Hello all! I purchased my 2014 Prius exactly a week ago. We traded in my 2008 Smart ForTwo Passion which I just HATED. For so many reasons, which I won't bore you with here, but! It is now my one week anniversary with my Prius and I just love it. I've already read several helpful articles on the forums, and look forward to participating in some discussion! I'm originally from Colorado, where I know we already have a pretty good size Prius family, but I live in the swamps of Louisiana now, and I have to say, I think I'm pretty alone here (besides a coworker, I have seen only one other Prius in town, but maybe I just need to keep my eyes peeled...) Out with the old: In with the new!
Welcome to PriusChat! I bought my Prius back in January, and once I started looking I was surprised at the number of other Prii on the road, it seemed (and still does) that just about every other car is a Prius. I couldn't afford brand-new, so I bought "ChuggyPig" (2009 Gen II with 83k miles (a mere baby! (for a Toyota)), in Magnetic Grey (smart colour) (see photo album for more photos)). You should have great fun with your Prius, and you'll find PriusChat the perfect place to learn all you'll ever need to know about Prii. - Wil
From an efficiency, and utility standpoint, as well as room and comfort? I think you've gone from a "Smart Car" to the REAL smart car in the Prius. Enjoy getting better gas mileage, and driving something that doesn't look like clowns should be exiting from it in the circus.
Welcome aboard! Hope your experiences w/your new Prius are much better. If you have the time (and wish to write about it), I don't mind if you "bore us" w/what you didn't like about your Smart ForTwo. It's gotten universally bad reviews here in the US and the transmission has been said to be horrible by both reviewers and a friend who had one as a rental. She also hated the car, IIRC for both the transmission and ride. I do find it amusing that there are a couple Smart ForTwo fanboys on a couple sites I'm on and they'll keep defending it, including a whole bunch of misinformation, while they're at it.
I'm originally from the county of Devon in the South West of England, and "Chuggy Pig" the local name for a woodlouse, or "Pill-Bug" or "Roly-Poly" (as I think they're called over here (N.E. USA)) - when I first saw my Prius, that shape, that colour, screamed out CHUGGY PIG - so from then on it was a foregone conclusion!
Congrats and welcome to PriusChat! I had a 2008 smart fortwo which was in the shops more often than I'd like, only one of which was scheduled maintenance.
Thanks for all the welcoming replies! @Tideland Prius @cwerdna - mine was CONSTANTLY a problem last year, always dying on me - embarrassing to have to ask your boss for a jump multiple times in a week! We never could figure out what was wrong with it, and kept getting different answers from different people. It was getting to be way more trouble than it was worth, especially with the new sound that it started making a week before we got the Prius. That was just the last straw. And as far as why I really didn't like the Smart Car - I didn't like the fact that it wasn't reliable, especially when it left me stranded when my boyfriend was offshore (which left me alone with no help when I needed it) but also because I didn't realize I would be such a spectacle! I knew that it was a "different" car when I got it, and I knew that there weren't really many around where I live. I can tell you that there are at least seven others in our area, but everyone acted like it was the first one they had seen, even after three years! I grew to dread driving, because every time I pull up to a stop light, people would pull up even with me and stare. Or would drive by slowly and stare - point, laugh, etc. At first it was funny to me because the car was new and fun (at the time) but after that EVERY day? Too much for me. People walked up to me at gas stations and started asking questions. Or saying really intelligent stuff like, "Hey, that's a small car!" - and I am just not social enough for that. I'm really not. After one guy stuck his head inside my car through an open window as I was getting ready to pull away, I started avoiding eye contact at gas stations and adopting a "Don't talk to me" look to try to avoid people talking to me. I would complain about the car all. the. time. and I am sure everyone was tired of it, haha. I did drive it using the slap shift option, because the way that it shifted from first to second was HORRIBLE and it took forever to shift from third to fourth, and just ugh. I didn't like the way it drove. And of course it was horrible to drive in any sort of wind. However, I WILL say that I loved parking that thing. I could park anywhere, pull into any space, no matter how tight the turn or how much the donkey (can I say that here?) went over the line next to me. A+ to maneuverability. But for everything else, 0/10 - would not buy again. So! That big paragraph is a summation of why I was more than ready to get rid of the Smart Car. I love feeling NORMAL when I drive! I am not angry! I am relaxed. I drive more carefully and efficiently. It is so nice and roomy inside and it's nice having all the new technological stuff too - just wish I could make that new car smell last forever.
Welcome to the new "Normal"! Great choice in a car! May you only have to go to the shop for --->Maintenance.
Thanks! I was surprised you were able to tag me. In the past, I tried tagging others but I apparently had no permission to...
Welcome to priuschat, and interesting story. I always thought the Smart cars looked a little funny, so I could sort of see why people would gawk at it. I haven't had anyone gawking at me driving a prius c (that I know of anyway lol), and I'm really enjoying the 60 miles per gallon I'm averaging right now in it. Winter will be a different story, but it's still better mpg than like 90% of the cars out there right now that aren't a plug-in hybrid or prius owner who's even more of a hypermiler than I am.
I drove my smart fortwo for 4 years and loved it. Switched to a Prius Plug-in for the carpool use and no doubt it is both more reliable and much less costly to maintain than Mercedes/smart. Congratulations on your new Prius!
