Pre-Prius Days

1999 Taurus

She gave me 70K good miles on top of the 70K she had when I got her.

I had no plans to buy a new car until I filled the Taurus up with what
turned out to be bad gas.

I didn't know it at the time, but hanging out in the sleet/snow waiting
on the tow truck got me mad enough to enter the market.
:angry:
So I got a Prius and $350 from the filling station.

I feel like fate smiled on me that day.

 

I gave up my Toyota Corolla. Great car, I think it may have been a bit of a lemon, though. Also, I got tired of driving stick shift when I took an outside sales job.

 

I gave up my 02 Nissan Maxima... boo hoo. I miss that car still as it was a pleasure to drive (on the highway, but NOT on the twisties). It had a smooth ride, was relatively quiet and had PLENTY of power. Oh well, a single guy doesn't need THREE cars.

 

1997 Camry - all of my cars have been Toyotas and based on my experience, they always will be.

 

We gave up a 2004 Buick Rendezvous - very cushy ride, soft comfortable seats (my conscience keeps reminding me I can put up with a sore butt) and a 2005 Pontiac Vibe. Yes, we bought 2 in a week!!

 

We traded in a 2000 Avalon. Great car. We picked a good time to trade, got top trade in allowance, Prius discounted, still should get a decent tax credit and a tax rebate from Pa. I was a little concerned about the sludge problem with the 2000 Avalon. Toyota's free extended engine warranty ran out on us. Even though we maintained the car very well, I was worried that the engine might fail in the future.

 

Traded in 95 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4x4 getting 13 mpg was a no brainer miss the offroad cause it took us anywhere. but love the prius even more.

 

Sold a 98 Mercedez E class to get the Prius.

Went from 20 MPG (with super unleaded) to 43 MPG (with regular).

Plus we saved a bundle on repair / maintenance costs since getting rid of the Benz.

 

Traded in a 2007 Nissan Versa, and driving off the lot with less emissions in my wake was the happiest day of my life.

 

Hi All,

I had been exposed to Hybrid cars in college. One of the professors had converted Chevy Vega. In some of my Ham Radio activities after college, I was exposed to the electric car conversion group - Fox Valley Electric Vehicle Asociation. We built some of the antennas for our packet network in the shop that the FVEVA also did some of their conversion work. But, using brush motors to run cars did not really excite me. The brushless DC motor revolution had yet to happen, and the motor of choice was the one from the turbine aircraft starter pack. I asked if anybody had considered the Hybrid car concept, and was met with some negativity. So, I never became active with the FVEVA.

Time went on and I was driving a Ford Tempo(rary). Which it litterally was. Turned out that the problem was the fuel pump, previous owner apparently ran the tank close to dry too often, and that caused a situtation where the pump would begin to loose power after about 1 hour of driving. It even stalled out in the toll booth line once! Luckily, after 10 minutes it restarted and I got through the booth. Eventually I debugged the thing, by taking the same side-road route home each day, and noticing where it started to get iffy. On one real bad day, I pulled it into a forest preserve parking lot near where it started to ack up, and got the DTC's out of it (blinking light system). For the first time it gave a fuel pressure failure. So, I took it to a Ford dealership and told them this. They insisted on replacing the ignition module, even after I told them I had done that already, and it had no effect. When they called up and said it did not fix the problem, I told them to replace the fuel filter, and they said that would be $200 please. The filter did not fix it either. . So the next day , a Saturday, I drove out and got a fuel pump, pulled the gas tank out of the car, replaced it and took off for a long drive. Everything was perfect. So, I am nearing home after a 2 hour drive, and think to myself, this is too good to be true, one more loop around town just to be sure. The next stop light I pulled out and puttt putt put, stall! And a very big smell of gas. Got the car pushed off into a strip mall parking lot, and popped the hood. The Ford Dealership Mechanic had not secured the fuel filter hoses onto the filter properly, and one had popped off! Snapped it back on, and the fuel system was fixed. The car still had repeated alternator failures. Including walking 3 miles in 2 degree weather with the old alternator in my backpack to the car parts store, coming back and putting the new one in, and another time stranded out on a rural road, having my brother bring me a new alternator, just in time to install it while a Harley Davidson parade went buy. You know those Harley's are somewhat loud when they are cruising by 3 feet next to your head!

Well, through all this trial and tribulation, I formulated a plan. The next car would be a Saturn SL2 and after that my next car would be a Hybrid. I figured after 10 years of owning the Saturn, Hybrids would happen. Especially with the onset of IGBT (ten years prior) and the batteries in the EV1, and computers. I actually had not heard about the Prius at this time (1999). And thought GM would bring out the first Hybrid. When I heard of the new Saturn - the Ion - I said to myself " that must be the hybrid, yeh! " . But NO!

So, after the Tempo steering became dangerous, the rack mounting holes became slotted, and the beam it was mounted on would cost $2000 to repair. And after being pulled over by the State Troopers who thought I was drunk, due to the jerky nature of the steering, it was apparent a new car was needed! Good thing I pulled off to the left, as the rooky trooper came up so fast behind me as I stopped behind a line of traffic around a blind curve, he just barely was able to stop without hitting those cars, pulling to the right in my lane. All I saw was some yahoo approaching at a high rate of speed, and no where for him to go. They were in an unmarked car. After ten minutes of questioning, they had another more urgent call, and let me go. Apparently this was the friday night drunk-patrol.

As things worked out, I only had the Saturn for 5 years, and although a nice car, it did have lockup torque-converter problems (another can't get going out of the Toll Booth episode) and uncompensated-for apparent intake manifold design flaw, and a wheel bearing repair. Saturn dealer service is first rate, however.

The Prius is so much above all this crap. Thank You Toyota!

 

I gave my 98 Cavalier (with 67K miles) to my daughter so she could stop driving her 94 Olds Cutlass Ciera around rural northern Wisconsin & worrying me to death. I had planned to buy a new car in a year or two anyway & because my son drives a Civic Hybrid, I had decided to look into hybrids. I test drove a Prius & never looked at the Civic. So I just accelerated my plans a little for my kids. Once a Mom, always a Mom!

 

2003 Honda Pilot, a Gas Guzzling SUV.

 

2000 Echo. Great car that was starting on its last legs.

 

A '99 Jeep Wrangler, and the feeling of comradery when Jeep drivers waved to each other. Why can't Prius drivers acknowledge each other (I've tried waving, but nobody waves back)?

I also had an EV, a Geo Metro which I converted myself.

 

I traded in my Nissan Xterra. What a great terrific SUV, and as SUV's go, it wasn't that bad on gas, about 18 mpg on the highway. As a 4 wheel drive it was good in the snow, good front to rear weight ratio, never ever even came close to getting stuck.

But, we just couldn't justify only me and my wife driving in to work each day, a 40 mile round trip, and using that much gas. The final straw came on a tank of gas last summer when gas was over $3.00 per gallon, and we got about 13 mpg on a tank. We drove right into the Toyota dealer and ordered our silver pine mica, and we've never looked back.

Now, to be totally honest, the next day after taking delivery of our Prius, we bought a Nissan Frontier 4x4. Here in the mountains 4x4 is a necessity, and we like to experiment with our own landscaping ideas, so we like having a truck. The Frontier is a nice truck and is rated at 21 mpg, not great, but not terrible either. As of now, we have 14,900 miles on the Prius and 3000 miles on the truck.. B)

 

Didn't really give up anything, still have a NSX for fun. I use the Prius for my work car. The NSX is for sale and will likely be replaced by a Porsche or MBZ.

 

2003 Honda Odyssey. Very nice handling car for a minivan, but we had less need for a minivan as my kids have gotten older. When I looked at our driving habits, I found that it was just me most of the time in the 17 mpg van. Since we also have a Honda Pilot, we still have the people mover we need when the whole family is together.

I got interested in hybrids in November, 2005 when Civic-shopping for my daughter, but went with a regular Civic back then. I looked at the Prius in February & found that it was a great time to buy, with 0% financing & a large inventory at the three Toyota dealers in the 25 mile radius of my house. I like the interior room advantage it had over the Civic. One of the dealers was ready to negotiate on price, so the Odyssey is history.

 

2005 Jeep Wrangler... we bought the Prius to get better gas mileage and to do our bit to save the planet.