Hello all!

Greetings and Welcome Aboard!

Thanks for your service.
I'm a little curious why an 06 Civic Si would "kill you on gas." since this is about a 25MPG car, and you're getting 21.
The Prius would bump that up to about 40-50 depending on your driving style (probably closer to 40.)

Will this pay for the added debt loading?
Time will tell, but the Prius G2 is a good, fairly safe, and reliable used car.
I'd lean more towards the base models if you have to borrow to get one, but you show good sense trying to get a Prius instead of a muscle car or an SUV.
Stay away from dealers.
There's no reason why you cannot take a month or two and look for a private deal.

Good luck with the family.
Start saving for college NOW.

 

Hard to say.
My work car is a 2010-2 and it's been a GREAT car in terms of reliability and frugality.
I measure my fuel efficiency by the tank, and when I drive it like a normal car I'm close to 50 MPG....or about 480-500 miles to a tank.
The G3 (2010-present) has something like an 11.8 gallon fuel tank, but the low fuel warning occurs at 9.something miles....so some people are only getting about 420 miles to a tank.....but they're only pumping 9 gallons of fuel.

This is one of the many things about driving Priuses that will either drive you nuts or you'll just have to get used to....but of all of my complaints about the car----and I do have them, economy and reliability aren't a problem at all.

You'll have to decide if adding 13.5K of debt to your family is a good move right now or not. The car is 5 years old and has 63K miles. You're in a CARB state, so the warranty on many of the Hybrid components is extended, and many of the 2010's have a warranty enhancement for the IPM for 15 years from the date of first use. It's not a bad deal probably.
Like I said....it's not a Camaro, but there are some unscrupulous dealers out there where maintenance and repairs are concerned, so if you're not familiar with basic car maintenance Toyota can wind up getting back some or all of the money that you save in gas.
Swinging wrenches on cars isn't rocket science.
Rednecks do it while drinking beer all the time....and there is a wealth of advice on this forum.

---some of it is even good advice!


Good Luck!

 

That first sentence is meaningless without knowing how much you put in at each fill.
Seems like I remember that Si has a fairly small tank and if that 260 miles took 8 gallons, that would be 32.5 MPG which isn't too bad.

It is beginning to look to me like you have the "new car bug" and you aren't really listening to the practical advice that you are getting here.

It is NOT a good deal if you can not realistically afford the payments.
You NEED to sit down and do a budget for AFTER the new baby arrives.
Food, diapers, medical, etc. etc. You might find out that you can't really afford ANY extra debt right now.
Please be practical about this, PLEASE.
The single biggest cause of divorces is MONEY trouble.

 

That still means exactly NOTHING until you tell us how many gallons you actually put in it at each fill.
I refuse to believe 11.8.

 

Run a VIN check through two or more car report providers to make sure you don't miss any details. Then, if you don't see any problem, bring a trusted mechanic with you to diagnose the car. Hopefully, you purchase the right car.

 

I bought a 2009 Prius with 86k miles for 8.9k, but this was only recently. Did you end up buying yours?