I hear you. Previous GTI and Jetta owner. Love the cars but not the repairs. Keep scouring the VW forums to find out where to take it. Independent for sure. As for the price in CT. That's a decent OTD price on a III. It should depend on how long you will be able to keep the Prius. I agree with one of the other posters that emissions equipment should still be under warranty unless you are up over the acceptable warranty mileage. Forgive me if you posted that. F8L makes a great point. For some reason I don't feel like driving like a jackass when I'm in my wife's Prius. The second I get back into my CLS55 I drive like a jackass again. There's something to trying to get that display show how efficient you are driving. I don't know if it's a "guy" gaming thing or what. Maybe it's the "environmentalist" pixie dust they sprinkle on the car before it leaves Japan but the car mellows me out.
Check the main forum page (*not* the top level home page), or go here: http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-house-pancakes/
I live next to you in Essex. So far I've been getting tanks at 65mpg (corrected) in my 2011 Prius, mainly thanks to highway trips to/from Boston. I used to be a speeder like you only worse: 80-85mph. But like F8L says: "The Prius has a magical ability that causes people to slow down and relax. I used to drive like a maniac in my high performance cars/trucks but when I drive the Prius I tend to drive slower (speed limit and not holding people up) and am more relaxed when I get to my destination as opposed to stressed out because of all the "idiots" on the road that were in my way." If you want I can show you how to do it. I'm very sorry to hear about the VW, I'm a huge fan of their TDI's and nearly bought a Jetta TDI Wagon instead of the Prius. It cost $2000 more than my Prius Two, so that and local mileage were the deciding factors.
