New guy reporting aboard, sir! My daughter, a member of this forum, has inspired me to purchase a Prius (Package 3) that I am picking up from Morristown (NJ) Toyota this Friday. She got her's last year and loves it. The Prius will replace my 05 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited. It is a fun and serious off road vehicle, but the gas mileage is terrible and I don't do that much off roading that it is worth dumping $45-50 a week in the tank for just driving around town and on local trips to the shore. My daughter advises that the warranties from Toyota are pretty good already such that I might not even need an extended warranty, but if I choose to go that route I can get a better deal through this forum. Your thoughts on this please? Based on what I have read here, I think I need to be concerned about the MFD crapping out in a few years. Also, I will be looking for some kind of rack system to haul my kayak on the roof. I'll also be looking to equip the car with a receiver hitch for a small unitilty trailer and a bike rack. What do you recommend for a rack system and receiver hitch? (The Toyota dealer told me that the Pruis is not trailer rated, but that someone must have a receiver hitch that will bolt on).
Howdy, neighbor! I'm just down 287 from you, south of the Somerville exit. I got my Super White package 5 in April, upgraded it with leather seats, and I absolutely love it! Congratulations, and happy driving. As for the extended warranty, I'll probably get it - but we don't have to buy it until just before the standard warranty expires in 36 months.
Congratulations and welcome aboard! If you do get the ext. warranty, check the "Prius Accessories" drop down menu at the top right of the page and click "Discounted Extended Warranty" As for the rack, there are several posts here in the modification forum that relate to kayaks. As for the hitch, you can probably use the one from Coastal E. Tech (www.coastaletech.com). They have 1¼" and 2" hitchs meant for bike racks. The Prius isn't equipped for towing unfortunately.
Welcome aboard. You have a very intelligent daughter! I am getting the extended warranty on my '04 but it has almost 35,000 miles on it.
What is the issue with the Prius not being rated for towing? If you can mount a receiver hitch on the back for a bike rack, why can't the Prius be used to tow a light utility trailer? I asked the dealer the same question and he couldn't answer it.
I think the main reason a Prius isn't rated as a towing vehicle has to do with it's EPA ratings. People have installed hitches and pulled trailers, without damamging the car, but Toyota can't encourage this or the "partial-zero emissions" (I love that concept) rating would go away. Towing a trailer you will get MUCH poorer milage and generate more emissions. You might not notice it on a 15 MPG truck, but you will on a Prius. Try putting the back seats down and see if you really need to tow... a lotta room in the back... Congratulations! Welcome to PriusChat! <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Seagull @ Jul 13 2006, 05:33 PM) [snapback]285942[/snapback]</div>
I put the tow hitch on just for my bike rack. Think of it as being an emergency tow package when gas mileage and emissions are not your main concern. (The only time I ever used the tow hitch on my Ford Escape was to move a refrigerator a short way on a small trailer. It was good to have for that moment but I don't think I would take the boat on a long vacation.) I went through the whole warranty trip: buying it from the dealer, finding out how badly I'd been taken, getting my money back and buying it here. Save the steps and just get it here.
I decided to get the extended warrenty when I purchased the Prius because who knows what the price will be in 3 years. Or even if the PriusChat (Troy) discounted version will be available at that time. Better to lock in that low price when it was available was my conclusion.
Just a word of caution: many people have had good luck with putting receiver hitches on their Prii, but there is apparently an issue with the compatibility of one of the hitches on the '06 that involves melting of some of the Prius's trim. See this thread for more information. Other than that, I understand people have had good luck with those types of things on the Prius. I don't have any personal experience with it, however. I think that the MFD thing may be a bit overhyped. Specifically, I think it's a very small percentage of people who have had problems with them and, for the most part, Toyota has seemed willing to work something out with replacing it (even out of warranty). That said, the extended warranty offered here seems like a pretty good deal, if you want to go that route.
Thanks for all the welcomes and great information! I picked the car up a few of hours ago and so far have racked up 53 miles with an average MPG of 63.2 with the A/C running and set to 78 degrees. The terrain was a mixture of city and county driving - no highway. I have to make a special effort to concentrate on driving the versus watching everything shown on the MFD. I'm guessing that more than a few new Prius owners have cracked while checking their mileage bars when they should have been watching where they were going. It's like my flight instructor used to tell me - get your head out of the cockpit and scan the horizon for traffic. So far I am smiling ear to ear!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Seagull @ Jul 14 2006, 01:49 PM) [snapback]286326[/snapback]</div> I have an 06, package 3 and love it. I have the Curt hitch, it bolted right on and doesn't interfere with the trim. I have pulled my utility trailer for a couple of months and it only lowers the MPG to the high 40's in town. Hope you love the car as much as I do.
Hope that you pickup is quick and easy! Tell us what you think. I've had it now since Monday and I'm loving every chance that I get an excuse to drive it! I'm still waiting for the first little square to disappear on the fuel gauge.
Welcome and congratulations! Toyota makes good reliable cars and I trust that my Prius will last me 200K miles or 10 years or more. But that's not going to stop me from covering my butt by purchasing the extended warranty offered here at a discount on Priuschat. Better safe than sorry I always say! Just in case one thing goes wrong in the upcoming years, I'd rather be covered under warranty than have to pay out of pocket unexpectedly.
Go to the search function on this forum and do a search for the word kayak. You will find a lot of topics to look through. I agree with what others have posted about the extended warranty, wait a while then if you really want it get it here. I have made it my personal policy never to buy extended warrantys on anything and I'm sure I've saved enough over the years to fix anything that breaks on my car. I understand there are rebuilt/exchange MFDs available from Toyota that are a lot cheaper than new ones.
