sanctimonious: Feigning piety or righteousness:

I think I've slipped from my pedestal. I'm out-classed...
I have to drive 260 miles a week for work, and my house is twice as big... oh, and DH and I have 6 kids between us (all grown up). :sorry:

 

So why are you here? It's my understanding this is a forum for Prius enthusiasts?

 

So you didn't buy a Prius when it was $1000.00 below INVOICE... BIG MISTAKE!
Not being the right time was your reason not the rest of your story. Oh well, we all have our reasons for buying a Prius. It was the right time for us. It could have been we liked the car, color, gas savings, the moon was out, and whatever. We aren't all alike.

 

It's simply an adaptation that developed over a number of generations. Design had nothing to do with it. It could easily reverse the adaptation if the right environmental pressures favored men/women without "canines".

 

I bought a Prius because I liked all those storage compartments.

 

It's not necessary to never eat meat, cutting down helps a lot too. I occasionally get a little meat, and when I do I really appreciate how tasty it is. But I don't really miss it in between times. If I ate it everyday, I'd feel like I was abusing my body and it's an idea that doesn't appeal to me. This is something I've grown into over time. It wasn't always this way.

 

Hi Tweev,

I did donate money to R+D on better cars. I BOUGHT A PRIUS. I cannot see the logic in funding status-quo car manufacturing and donating to organisations that unless their graduates go to Toyota or Honda (unlikely) will produce cars that are the same status quo. Clinton, Gore and that guy fro the EPA tried to get these Big 3 accountants heads out of the Windsor Locks sand (PNGV), but hell, they all "knew" better. Even if these graduates go to Toyota and Honda, if people do not buy improved FE performance vehicles, they wont have the funds to do anything. So, Yes, by all means fund better car R+D - BUY A PRIUS or HCH II !

And I will do it again, if something better comes along (FWD/3WD Aptera?).

My commute is 23 miles, and public transportation to go to the same point is 55 miles. Chicagoland has no circumfrential commuting, only radial.

 

Poor assumption
I would disagree with that UNLESS you added 'before you needed to buy a new car'
If someone is going to buy a new car anyway, I would say buying a Prius is still a good deal. If they don't need a new car, then I would agree with your statement.
In my case, one of the deciding factors was the push button start. Only other car at the time that had that I looked at was a Lexus IS. The Prius not only get's me double the gas mileage, it saved me about 10k But of course that was before the huge push in popularity.

 

You could do the same thing with a touch or any (insert WM6 or better device here) and use the savings to plant trees/buy carbon credits/some-world-saving-endeavor.

Financially...for most Americans, I will concur that at current demand and pricing levels...the Prius is not a financial "win" for an of them. For me...in sort of the same way that renewable energy tax credits/rebates/incentives make solar and other options viable for Cali folks...the only reason a Prius was viable was thanks to the rebate offered by my wife's employer, BOA (3K rebate plus other incentives). Those monies in combination with getting a Prius at MSRP and combined with the fact that we drive a minimum of 85-100 miles each work day make the Prius a no-brainer for us over the Honda Element EX we were commuting in. I don't imagine my family is alone in being in this situation where combining high mileage with incentives makes the Prius a good deal.

The Fit and Yaris are not comparable to the Prius...in any other way than that they are all self-powered automobiles with 4 wheels and they are not trucks. Saying they are directly comparable is like saying that a Hipster is a direct competitor to the iPhone...just not true.

No kids = enviro-hero? How 'bout No kids=Unpatriotic traitor. I don't actually agree with that statement...but I think that both of them are somewhere in the neighborhood of equally valid. For every one less progeny that you or someone else puts out...it is easily replaced by the increased birthrate in other areas of the world which will eventually also surpass your "chosen" society in terms of economic/military/social impact in due time. I'm 100% behind those who choose to obstain from producing children in this world by choice...it's the best of darwinism without the premature death or bloodshed.

 

And this surprises you? No wonder people have labelled you as naive.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I often get mistaken for one. Every time I opt for a meatless meal, I'm asked about it. If only it were not seen as an either/or choice between lots of meat all the time and no meat at all ever, then I think people would have an easier time eating less meat.

I agree with the person who said people would give up their SUV before they would give up their cheeseburgers.

 

I'm not sure this argument is valid. There are many other considerations to take into account when trying to model the future of a society. Out of control populations in poor countries almost never grow to become the dominant society due to the negative effects of such a population on it's infrastructure and government (interestingly China and/or India could change this but they are definately not new societies nor is their possible succession due to population alone). On the flip side, negative growth is obviously detrimental to a society's long term prosperity. Thankfully the more developed a nation is the lower it's total growth rate (excluding immigation/emmigation), that is the trend anyway. Where is the happy medium?

 

Piffle I've never done any of that crap. :glare:

Wildkow

 

We are not all victims of price gouging. I bought my '07 in 12/06 for $850 below msrp. I get 48 in the winter, and 51 in the summer.

 

The economics of my Prius are pretty hard to argue...

Without even reading most of the previous postings yet, I'll explain why my Prius made total sense to me...
I paid 23K for my '06. I got the $3150 tax credit. Net cost then was $19,850.
There was no other car out there that I could drive 18K miles a year in that gets this kind of mileage AND sleep in comfortably with my wife on road trips to Yellowstone and etc.
When you figure the gas I have saved over something else we could have slept in , the math is obvious. There are many cars that can get mileage in the mid to high 30's and even into the 40's, but just try sleeping in one of them! So, figure in the gas savings over something else that gets 25mpg, figure in motel rooms and figure in this insanely high resale value of the Prius, and the numbers are really hard to argue with.
If you were to go out and by a new one now though, without the tax credit, I believe you would have a harder time justifying it.

 

I've regained my pedestal


{The man behind me is Hyo Silver, btw}

 

I would mostly agree. People that are running out and paying thousands over invoice on a car they didn't really need just to save gas money are probably not very good at math. I think there are cases though, where the depreciation of large gas guzzling vehicles is being so accelerated that waiting 6 months could easily cost you thousands of dollars. Tough call in that case. If you're buying one to reduce oil consumption, CO2 emissions, smog emissions etc rather than gas prices, I guess it comes down to the individual to decide what those benefits are worth to them. Hopefully when the '09s start rolling in come August supply will be able to keep up with demand and we can get somewhat back to normal.

I've mentioned it before, but I personally think we all owe a lot to the early adopters. They took a big risk when the technology and battery life was unproven, they waited for months and they often paid a hefty premium all at a time when gas prices made it very hard to justify such a purchase. If there had not been a steady stream of folks willing to put their money where there mouth was, would we even have the option of buying a Prius today? I think even more than providing R&D dollars, our purchases can be a means of voting for what we believe in. If something is popular and vaguely profitable, you'll soon see more products like it. If no ones buying, it will quietly disappear.

Rob