Will you still be happy with your Prius if gas gets cheap?

I think it's amusing and ironic that the Prius appears to be the only car on the planet you have to "justify" buying. Folks happily shell out $10-30 G's more for an SUV, and they don't appear to have to "justify" that.

I really do hope gas goes down to 80 cents a litre. I'm allowed to claim 58 cents a km for business use for my Prius. I'd REALLY clean up then!

 

Appropriate for the thread spirit –

I was looking for a good Bluetooth headset for my Moto V3 –
My PRIUS was the right color

 

Absolutely, positively. Check the sig.

The '06 was purchased because the girls got too tall for the rear seat (no rear head rests) in my wife's '97 Subaru with 60K miles. Not 1 thought to the price of gas and little to the fact that we could probably get a back seat from '98 that DID have headrests for a few hundred $$. She had driven me in my '04 for 2 weeks last year (I had eye surgery) and she wanted, no NEEDED, a PRIUS!

The only consideration I give to the MPG of the Prius (other than getting the highest I can ) is "Why o WHY can't the big 3 get their collective heads out of their a$$es"? Take, for example, the Smart Car. You can cram 2, yes count them TWO people inside. 0-60 in 15.5 seconds (the FAST turbocharged gas engine and no I am not a 'fastest is bestest' 0-60 bigot), top speed 86 (OK, can't legally go faster than 75 anywhere in the U.S. anyway), 5.3 cu ft of cargo space (yes THIS is important to me) and they STILL only claim a combined 40 MPG value unless you get the turbo diesel, then it is 60 MPG. HUH???

If a Prius that has 3X the cargo capacity, 2.5X the seating capacity has way more power and weighs nearly twice a much can get even the low end of the EPA numbers, that little POS should be getting 100 MPG on the gas engine! Other than being incredibly easy to park compared to anything on the road bigger than a motorcycle, this thing has NOTHING going for it.

The Big 3 talk up their flex fuel vehicles even though 85% ethanol isn't available in most of the country. Why? Because they get CAFE CREDITS for selling each one even if they NEVER see a drop of E85 and the effective CAFE actually goes DOWN because they use gasoline LESS efficiently than their non E85 equivilents. Green car article

There is no reason ANY vehicle for sale today does not shut down at stops. The Big 3 claim raising MPG and lowering pollution will cost several thousand $$ per vehicle. BS. They will spend more paying their lawyers to fight any increase in CAFE standards than it would cost to actually increase their fleet average. How much would they save if they just standardized everything they sold to meet the CA requirements instead of building to each state's minimum standard?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Sep 5 2006, 06:46 PM) [snapback]314796[/snapback]</div>

Sounds like someone has an attitude of entitlement. I say he is entitled to no more than a new pair of sneakers and a bus pass. Beyond that, he either earns the money to buy his own or the privilege of driving whatever you choose to give him. I did see in a later post you said the accidents were deemed not to be his fault, although unless he was stopped, he likely contributed either through lack of experience, or less than defensive driving. However, when my kids get there, you can bet they will lose their driving PRIVILEGE if:

• They get a moving violation
• Are reported to us by anyone we know that they are driving in a dangerous fashion
• Damage either Prii in any way
• Bitch about whatever we have for them to drive.

They can tell their friends their father is the BIGGEST AH in the world if they like but they WILL know that getting egged on my their friends to drive unsafely or illegally will cost them big time.

It is certainly true that what one earns will be MUCH more respected than what one is given.

 

when i got my prius gas here was around $1.60/gallon, and i was happy because i didnt have to gas up as much as if i bought a regular midsize (i was considering a camry back then), but when prices skyrocketed the past couple of years, i was not only happy, i was proud of the decision i made.

gas here in hawaii is down to $2.80 (costco), and still above $3 mark elsewhere, and yes i'm still happy with my prius!

 

I will be happy if gas prices go down to $2 a gallon. My PRIUS is 5 weeks old. I still will save money on gas and have a pretty neat car at the same time. High gas prices are killing the economy which effects all of our wallets. The only sad thing if gas prices go down is the "big gas hogs" which people are finally moving away from may come back.
Regards
Kurt

 

I will be really happy if gas was in the $1.50 range. It will cost me about 10 bucks to fuel up... and will be happy to have more long weekend time with my wife.

But will hate the next wave of SUV/PU I have to drive with in traffic. I remembered the early 2000s when 75% of the traffic consisted of SUV/PU... :angry:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bruceha_2000 @ Sep 12 2006, 01:36 PM) [snapback]318558[/snapback]</div>

I'm gonna print this one out for DH. In both accidents, my kid was deemed "at fault," hence the huge rise in our insurance. I WANTED to take the car away after #1, but was overruled. Oh man...there is SO much here I could go on a rant about, but I won't...It's about parenting styles even more than driving.

Stick to your guns, bruce--you won't do your kids any favors otherwise. You will make them better adults.

 

I thought I had already replied to this thread, but maybe not.

I would keep my Prius no matter which way the price of gas goes, and I would do so happily, because there's a 99.9% chance the price of gas will go up significantly while I own it.

That said, I sorely miss my "more exciting" cars I used to own. I had a WRX, a Boxster, a couple CRXs, and it was great fun mashing the pedal about town and hearing the engine roar as it pinned me to my seat. Eventually I got over it. I reember how much happier I was back then. Since I got my Prius I've really been unhappy with life in general. Don't get me wrong, the car is great, I just hate Alaska.

Now that I'm moving (again) I might have enough spare funds to put away for another Boxster, to only be driven on race weekends, due to the fuel cost. To bad I can't buy it for another 15 months.

 

Yes, I'll still be happy.
No matter how cheap gas is, Prius owners still buy and use less of it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Soylent @ Sep 5 2006, 11:07 AM) [snapback]314634[/snapback]</div>

Absolutely. On a recent trip to visit my daughter, we pulled into a gas station where we normally stopped to fill up. Well, we still pulled into the gas station but the only thing we filled up was ourselves. We picked up a snack and some drinks and then headed out the driveway. I might add that I replaced a supercharged Buick Regal GS with the Prius. WoW what a difference.

 

It doesn't matter what the gas price is, after driving my Prius for a month now I CAN'T drive another vehicle! I was driving our van and caught myself staring at the clock trying to figure out what speed I was going because it was the only digital numbers I could find.

 

just saw a blurb on the nightly news last night. experts predicting gas as low as $1.15 a gallon. pretty much assured us that it would be below $2 in 4-6 months.

talk about unadulterated BS manufactured by manufacturing companies that still have not figured out how to make something we are willing to buy despite the very publicly known methods of the most successful car company in the world.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Sep 15 2006, 07:10 AM) [snapback]320046[/snapback]</div>

I am still waiting for the $2.50 average that the experts were predicting for the Memorial Day weekend.... :angry:

 

There were many reasons to buy my Prius...gas savings was one, due to my 100 mile daily commute. I was overjoyed when I filled up yesterday for $2.19...I could have filled up for $2.09 at a no name place, but I don't trust their gas. Doesn't matter, I still filled up for less than $20.

I get paid milage for days I have to travel to the outlying units to visit with my officers and the current state rate is 44.5 cents a mile. Most of my trips pay more than for what it cost to fill up my car and I still have at least a half a tank left!! B)

 

I love the whole mileage reimbursement scam. We actually make money off our companies because our costs are so much lower than everyone else!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Soylent @ Sep 12 2006, 10:58 AM) [snapback]318357[/snapback]</div>

I didn't chose a Prius over any other car. I own 4 cars, including the Prius. The other cars are: two gas guzzlers (a Dodge Ram SRT10 and Durango), which get 10 and 14 combined mpg, respectively and a Toyota MR2 sports car, which gets 25-35 mpg depending on how fast I feel like driving it.

I bought a Prius in ADDITION to these cars because the cost of gas in the Durango (which is my daily driver) and the SRT10 (which like the MR2 is a toy) were killing me on regular 250 mile RTs that I take into the Sacramento Valley. :angry:

So, I bought the Prius to save on the cost of gas on long trips and have not regretted the decision a bit. That 250 mile trip now only "costs" me $20 in gas money in the Prius instead of the $35-75 it was costing me in the Dodge SUV and truck and, regardless of the vehicle I'm driving, any additional reduction in the cost of gas will be greatly appreciated.

And, finally, to answer your original question, I would still be happy w/the Prius (and the rest of my vehicles) if gas gets cheaper (as it has recently). In fact, after having driven it for awhile now, if I could only own one car, I would keep the Prius and get rid of all the others. Fortunately, I don't have to do that!!

 

ill still love it! I bought it due to its high tech!,great mpg,etc.I think after the elections prices will go up again.The prius is a statement that says oil isnt unlimited,we need to conserve.