About to buy a 2008 Prius - Color Choices for Visibility and Efficiency and Dirt ?

Hi !

I'm in Ottawa, Canada and I'm about to buy a 2008 Prius. I'm buying it because I think it's a masterpiece of engineering and a very practical choice at current gas prices.

I was considering Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla when I realized the $4k in tax credits I can get here (for the next few months only!) put the total cost of ownership in the same territory (or even better!


So. any feedback on color choices for visibility, efficiency, dirt and graceful aging ?

I like Black, Red and White in that order.

I'm looking to get a Clearbra or Clearshield or whatever it is. I've heard it might be better not to put these on white. (?)

I guess white is most efficient as the car is cooler in summer, so the AC doesn't have to work as hard. I don't think black helps much with heat in winter. I wonder how much a difference it makes and if red's closeness to infrared indicates it reflects heat well.


I think red is most visible to pedestrians and other cars in snow, rain, dark etc. Yellow is better but I don't like yellows. White is perhaps next most visible although it can hide in snow. Black is invisible at night, when your lights are on anyway and I usually use lights in the day too anyway. But black is more visible than silver or grey. Grey (gray?) is often invisible.


I've heard white hides dirt better, for those periods of winter when it doesn't make sense to waste money on carwashes.

I have a black car now and it looks great, but yes, there are many swirls that show on glossy black paint after 14 years.

I've heard that black may be the rarest color (or rarest common color ?). That's cool with me. If black is the outlaws color, then perhaps it just doesn't fit the image of most Prius drivers ?

Thanks!

 

Thanks all.

Yeah, to heck with the analysis. I'm buying Black because I think it looks so cool

Black is the "outlaw" color. Works for me.

Black is "high-tech" looking.

Black is masculine.

Black is rare in Prius's.

Black shines nicely at night.

Black has been OK'd by my wife.

 

Waxing ? What's that ? My grandfather would wash his Lincoln daily and wax every second day, but not me...


I've had a black Stealth TT/AWD for 12 years and I take it to the "you-wash" or drive-thru washes every 2-4 weeks. Works for me. I'm surprised how good it looks after 14 years given my lack of attention.

I don't care about the swirlies and I don't care about dirt most of the time. In winter there's no way to keep a car clean anyway.

Nice, shiny clean cars are definitely cool, but I personally don't want to spend much time or money on it. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

 

I'm happy to report I placed my order for a black one today. ETA is 12 days, coming from port of Vancouver to me in Ottawa, Canada.

I joined the APA, a Canadian car consumer organization, and got a pre-negotiated price of $1k off of MSRP. It all went smoothly.


I added a 3M Clearbra for $350 and a paint protection package for $300. I've heard elsewhere that black needs it the most.


For the 2008 model year, I'm getting $4k in rebates from the government(s). The federal portion of $2k disappears for 2009 MY, so I wanted to ensure I got a 2008 in my color.

With the above and the gas savings, I figure I'm getting the hybrid technology almost for free !

Looking forward to my black "Priups" and future PHEV !

 

And what do you think it is ? If it's useless I feel reasonably confident I can reverse my decision.

It's "Platinum Shield paint protection". I read something somewhere about some of these things being nothing more than fancy wax. A quick google search doesn't give me any definitive answers, but I saw the opinion in two places that waxing your car 2-4 times a year is better than this paint protection and not waxing.

Edit: OK I read around, and sure enough this is what many of the dealers use and it's virtually useless. AFAIK though, the 3M ClearBra is good. I'll check some competitors to see if the $350 for that is competitive.

Perhaps I'll see how easy the dealer is at removing that item from our agreement. I'm the one that brought it up; it wasn't pushed on me or anything. I'll get help from the APA if they give me any trouble, but I imagine they'll realize that and be friendly. I'll see...