Newb to Newbs! Besides MPG, what attracted you?

I personally can't speak for myself, (i actually don't own a Prius, but hopefully i will soon!) My sister was looking to replace her car,(SUV) a 2006 ford escape 4 cylinder, surprisingly she wanted a Prius for its looks! No joke! not that the Prius is ugly, but its not the kind of car you buy for how it looks.. she loves her Prius, she calls it her "baby".

Now my sister has a car that she loves the looks of, the technology, reliability, and gas milage, she ONLY gets 40-45 mpg.. her and my other sister drive it hard. For mpg comparison she averaged about 17 mpg in her ford escape 4 cylinder.. yeah she drives fast! Btw its a 2005 with 159,000 miles.

 

It's ALL about the gasoline--nothing about "tree hugging" or "CO2 levels" for me--I'm just FRUGAL!

 

You are using less gas, so that's a little less that has to be refined.
So maybe you are a passive tree hugger, and just don't know it.

 

Me too. With me it is all about Chicago and Illinois gasoline prices. One of, if not the highest in the nation and they will stay that way here. The Prius population just keeps growing here and it is all about gasoline prices and nothing else. Just ask any Prius owner here.

 

A gal of gas here in NC is 3.33 right now, where I live. Has been up to 3.40 or so recently. No telling what it is up there in Chicago.
There is no hard rules to being a Prius owner, you definitely save on gas.
From a environmental point of view, that also means less CO2.

 

I bought my first one (2003) for the hybrid aspect...moving to Washington DC, my left leg would have been the size of a trash can with all the clutching on my 2000 Ranger truck.

I recently traded in a 2011 Tacoma for the same 2009 model I traded in two years ago (not the exact same individual car, but the same model with all the same features). I like the whole package--creature comforts like electric windows and locks, plug going from 22 MPG to 50 MPG (I got 50 MPG on my last 2009) is going to look good on the pocketbook.

For this particular purchase, the killer feature was the back seat; it's possible to put a car seat in the truck, but we all feel better with the car seat in a back seat.

 

Getting very close to $4.00 a gal in suburb where I live. Wouldn't 'be surprised if it isn't over 4 in some places.

 

Just looked up gasoline prices in Chicago and suburbs. Price ranges from about $3.80 to $4.09. Stay tuned, they will be higher shortly. Seeing more Prius' all the time here. Lots of them.

 

The Prius Rules.
BTW, the great gas mileage attracted me to the Prius,
Funny how once you start driving one, you start noticing all the gas guzzlers out there.
Spend some of that savings on a good Elvis beer.

 

Besides MPG, it was the size (not too big, not too small) of the Prius hatchback. Also, the price. The well established reliability also factored heavily into our decision making process.

We test drove a base '14 Accord Hybrid, and really really loved it. Fantastic car. In fact, if the Accord had only been $2K more than we paid for our Prius 3 we probably would have gone with the Accord. As it was, at nearly $6k less, the Prius was too good a deal to pass up.

 

Honda's hybrid Batteries are not anything close to the Prius HB.
When it comes to lasting as long .

 

My in-laws had a 2005 Civic Hybrid and suffered from the dying hybrid battery issues that many owners reported with those earlier Civic Hybrids.

My understanding is that the 2014 Accord Hybrid is using different components than previous models. Which could be a good thing, or not. The absence of a track record was one of the big hesitations we had with the Accord, and factored heavily into our decision making process.

 

There is a thread on here somewhere, that talks about a consumer report magazine article on the subject. Apparently Honda still has across the board issues with HB.
I ask on here before how to search on PChat for past threads, but have not got a direct answer back yet. This is my second go around on here, owned a Gen 1 briefly back in 2010.
Hey, welcome to PriusChat.
Joe
Btw my friend here got 108k out of his o5 Honda Civic HB.

 

The Honda Accord Hybrid does not have a spare tire. It only has a repair kit. I would not even consider buying any car with just a repair kit. Maybe in perfect flat tire circumstances it would be okay but if you would have an Unrepairable flat tire and especially if you were in the middle of nowhere, you are just totally stranded. Anyone have any thoughts on that? I have had several flat tires that could not be repaired.

 

For me it's frugality and features. I could get a 2-3k used Corolla, Civic, etc. Probably would be 10-14 years old, have 150k-200k miles on it, and as a result, it would feel old, risk having a ton of parts going, and be less safe, fewer airbags and such. However a used Prius, can negate the cost of having a higher starting price mostly, in gas savings over 5-10 years of ownership. Right now I'm looking at a 2008 Prius, which if it works out, would have over 4 years of my panned 5 years of ownership with a warranty on the hybrid battery, which is the only expensive part that is commonly known to go. Plus the car has the nice steering wheel controls with climate control, back-up camera, bluetooth, navigation, voice controls for navigation and possibly calling, an auxillary audio input jack, not to mention side and curtain airbags, and better safety ratings for the amount of force on the body and head protection when compared to most older reliable sedans.

For me it's a no brainer, the Prius is more affordable with more luxury features than a comparably aged non-hybrid, and when compared to older sedans, it looks like a super safe space car and at worst costs a couple grand more over 5 years if planned right.

 

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm sure I would have liked the Accord Hybrid just fine. Still, with the Prius, I won't have that nagging doubt about potential failures banging around in my head.

 

That's a good point, the Prius has been around long enough to perfect any issues , for the most part. Don't get me wrong, Honda has a good name also.

 

As a huge petrolhead with a Prius + Seven (Prius v to you, I guess) I must say I was VERY reluctant to even consider the Prius at first. My wife insisted on me looking at it for a while. "Look, it's not like the old ugly Prius, the new on is actually not ugly, honey". So, inevitably I took a look. And wow, it actually looks rather nice. Opened the door, and one look at the interior and dashboard, and I was sold. A test-drive later we signed the papers on a Pearl white Premium package with all the goodies.

Neither of us care about the mileage. I like the Hybrid drivetrain for it's ultimate smoothness, especially when running electric, the high mileage is just a bonus. I like the back seats and the luggage compartment. I love the Pearl colour. The kids love the panoramic roof. They love the fact they can see out the window. Most estates have the rear seats placed so low the kids can't see over the lower edge of the window. I love the price of it here in Norway, the Hybrid comes off rather well with taxes, and Toyota is running a very heavy merketing campaign here so prices are almost unbelieveable (for Norway, you guys wouldn't believe what we pay for cars here...). I love the gadgets, I love the HUD and the energy monitor.

In short, I love the car, and delivery is still two months off!

 

Awesome that you like your new Prius, they are great cars. I love mine too, I just picked up an o6 about about a month ago, it is one of the old ugly ones. Beauty is only skin deep, love my Prius.
Love all the gadgets , the room for everything, even my party friends can see out of the back seat whee we leave the bar at 2:00 am.
cheers