say one thing to those who may be in a similar position. If you are really into cars... if you really enjoy DRIVING... if you can appreciate all the reasons these other cars cost what they do... trust me... you WILL regret it. And if you don't, then your priorities have changed and/or you just never got it in the first place. This is not meant to be insulting in any way. We all choose to drive what we do for different reasons, what floats your boat may be completely different than what floats mine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I listed my positives about the car in the first paragraph. Now I'll list what I do not like.

1) After the "technology honeymoon" is over, the car is a complete bore to drive
2) It's LOUD. I have to turn the radio off just to hear my kid in the backseat. So much road noise transfers into the cabin.
3) It's feels so heavy
4) Toyota makes some super annoying choices. Terrible interior lighting (all the buttons), not allowing anyone in the car to work the navigation or settings while the car is in motion, annoying beeps, etc. I vow to never buy a Toyota again. Any toyota.
5) It's LOUD!
6) Interior materials are cheap, although I do find the faux leather seat material to be impressive for what it is.
7) The price. Paying near audi prices for a what is basically a heavy corolla that gets better MPGs.
8) Lacking some other niceties I would like to have (more power, auto wipers, better seats, more insulation, better sound system, better suspension)
9) Could just be my imagination but the car really does seem to attract more negative attention from other drivers. I can't tell you how many times I've been cut off, tailgated or worse.
10) Overall, it's just not me and is the almost the complete opposite of what I would normally see myself driving.

You just have to ask yourself a certain question... is the trade-off worth it? Because there is most certainly a trade off if you are coming from where I came from. I use Fuelly (as you can see in my sig) and I have tracked every single tank of gas since I took delivery of the car. I also used it to track my previous car, and Audi A3. Using this data, i can see that the cost per mile to run the Prius was just about half of what it cost to run the A3. And over the course of one year, I saved just over $2,000 compared to what I would have spent if I was driving the A3. So here is where I asked myself the big question... is it really worth $2,000/yr to spend two hours a day in a car that is sucking my soul? I realized the answer to this question was a big fat NO!

So I'm sure some of you are wondering why I'm posting this. Really it's for one reason... for the benefit of those like me who are shopping around and are on the fence. I could have chose to make this it's own thread which would have been more effective, but my intension is not to bash the car since like i said in the beginning, I would recommend it to almost anyone. Almost. Plus, i figure it will close out this thread.

So that's pretty much it. Not sure if i'll be selling privately, trading in or bringing to someplace like CarMax, but in a couple weeks I'll be back in a brand new Audi which is currently on the boat, crossing the pond. It's more $$ and I'm losing money on the Prius with $36k miles on the clock, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to correct my mistake. For now, the wife is keeping her Prius so we will still have one in the family.

 

Yeah, i sure do love me a hatchback/wagon. Best car design ever. The Tesla S and the Audi A7 both do a fantastic job of implementing the utility of a hatch into the sexiness of a 4-door coupe. Unfortunately both are wayyyy beyond my price range! LOL! So that's the one thing I'm bummed about... they stopped selling both the A3 wagon and the A4 avant. And i'm just not an suv guy. So back to a sedan. Oh well. Can't have it all I guess.
Maybe next time!

 

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I was a little worried how my post would come across and I'm glad to see it didn't ruffle feathers. No disrespect was meant, but you never know how the written word will come across on the internet. Phew. haha

As to buying two of the same car... that was actually never an issue. We really treat our own car as our own car, almost never switching unless we have to. A lot of the time, I don't even like my wife's choice of car and don't want to drive it... but it's her car so she can buy whatever makes her happy. Now if she had a really cool car that I liked a lot better than the Prius, I probably would have sold it much earlier! ha!

Oh man, actually I do like it. Well, a there are a couple things stylistically that I question, but overall I like it. I toyed with getting it, but it too was more than I wanted to spend and was missing some of the interior options I wanted like flat bottom steering wheel and Alcantara seats. I don't need the raised ride height here in Houston either, so I would end up lowering if I got it. Another expense. But they're cool and I love seeing them... especially when tricked out.

 

Yep, everyone has different priorities.
I thought I could give up that drive feel and other niceties in exchange for the great MPGs, but I was wrong.