I want a Prius but...

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Carlos,
I think it's terific that you care so much and I'm impressed with your choice of car to get. I expect that just about everyone here agrees with you.

There is quite a lot of information about the Prius on the web and you can start with the knowledge base on this site and the various Prius groups on Yahoo. There are also some great individual sites--two of my favorites are:

http://john1701a.com/

and

http://home.earthlink.net/~graham1/MyToyot...PriusFrames.htm

It is very hard to recommend how to convince your father since I don't know either of you. I suggest you think about what impresses you about it and what kinds of things he cares about. The Prius has various advantages over other cars such as energy savings, reduced pollution, cool technology, and Toyota quallity. Keep in mind that although the Prius does use less gas than almost any other car, which will save money, it's probably not the cheapest car to own.

 

Carlos,
There are a lot of "gee, I don't know, its kinda new technology" people out there. We aren't all early adopters, myself included. I waited 9 months to see if the '04s had any redesign problems before I ordered. Let him know this is the 3rd generation Prius. It is designed and built by Toyota so it is a car from a trusted company with a lot of design thought and refinement already in it.

Assuming your family NEEDS a new car and can afford a new Prius, see if you can get your father to try one. Maybe someone you know has one and will show it off. Everyone I have demoed my car to the one week I've had it says "wow, nice". Not just "comfortable ride", or "looks nice". In fact one guy does NOT like the look of the car. But if they put it in a Tacoma, he's in! Consider the whole HSD system. It is smooth, it gets great mileage, it has plenty of power, it is environmentally friendly. The Prius has lots of standard equipment for the money. With side air bags, double 5 * crash rating. Many good reasons he should consider it if the car meets his needs. And if you show him the responses to your query, No, we do NOT get a comission for talking it up

 

Here.. we can definetly help you with this.. first off, what does your father want you to get? and what does he value in a car? We can take the most important things.. plus.. add on a bunch of info here and there. We can surely sell him a car. I've talked to many peple who laughed at the hybrid and after i give them bits of info here and there.. they all say the same thing " maybe i'll get one of these as my next car " hm... another car sold. :mrgreen:

My father hates the prius. He just like trucks or big stupid cars with no purpose. I have him liking the prius now. He doesn't love it or anything.. but anything he's needed me to do ( carrying cinder blocks.. moving tools.. taking my grandparents places.. etc *while never overaloading the car's supported weight*) that has has been able to do. So.. it's impressed him a little. Which is a huge step for my dad.

 

As others have pointed out, which arguments you use can depend on who you're talking to, their tastes and prejudices. If you end up using the cost/efficiency argument, here's a couple of pointers:

Depending on where you live and where you buy, there may be some incentives to buying an environmentally friendly car.
- There's a federal tax deduction of $2000 (for 2004 and 2005; the phaseout has just recently been eliminated), which could net you up to $500-ish less in total taxes owed.
- Some states have additional tax incentives -- I'm buying in Oregon, where there's a $1500 credit for hybrids (as well as no sales tax for anything).
- If you're financing, a few lenders are offering special deals like lower interest rates.

Add all that up and there's a smaller cost difference between a Prius and a similar conventional car -- small enough that you're likely to make it back in fuel cost savings within the first few years owning the car.

 

what out info from outside sources? info from review panels.. from well known car entusiest.. from crash test companies that are in europe. there are many outside rating on this car that are very good. But i guess i'm still looking for what your dad values. I'll start collecting links and post them. that was you can print them out or conbine info and show him that you researched the car. reviews from many well known magazines and various companies. The prius is doing nothing but seeting new records when it comes to this. The other day i saw a newspaper article on new cars coming out. I was suprise to see the prius as an alternative to another car. Figures though, that car was an accord. They mocked it for not being as good as the prius. Many people look up to this car. We'll try to gather info for you.

 

It is hard because I think you are the first PriusChat member from Portugal. We can't send you to someone local that has a car!

 

Another thread currently discussing Dads is "Surplus?" in the Prius Main Forum. To explain my comment there to those outside the US, Sam's Club is a wholesale-type of store that sells everything in large quantities. The load I put in the Prius, with room to spare, included one package of toilet paper (about 48 rolls), one package of paper towels (about 15 rolls), and two packages of Kleenex (about 9 boxes each).

Sam Walton was the founder of Wal-Mart, and the two chains are related.

Good luck with your dad! (We know you could visit the Netherlands and Germany...)

 

Hi Carlos,

Im in Germany, where as you may know we have some of the highest fuel prices in Europe, second only to the UK. Here are my estimates for fuel useage and costs based on driving 20.000KM and 30.000KM per year compared to a SUV I had.

95 Oct current price EUR 1.15/ltr. 91 Oct current price EUR 1.10


ltr/100km EUR/ltr Distance Cost/KM Total Cost

4.5 € 1.15 20000 € 0.05 € 1,035.00 (Prius)
12 € 1.10 20000 € 0.13 € 2,640.00 (SUV)
Saving € 1,605.00

4.5 € 1.15 30000 € 0.05 € 1,552.50 (Prius)
12 € 1.10 30000 € 0.13 € 3,960.00 (SUV)
Saving € 2,407.50

If the prices continue increasing then the savings are a lot more.
Now If you assume you keep the car for 5 years, you are saving over EUR 8000 wiht 20Tkm or EUR 12000 with 30TKM at todays prices

I compared a Prius Executive with Navi with an Avensis 1.8 ltr Automatice speced as close as possible to each other. Both cars came to over over EURO 28000. The Prius was the cheaper by about EUR 400. Add this to the other savings and its a no brainer to say which to take. I have not checked the insurance for the Avensis, but I expect there would be little difference between them.

Maybe you could do a similar comparison yourself.

 

Hi Carlos,

What does your father like in a car? What does he dislike? Are there any Toyota dealers where you live? Whose car will it be? Are you looking at new cars or used ones?

 

For some reason Portugal has very, very few Priuses. Toyota's sales figures show only 21 sold there from January through August.

So maybe there are hundreds stuck on dealers' lots for you to look at.

 

Mention also the excellent Prius crash test results (both Europe and U.S.). Family safety can be a strong motivator for parents.