Although I can't claim to be a newbie any longer, I thought an anniversary thread might be appropriate in the Newbie forum for the oldies to share with the newbies their Prius experience in the past year. To start, this is my 1-year anniversary as a Prius owner. My experience has been overwhelmingly positive, exceeding my expectations. There are some things about the Prius that I wish were different/better (stereo, seat height, etc.) but overall this car has delivered more than what I thought I was getting when I bought it a year ago today. No regrets whatsoever. Additionally, this is (almost) my anniversary as a Priuschat member. Also a very positive experience.
zenMachine - today is my one-year anniversary as an owner as well! :bounce: I still love my Prius and so far haven't had any problems with it. The hatchback has come in handy on more than one occasion and I'm averaging around 47 to 53 MPG (depending on outside temp, commute route, etc). Yay!
65 days for this old feller! I'm thinking of becoming a 2-Pri family. I think a Barcelona Red will look very nice in my driveway parked next to the Seaside Pearl.
our prius will be 3 years old in a couple of weeks. we got on a waiting list in november 2004. our blue prius wasn't supposed to come in until may, but my car died and we were at the top of the waiting list in march. i picked the black one on the truck. hubby agreed. we've taken it to wisconsin a number of times, and once down to key west for my best friend's wedding. i drove it to the university for almost 3 years, but for the last 2 months DH has been taking it to the next town for school himself. it also takes us to the hospital about 45 minutes away a few times a month and lately, it has taken DH to his grandparents' home across the state once a month or so. we've put 45k miles on it since we bought it- the last 5k since he started school in january. all under warranty, we've had the steering shaft recall done, the visors were replaced (wouldn't stay put) and the upper glovebox door was replaced when those springs broke. DH replaced the window runner in an attempt to reduce a rattle in that window. it sorta helped. we have the extended warranty to carry us until 100k. it got new tires at 28k miles, the oem's were shot. we replaced with michelin energy mxv4+ for just under $500. DH mounted and balanced them himself, and has done all the work on the car since it had the initial PDI service. nobody but nobody touches our cars. have spent a couple hundred on oil, filters, wiper blades, windshield washer, etc. after a couple months in a lexus, i agree that the seats in the prius could be a lot more comfortable. otherwise i do enjoy the car quite a bit, and we'll probably hang on to it until 250k or so miles. i expect it to last as long if not longer.
My 1 year annversary was last Monday 2/25. I bought my car a ScanGauge to celebrate. arty: The only problem to date was the rear wheel alignment which would not have really been a problem except the dealer repair dept didn't know how to/ didn't want to fix it. Luckily for me, Galaxee and her DH do know how to fix it, so with their help I was able to fix it myself. The only other problem is that we drive it everywhere so it has 15,800+ miles after 1 year. I usually only average about 12k per year.
I did a tally of my 1-year metrics, and the results are: Miles driven: 20,874 Gallons of fuel used: 454.26 Total Fuel Cost: $1,234.72 Average fuel cost per mile: $.06 Average MPG: 45.9 Not great, but not too shabby either. I highly recommend new owners to keep their own spreadsheet. I call mine "Petrolog".
