It is the best bang for the buck. Best MPG, reliable, AND it somehow manages to deliver this with out the uncomfortable buzzy econobox ride!! Feels very solid contrary to what most of the "professional reviews" seem to say. The question is why wouldn't someone buy one?? Unless you are hauling heavy stuff or need to get there before you left I see no better choice. RAL
I drive 4000 miles per month! Fuel economy is primary reason. Was driving 05 Tundra quad 4X4.... Love the truck but at 17 mpg i was spending $905 per month ...now paying $308. Love it!
Economy was the main reason, the second would be the number of gizmos the car is packed with. But mainly economy. With the way things are in the UK, I calculated my 2010 model Prius cost me £600, when spreading the cost over 5 years, compared to my previous car. Here's how I worked it out (my previous car was 2003 BMW 325i): UK road tax - BMW £270 a year, Prius £0 a year = saving £1,350 over 5 years Insurance - BMW about £600 a year, Prius £400 a year = saving £1,000 over 5 years Fuel - I have to go into metric units here, because fuel is sold in litres in UK, but fuel consumption is in MPG (imp) - BMW average consumption about 23-24 mpg (imp) = about 12l/100km so far my Prius averaged 56 mpg (imp) over the 50 miles I have driven so far (I only got it last week). 56 mpg = about 5l/100km. I will save about 7 litres of petrol every 100km then. I drive on average 10,000 miles a year = about 16,000 km. Therefore, annual fuel saving = 1,120 litres. Current price is about £1.35 a litre, which makes annual money saving on fuel £1,512. Over 5 years = £7,560 Also, let's not forget London Congestion Charge - for those who don't know, London is littered with CCTV cameras, which read your licence plate number and record your movements everywhere you go. If you drive into central London during the week you have to pay £10 (about $15) a day - if you don't pay, you get a fine. However, if you drive a Prius (or any other car emitting less than 100g of CO2/km) you are exempt. Yet another saving. Total saving then over 5 years £7,560 fuel + £1,350 road tax + £1,000 insurance = £9,910 After I part-exchanged my BMW I had to pay £10,500 for the Prius. Therefore, the way I see it, if I continued driving BMW for the next 5 years I would have spent £9,910 anyway on extra fuel BMW would need to move around and road tax and insurance. I would also end up with a 15 year old BMW instead of 8 year old Prius. This calculation assumes UK road tax will remain the same (I bet it won't) and the petrol price will not increase from current £1.35/litre (fat chance) over the next 5 years. So, in a nutshell, this is the reason why I bought a Toyota Prius!
PriusChat convinced me that the Prius would be a fun, reliable vehicle that really would get 50 MPG, and I'd be part of a great community of enthusiastic car owners. I'd considered a Camry, and Honda and lots of other cars, but I keep my cars a long time and I could see that Prius is something special. Remarkably (for me), I elected to sell my 2010 for the Plug-in, which gets me to work much faster. It was super-duper-easy to sell my used Prius via Craigslist; I got slammed with emails. The PriusChat community helped me get a great price on the new car, and I become a well-educated owner. So the answer to why I bought a Prius is PriusChat.
I had to break the "Government Motors" mentality in my family, so I bought a Prius. They were kind of shocked, I just smile at them, no words needed to be said. (2008). Now, quite a few family members ditch "Government Motors" products for Toyota. They finally wised up to the global leader for reliability, durability, and legacy. DBCassidy
I bought mine for the fuel economy. It seems like gas stays between $3-4 a gallon here in Chicagoland regardless of the national trends and only filling up once a month is fun. I bought a Camry back in 2000 as my first car so I knew Toyotas were very reliable. Thinking back on it, I should've kept the Camry, but that's a long story
Like many, fuel economy was high on the list. I was tired of spending so much money on gas, tired of not taking my daughter anywhere because it would cost a fortune, and tired of gas prices being unpredictable. Of course, there are other cars that are relatively fuel efficient, but I really had my sights set on a gen III Prius. I liked the newer interior and exterior design, and couldn't wait to enjoy the hybrid goodness. Of course, my interested was really piqued once I stumbled upon Prius Chat and saw how great the car could look with some mods, and it was good to see there was an enthusiast community too. The only sad part was a better optioned model wasn't in my budget, so I had to forego the goodies and stick with the basics. Luckily, much of what I wanted can be added after-the-fact, so hopefully it won't be stock for long.
Perhaps, but Toyota is a global leader in the world marketplace. Government Motors struggles to maintain their small marketplace. DBCassidy
GM's SMALL marketplace, if I'm not mistaken, they are behind only Toyota in world wide sales, hardly small!
I bought mine for the fuel economy. Gas is over $4 a gallon here..I'm sick of getting ripped off by these gas stations..if I drive 7-8 miles North or South. The gas is 20 cents cheaper.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned how great it was to have a "free brand new Prius".. I met a guy a few months ago that said he had averaged over 3,000 miles a month in his gas guzzling SUV getting at best 15 mpg. He figured if he only averaged 45 mpg in a Prius that, at &3.75 per gallon, the savings would be $500 per month. He bought a new Prius with no down payment and the payment was a little less than $500 per month, giving him a free Prius. He actually got much better than 45 mpg plus zero maintenance etc. AND he found he enjoyed the Prius more than he had his Belchfire Eight SUV. What's not to like about that? I only drive 750 miles per month but at 84 I plan to drive my Prius for the rest of my life. ( I drove my last car for 11 years and it wasn't as good a car by a long shot.)
Gas is US$ 8 here and I payed $200 a month road tax for my Merc diesel. A Prius is road tax free here.. it was a no-brainer for me.
Driving the Prius I have lost the habit of checking the fuel gauge regularly. So I experience periodic panics when I suddenly remember I have not looked at the fuel level in a week--one can easily forget since we can go roughly 500 miles between fill-ups!
