Hi All, I'm a brand new Prius owner -- only since Saturday and am excited about my new wheels. I've been fascinated with the Prius for over a year and this year I decided to rent one when going on vacation for over two weeks. Previously, I owned a Honda Accord and was convinced the Prius would never fill the bill as far as packing for a long beach trip. To my astonishment, it had more room than the Accord. We returned home on Friday and purchased one on Saturday and so far am still not disappointed. I was taken in with the 0% financing. Also, I've been told by friends buying the 2010 could be risky the first year of a newly revamped engine. Both of those things convinced me to go with the 2009. Not convinced I got a great deal like some of you have quoted but spending from 11 till 4 negotiating beat us down. I still have a lot to learn but the salesperson said he's happy for me to come for a visit to go over all my questions. Happy to hear from all of you as I'm a sieve taking in everything about my new wheels. It took me a while to figure out the NAV system but it now seems very user friendly.
Welcome and congratulations!!! We purchased an '09 about two weeks ago. Like you, we couldn't pass on the 0% financing and a time tested and super reliable vehicle. This site has been very valuable to us over the past two weeks and I'm sure you'll learn much.
We bought ours yesterday. Didn't have to negotiate , but it was still a long day. Including stopping for lunch, the dealership is about 3 hours from our house. They had a 2010 there to look at, but not for sale. It is a very spiffy car, thought briefly about ordering/ getting in line for one of them, but I couldn't turn down the 0%. I also couldn't face the drive again, so we took the 2009.
Congrats to you too Bob!!! I did a spread sheet on Excel to figure out the savings with the 0% financing. Toyota Financial Services is saving us over $3,000 in interest payments compared to a 5% loan for the same period of time. That and a good price on the '09 was enough to convince us. Enjoy your great new toy!
I'm kind of an oldie, but also a newbie - '04 Prius recently sold (87k+ HAPPY miles) and a brand new (last Friday) '09 Base pkg 2. With my '04, I was fairly good at averaging 50-55 MPG in warm weather (April through Oct here in NC). One thing's got me wondering. With my '04, the MPG indicator automatically reset with a new tank of gas - haven't refilled yet, so don't know whether my '09 will do that or not. Once the '04 reset, the MPG indicator would often jump ten or more MPG up or down as I had a good or bad stretch of driving. As the miles driven since reset increased, the changes came slower and smaller. With my '09, however, it's very different. The car had a full tank and 21 MPG when I took possession, and about 170 miles later, it's gone up - one tenth of a mile at a time - to 40.3 MPG. My '04 MPG tricks work just as well with the '09 - I had two consecutive five-minute blocks of 99 MPG averages today, but the jumps were still just one tenth of a MPG at a time - they just came quicker. The only change I've noticed in MPG is an increase (or occasional decrease) of one-tenth of a mile at a time. Is this everyone's experience as well?
The miles driven will reset when you fill up with over approximately 3 gallons, but the MPG reading will not. Unless you accidentally push the reset button when cleaning the screen with the car running. I bet I'm not the only one to do that! Don't push the reset button and you will have cumulative MPG for all the miles driven since last manual reset.
