Questions from a prospective Prius owner

Any other questions, matty ?

4) Evan Fusco wrote a very good overview. If you cannot find it here, hop over to greenhybid.com and look in the articles section.

6) Correct

5) I have read $800 under msrp

1) Very interesting question. If you care to query the database that IIHS uses for their reports, you could probably come up with relative benefit by month.

3) Few people have depth perception as poor as me, yet I reverse and parallel park without a lot of difficulty. Not with the ease I enjoyed with my Honda Civic after a couple of years of getting to know it, but OK.

Dealer Doc fees are junk fees. I ate a $100 fee when I purchased my Prius, and told the dealer to stuff them when I bought my Honda Civic.

All the best, and good luck !

 

You get my vote as "most prepared prospective Prius purchaser".

 

I don't know if pkg 4 comes with the CD player that plays mp3s, but what I do is copy my podcasts to a CD and play them from the CD player. Easier than using my mp3 player through the Aux audio port (I use that for my XM radio...).

fd

 

Personally, when I was going to buy a Prius for my daugther... I was only interested in Pkg #1 because of the safety feature of the side curtain airbags. However... I soon realized (like you are asking)... that VSC was a feature that dramatically improved safety... so #4 became my target.

Then I was torn about the HID headlights... but decided that I probably would not go that far... even though it was a safety consideration. Then at the last minute... I found a dealer that would sell me a Pkg #8 in time for Christmas... so I went with the entire enchilada rather than just wrapping a sales brochure and placing it under the tree.

Bottom line... I think #4 is the sweet spot for someone who is interested in safety.

/Jim

 

My 2 cents as a new owner:

You got it. No one knows how accurate $3150 is, but I haven't heard any other numbers flung around recently. The most it could possibly be would be $3400. You are probably good for the full credit through 3 quarters of 06 at least, from what I've read. For it to end after the 2nd quarter Toyota would have to sell 60000 Prii in this quarter alone. I doubt their production is that high, even if demand is.

Good luck!

 

adopt me plz

 

I wouldn't be willing to pay anything above dealer cost on these items.
Processing the sale is what the built in profit margin over MSRP is for after all.

 

I'll DEFINATLY 2nd that!!! Never really though it was a big deal until I decided to get Package #7 and it came along with it. LOVE IT!! I don't think I could have a car without it now B)

 

I like it and it is really cool but, if it weren't for my wife and the fact that I'd have had to wait longer for a factory order, I'd have rather saved the money than have purchased this.
Different folks value different things differently.

 

I agree completely with you about ABS, I don't want a car without it either. Extra air bags, good crash test scores, etc are a different matter, they are things which might, or might not, help you survive a crash. But ABS and VSC are designed to help you avoid an accident to start with, a philosophy I agree with wholeheartedly. But does VSC actually work? Well it's never saved me because I've never been in a situation with my Prius where it was required. I have seen it work because I have tried it, on both dry pavement and in ice and snow. I can say it works pretty much as advertised, it uses the individual wheel brakes and decreases throttle input to keep the car from sliding as much as it might otherwise. A trained racing driver under controled conditions could most likely get the car to handle better without it, and some high performance sports cars have a switch to shut their VSC off. But for most of us, including me, I think it could help under some conditions. It is something you pay quite a bit extra for and hope you will never need. I got it as part of a package (pkg 4 in 2005) and that package included some other things I definately wanted, such as HID headlights, so I have VSC by default. I can honestly say I don't mind having it and some day I might be glad I do, but I hope not.

 

Doc fees are crap. If the dealer wants to charge a doc prep fee let them know the deal is dead. As for state fees, call your stats motor vehicle department or department of licensing and as them what their fees are for the purchase of a new vehicle. They will tell you.

 

Having won first-prize in the most uninformed prius purchaser category--I second this. Excellent thread to direct prospective buyers to.

 

Would that be an MP4?

 

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Wish I could have found a dealer like that.
Tried to work with 3 and the best of them didn't manage even to deliver exactly what was promised.
I don't think thoughts of return business were prominent in their consciousnesses.

 

Don't ignore cruise control. In my area there are now long stretches of country roads with a 30 MPH speed limit. It can often be difficult to keep to 30 and recently I was fined £60 ($100) for allegedly doing 37 (caught by what the police called a "mobile camera"). So now I switch on cruise control in a long 30 MPH stretch and I've noticed this improves MPG.