People who trade in an SUV for a Prius

I got rid of my Range Rover for our Prius and love it.
In fact, in our family we have 6 Prius's; 2005 1 wht, 2 Blks( 2005 and 1 2006), 2 reds, and 1 blue. I've alway been into euro automobiles and hated Toyota's, Lexus and Honda's. Now that I own one and have researched the technology of Toyota... They ROCK! I do have to say I am surprised by my feeling this way. Our Prius has changed our lives, I would seriously buy another one. At 1st I was worried about the complex it would give me for driving one, especially around snotty SUV and truck drivers... who cares.... I love our Prius. Besides, it is true about all of those Truck and SUV drivers, they don't need them alway empty... it's all about status and bling... jack-offs! Sorry!

Driving any other car is not as enjoyable, I alway look forward to our Prius, even while traveling and we have to rent a car... that sucks! But rental places such as zipcar, they rock for offering the prius.

Almost forgot... As for the Prius being too small to carry things... not true! I have place a 48" Bathroom Vanity in the trunk, a 81" bathroom door with framing in the trunk, Queen size bed with box on top. I have used it for numerous runs to Home Depot, Furniture stores, Costco runs and it just surprises us each and every time. We are from the Bay Area (Nor Cal) and took a mini weekend trip to Oregon (Crater Lake, Eureka, Redwood Trees, Oregon Caves, etc...) Four people, four pieces of luggage and other necessity items for a road trip. Not a problem, our Prius handled like a dream... Highway 1, wow I felt like I was driving my old AMG Benz. Power was not an issue. Also, there is a Porsche 911 (997) driver in the South Bay, sorry for blowing your doors off. :lol: Surprised you when you saw it was a prius racing ya, huh! Thats's right! Coming back from Sea Otter Classic 2006, highway 101 night time. I guess with my HID and fog lights on he thought it to be a euro racer sedan (M5, M3, AMG Benz....) Hee hee hee! Well, that is part of my big ego with our Prius... Oh by the way, it's also great on gas and gets good mileage too! So far, with our feelings and happiness with our Prius we have convinced others to join in and rid themselves of those useless gas guzzling contraptions they call SUVs...

Anyhow, just my 2 cents. B)

 

That would be me. My 1994 Isuzu Trooper was transformed through the magic of a dealer trade-in to become Maggie Grey, my little grey Prius you see to the left. I thought I would miss her, after all we've been through; Baja Caifornia, LA freeways, more snowy mountains and cross country than I can remember. Strangely enough, as soon as I unloaded skis out of the hatch of my Prius, my feelings for the Trooper and her penchant for drinking way too much gas was gone like a bad girlfriend.
Adios my friend.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mywhitenoise @ Apr 24 2007, 11:12 AM) [snapback]429085[/snapback]</div>

Then again, the environment isn't going to improve if only a few fringe environmental activists drive hybrids, rather the true impact will come when hybrids become mainstream! I'd call it a big environmental victory if it's trendier now to buy a hybrid than an SUV.

I personally bought a Prius more because of my passion for technology and dislike of big oil more than for environmental reasons.

 

I ordered my Prius in 2003, got it in 2004 and it replaced my 1996 Ford Explorer. I'm always happy when someone gets a Prius rather than an SUV, whatever the reason. Though I loved my Explorer I felt like it was time to move on. I got it because I was:

A) Tired of manual shifting in rush hour traffic

B) Wanted better gas mileage (the day I drove my Prius home gas permanently went up to $2.00 per gallon - those were the days!). Yep, I did it partly because it was cheaper to drive. Oh no!

C) Thought it was time to help out the environment

 

Granted, there are not many Advanced Technology vehicles at the present time. However, this will all be a mute point when eventually there are multiple varieties of fuel efficient and/or hybrid trucks, SUVs and cars. The Ford Escape Hybrid SUV is a good start. There is a petition going on right now at UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists) to consider bringing the Toyota Estima Minivan over which gets 40MPG in Japan.

 

We traded in a 2003 Acura MDX TOURING w/NAVI and dealer installed (all Acura factory parts) Trailer Towing Package (and Acura extended warranty 100K/7 year)

Talk about DEPRECIATION................ we purchased this brand new for $45,638 TOTAL in February 2003.

We went to several Toyota Dealers (Florida) the past month (May 2007) and the BEST "trade-in" was $19,500 which is the high end of the "Black Book", mid to low end of "Kelly Blue Book" !! By the way, we had 57,000 miles on it (average) and it was in EXCELLENT CONDITION (no damage ever, no dents or dings, always garaged) !!
BUT.......... it ran ONLY on PREMIUM FUEL ............. bye, bye Acura MDX.............

However...... we are ever soooo pleased with the purchase of our new 2007 Toyota Prius Touring w/package 5 !!

 

How do you like me? I kept my wife's SUV (2001 Mercedes ML 320) and traded my car (2001 Audi A4) in on the Prius. That's right, I kept my SUV that gets 10 MPG worse (15 MPG for the SUV compared to 25 MPG for the car) than the car I traded in. Do you want to know why?

Because there are times when I need an SUV. I have a boat, so I need something to tow it with. I live in northeast Ohio, where it is not uncommon for us to get 16 to 20 inches of snow. If I need to get out in that kind of weather, I can do it in my SUV. I can't in the Prius.

There are plenty of reasons that people buy the Prius, and for a lot of people, those reason are not altruistic. They want to save money on gas. Well, guess what, that is the the biggest selling point of the Prius. Sure, it puts out really low emissions, but that is not why people are buying it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mywhitenoise @ Apr 24 2007, 12:44 PM) [snapback]429110[/snapback]</div>

Fixed it for you.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Swanny1172 @ May 20 2007, 06:43 PM) [snapback]446292[/snapback]</div>

We actually had TWO SUV's, a 2003 Acura MDX Touring w/NAVI (leather interior) and factory trailer towing package (trans. cooler, heavy duty frame hitch, etc.) -and- a 2004 Honda CR-V EX w/cloth interior. We always thought we would someday "need" to tow a small trailer, camper, boat, whatever......... but because the Acura burned ONLY PREMIUM FUEL and the Honda regular gas, we decided to take a "hit" (loss), and a big one at that, and we traded-in the '03 Acura MDX on a 2007 Prius Touring. We kept the Honda CR-V (although no towing package) as it burns regular fuel and gets a little over 25 miles per gallon. Sure we bought the 2007 Toyota PRIUS for it's fuel economy, but it has certain "characteristics" that make it unique to what it is as does the Honda CR-V..... both totally different types of vehicles. Just last week I had to bring home 50 pieces of SOD (each about 16" x 24") and they all fit in the CR-V (thank God I had the "cargo liner" and laid down plastic sheets, what a mess !!) I use the CR-V as a sort of "pick-up truck" at times when I get bags of fertilizer, top soil, etc. Plus, if ever the event of a Hurricane hitting us here in Plant City, Florida, or just heavily flooded streets, the ground clearance on the Honda CR-V SUV is way taller than the Prius, thus we would try to "outrun" the storm in that vehicle.

In other words, TWO drivers, two different vehicles........ just that ONE is an SUV. After the Honda CR-V gets some more years and miles on it, we will probably trade THAT in on a HYBRID SUV or even the Toyota Highlander Hybrid !!

 

We will be trading in our '98 4Runner for her Prius. The truck was excellent and served us well, but we have no need for 2 SUV's in the family. We also have an Armada for towing the racecar and for family outings. That truck will sit in the driveway during the week.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaWen @ May 20 2007, 07:06 PM) [snapback]446333[/snapback]</div>

No doubt there are good reasons for having two different sizes of vehicles, and the CR-V is good as far as SUVs go. However, if you are part of a mass exodus during an evacuation, I'd rather take the Prius myself - if traffic is stop and go for hours and hours, the Prius will creep along on battery power when available, and shut down when gliding or stopped. So you could definitely outlast the SUVs, assuming you're leaving ahead of the storm. Once the storm hits, the CR-V would have advantages.

I had a Subaru Outback before the Prius, which I really liked. Also good at hauling stuff, and got about 25 mpg in decent conditions, but that was the lowest mpg of any vehicle I had had and never traveled in MN in winter as much as I thought I would. So when I was looking for a replacement, the Prius was a natural fit for me. Technically the Outback is a Sport Utility Wagon, not an SUV, so I'm not sure if I fall in this category. As a naturalist, I liked the SUV aspect of getting into rough country, plus it held the stuff my growing family needed, but my conservationist side never liked the MPG and emissions. Someday there will be hybrid 4wd matrix-type car, and that would really work for me. That and a small electric vehicle for running around town (max speed 50 mph would be plenty).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dnoh @ Apr 24 2007, 02:39 PM) [snapback]429152[/snapback]</div>

Wow... is English your primary language? I hope not, because if it is you are in dire need of a grammar check...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FloridaWen @ May 20 2007, 08:06 PM) [snapback]446333[/snapback]</div>

I feel your pain. Like I said, we needed something that would tow our boat, so the Audi was the car that was traded in on the Prius. Both the Mercedes and the Audi ran on premium, so we were going to get stuck one way or the other. To me, premium gas is a a $0.20 per gallon luxury tax that you pay every time you fill your tank.

Anyway, at some point, we will look into getting something that gets better mileage and will tow our boat. However, there really aren't any hybrids out there right now with that kind of towing capacity. What probably will happen is that we will keep the SUV for recreational use only and buy another hybrid for commuting, etc.

 

Personally, as long as they aren't driving an SUV and are driving a Prius, I think it's great. I wish more people would do the same.

 

Agreed with the previous posters that this is a very odd (drunken?) rant. I'm glad there are more hybrids on the road. People are seeing the light whether it's financial or environmental. I drove a Nissan Maxima, but I drive 70 miles per day. Getting a Prius was a no-brainer. Plus the hatchback gives me more room to haul stuff from Home Depot than the other car. I did NOT want an SUV, hybrid or no hybrid. My interest was financial rather than any particular concern for the environment (no, I'm not Republican either).

 

We miss our 1991 Explorer that we traded in, it was an extremely reliable vehicle, and a great vehicle to have as the weekend family vehicle. We could load it with almost anything and it was tough as nails, plus living in Ohio you never know how extreme the weather is going to be in the winter months and when you slipped it in 4 wheel drive it could handle even the worst snowfall, but that being said when my daily commuter car finally died on me, my best option was to trade it in so I could replace my car. I agree with your point it wasn't a necessity but that doesn't change the fact that it is a comfortable means of transportation. I am going to suggest that rather then rant and whine about the people who own SUV's because that is what they want to drive complain about how all the manufacturers are slow to further the development of efficient engines. As much as I hate to admit this GM is doing a few things right such as having their V-8 engines run off of 4 cylinders automatically when at highway speeds and only kicks in the other 4 when the power is needed. Or how the New Ford Edge uses a 6 speed automatic so that it is able to obtain 29 MPG highway even with a 3.5L engine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_6F_transmission
This is significant by the way, as our Explorer was only able to obtain about 17MPG and 20MPG in the very best conditions. To me this already represents about a 50 % improvement for a similar size and type of vehicle.

 

I traded my BMW, SUV for a Prius II. DOUBLE WHAMMIE. It was my third BMW and honestly, I thought something had to give.

I have a mild disability so the SUV was practical for me in the sense that cars that are lower to the ground are difficult for me. However I couldn't take it anymore. I really felt I should do my part, I had a chance to make the change (not everyone can change financially), so I did.

I'm only sorry that I didn't do it sooner!!!

GLASS HALF FULL MENTALITY WILL SERVE WHITENOISE WELL. C'MON JOIN THE CLUB 'YO.

 

We traded a Toyota Tundra for our Prius. That might seem like a really odd trade, but we used our Tundra for years working on some pretty significant home and landscaping projects, then just realized we didn't really need a truck any longer. Don't judge all truck drivers as evil; we actually used the heck out of our pickup, and loved our Tundra while we used it.

 

So I live in Sacramento too and I've got to say this city earns its place on the "Worst City To Drive In Because of Road-Raging Nut Jobs" list... I think we're still in the top 10. :lol:

Don't worry about the SUVs. Their owners already know the pain that vehicle is inflicting on them and it will only get worse, not better. The time will come when a decision has to be made about needing the theoretical capabilities of the vehicle or the money. I truly feel for the people that need the big trucks for work and those with big families because there is nothing to be done about how much that hurts the pocket book

In my case I sold my '00 ECHO (for almost 60% of it's "new" price) and bought a Prius which realized a moderate (~40%) MPG increase not to mention the Echo feels like a scary deathtrap at highway speeds while the Prius is quite Zen. Attempts are underway to convert a Ford Exploder driving family member into a Hybrid of some type, maybe an Escape Hybrid... B)

 

He took offense b/c you basically said you hated everyone who previously owned an SUV. Maybe you should have considered that more carefully before posting, since many of the people on this site used to own SUVs (myself included). My Nissan Murano got 20 mpg in the city. That's the same as most of the other sedans we considered, like the Nissan Maxima, Mazdaspeed 3, Subaru WRX wagon, etc. So it's not just SUVs that are sucking down the gas out there, there are a lot of sports sedans and other sport-oriented machines that are using a lot of gas too.