Hi all, first post here. First off, thanks for all the useful commentary and suggestions. I've been a regular reader for the past few months, and have gone back through many of the earlier posts. I bought a 2001 Prius here in Ontario in late June. It had been owned by one family, appeared to be in very good shape all around, and had relatively low mileage, 139,000 km (< 90,000 miles). I paid $4,400 which seemed about right based on information I gathered here and elsewhere. Since then I've driven it about 10,000 km and am completely happy with it. I try to be realistic in my expectations with old cars - I've had many over the years - but this car seems like it will be going for a long time to come. I'm not a mechanic, but am very much a DIY owner, and the challenges of owning a relatively complex piece of equipment don't bother me (my last project car was a 20 year old BMW 735il), especially with you guys out there willing to share your experiences. The only issue I have had was the a/c flashing light problem, and after reviewing posts here I climbed underneath, took the clutch plate off, cleaned up the surfaces and reduced the shim thickness, and it's been working perfectly ever since. About an hour's work and no cost. Really there is nothing that I can see that needs doing on this car at this point. This is my first hybrid, though I've been a fan for a long time. I almost bought a new Prius in 2008, but it was a bit too small for our one-car family of five, and I bought a Kia Rondo instead, which I quite like apart from the bad fuel mileage. I was thinking of replacing the Rondo with a Prius V but instead added the old Prius as a second car. One of my concerns is that I tow a small trailer regularly, and I get mixed messages on doing that with a hybrid, so the two car approach seems to be working OK. Mostly we're driving the Prius, and the Rondo is available for trailer towing, people moving, and if (when) the Prius breaks Finally, a question: does anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive set of roof racks that fit the car? I regularly travel with my Laser sailing dinghy, which is relatively easily cartopped. I'd like to play around with getting it on the Prius instead of trailering it behind the Rondo. There is a company call Frontier here that sells roof racks, but they don't have the Prius Gen 1 listed. I'm also curious about the hit to mileage - I have a trip to Florida planned (about 1400 miles each way) with my boat and wouldn't mind taking the Prius if I can get it set up properly. Jeff
