Buying a Prius Is a Lot Like Buying A Wii

Message

trevor_macfee · #1 Post by **trevor_macfee** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:08 am

Because my wife drives more than 50 miles each way to work each day, and because both of our cars have 140K+ on them, we decided that a Prius would make sense for us.

We contacted just about every Toyota dealer in the area, and were told by most of them that there would be a wait of 8 weeks to 6 months(!) depending on what we wanted, etc. There was one place that had a couple of Priuses in stock, but they added a $5000 premium to the sticker price. No way.

Two days ago, my wife happened to call a dealer near where she works, and they had just had a Prius come available when someone changed their mind. It wasn't the color or the exact options we wanted, but she put down deposit. Yesterday, I test drove it and we now own a Silver Prius. No negotiation from what was on the sticker, but no surprise with supply and demand being what they are.

The good news for me is that I get to upgrade to the Matrix that she was driving, which even with 140-some thousand miles on it is better than the dented 7-year old car that I was driving.

By the way, after less than 24 hours so far I love the Prius - it is deceptively (from the outside) roomy inside. It will be great to be able to take it on vacation next month when we drive to the midwest and back.

The Prius shortage does remind me of when we decided to buy a Wii last year and finally found one after a few weeks of searching. I can only hope that we feel as good about the Prius purchase as we do about getting the Wii.

sunflower · #2 Post by **sunflower** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:10 am

Come to CT! The dealership near my gym has about 30 on the lot!

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #3 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:13 am

Congratulations!

gsabc · #4 Post by **gsabc** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:15 am

I am tempted to get myself in the queue for a Prius, even though we're not really in the market. My commute is mostly all highway, and the new 2009 Corolla (with its 0% financing) is getting 37-plus mpg, better than the 2001 Civic. GW, however, travels mostly side roads on her commute (avoiding the highway route; she HATES rush hour traffic!). Her drive would be better able to take advantage of the hybrid technology. We're not quite ready to get rid of her Accord, though, with its spacious storage and transport space. Maybe once BD is out of the house and we don't have things to schlep to the wedding or need the luggage space for a family of four or three ...

kayrharris · #5 Post by **kayrharris** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:16 am

I like happy endings.

Bob Juch · #6 Post by **Bob Juch** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:21 am

Trevor,

If your wife is driving 50 miles to work, she's probably doing most of that on a highway. If so, a Prius won't give her better gas milage and will probably be worse than a normal vehicle.

trevor_macfee · #7 Post by **trevor_macfee** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:25 am

Bob Juch wrote:Trevor,

If your wife is driving 50 miles to work, she's probably doing most of that on a highway. If so, a Prius won't give her better gas milage and will probably be worse than a normal vehicle.

A lot of her driving at the beginning and the end of the trip is stop and go. So is the highway at rush hour as well, and the driving that she does once she gets to work. Before we decided on a Prius, we took that into consideration and even if we don't save at highway speeds we'll definitely save gas.

Also, the folks I've spoken to who own Priuses are getting 40-45 highway (according to the readout thing on the Prius we got 43.5 driving back home last night). Certainly better than our other "normal" vehicles (the Matrix gets about 30-35, the old Protege gets about 30).

Thanks though.

kayrharris · #8 Post by **kayrharris** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:31 am

Trevor, you're nicer than I would have been.

How long does it take her to drive that far everyday? I only go 4 miles to work and complain about that!

I would think highway driving was better gas mileage on any type vehicle. I drive a large SUV with diesel engine. I get 25-28 when I do any highway driving and still average about 20 in town.

Bob Juch · #9 Post by **Bob Juch** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:50 am

trevor_macfee wrote:
Bob Juch wrote:Trevor,

If your wife is driving 50 miles to work, she's probably doing most of that on a highway. If so, a Prius won't give her better gas mileage and will probably be worse than a normal vehicle.
A lot of her driving at the beginning and the end of the trip is stop and go. So is the highway at rush hour as well, and the driving that she does once she gets to work. Before we decided on a Prius, we took that into consideration and even if we don't save at highway speeds we'll definitely save gas.

Also, the folks I've spoken to who own Priuses are getting 40-45 highway (according to the readout thing on the Prius we got 43.5 driving back home last night). Certainly better than our other "normal" vehicles (the Matrix gets about 30-35, the old Protege gets about 30).

Thanks though.

You're fine then.

My commute is about 50 feet so I don't have to worry about that.

earendel · #10 Post by **earendel** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:24 am

Just a couple of words of warning to trevor and gsabc regarding Prii (the plural of Prius):

In order to get the 50+ MPG that Toyota advertises, you have to take advantage of the reactive braking feature (trevor knows what I'm talking about) and always drive at or below the posted speed limit. My darling elwing has many virtues but obedience to speed laws isn't one of them, consequently our in-town mileage is only around 45 MPG.

Also, be aware that come winter your MPG will drop significantly because the heater runs off the gas engine, thus causing it to be in use more. In Louisville, where the winters are fairly mild and elwing and I are willing to dress warmly and not use the heater as much, our MPG goes down to around 36-38; in colder climes it may go even lower.

YMMV, of course.

danielh41 · #11 Post by **danielh41** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:19 pm

I went to a local dealer here and test drove the one Prius demo that they had available. I decided right then that I wanted one, so I put a deposit down. That was on May 5th. I just got the call today that my Prius has arrived. I'll be heading straight to the dealership from work in about three and a half hours.

#12 Post by **Bob78164** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:10 pm

Bob Juch wrote:Trevor,

If your wife is driving 50 miles to work, she's probably doing most of that on a highway. If so, a Prius won't give her better gas milage and will probably be worse than a normal vehicle.

That's certainly not the case for my Prius, which I've owned for three years. I get better mileage on the highway than I do in stop-and-go traffic, and in all conditions I have averaged more than 45 miles per gallon. Even my Ford Festiva didn't get mileage that good. --Bob

danielh41 · #13 Post by **danielh41** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 8:44 pm

I picked up the car today. It had a total of 2 miles on the odeometer when I drove it off the lot. I love that new car smell!

MarleysGh0st · #14 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 4:56 am

danielh41 wrote:I picked up the car today. It had a total of 2 miles on the odeometer when I drove it off the lot.

Congratulations!

danielh41 wrote:I love that new car smell!

Most expensive fragrance in the world, they say.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #15 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:09 am

While Maddie was working, I went to the mall. There was a huge line wrapped around the mall and I couldn't figure out what it was for. (It's not my usual mall.)

I followed the line around and ended up at the Apple Store. Apparently some new better, faster iPhone came out yesterday.

ulysses5019 · #16 Post by **ulysses5019** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:37 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:While Maddie was working, I went to the mall. There was a huge line wrapped around the mall and I couldn't figure out what it was for. (It's not my usual mall.)

I followed the line around and ended up at the Apple Store. Apparently some new better, faster iPhone came out yesterday.

I thought it was a line at 7-11.

kayrharris · #17 Post by **kayrharris** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:24 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:While Maddie was working, I went to the mall. There was a huge line wrapped around the mall and I couldn't figure out what it was for. (It's not my usual mall.)

I followed the line around and ended up at the Apple Store. Apparently some new better, faster iPhone came out yesterday.

The new I-Phone is about $100 cheaper than the first one, & more user friendly, but from what I've read it still has a lot of kinks to work out.

TheCalvinator24 · #18 Post by **TheCalvinator24** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 9:54 am

kayrharris wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:While Maddie was working, I went to the mall. There was a huge line wrapped around the mall and I couldn't figure out what it was for. (It's not my usual mall.)

I followed the line around and ended up at the Apple Store. Apparently some new better, faster iPhone came out yesterday.
The new I-Phone is about $100 cheaper than the first one, & more user friendly, but from what I've read it still has a lot of kinks to work out.

The service plans are more expensive, though.

AT&T subsidized the cost of the 3G iPhone, so the phones are cheaper to the consumer, but the overall cost will be more in the long run.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #19 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 1:39 pm

ulysses5019 wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:While Maddie was working, I went to the mall. There was a huge line wrapped around the mall and I couldn't figure out what it was for. (It's not my usual mall.)

I followed the line around and ended up at the Apple Store. Apparently some new better, faster iPhone came out yesterday.
I thought it was a line at 7-11.

We didn't make it to 7-11 at all yesterday. It's the first time in many years that we didn't do a Slurpee tour.

MarleysGh0st · #20 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:25 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:We didn't make it to 7-11 at all yesterday. It's the first time in many years that we didn't do a Slurpee tour.

Awwwwww!

Are you finally growing up?

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #21 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 9:44 am

MarleysGh0st wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:We didn't make it to 7-11 at all yesterday. It's the first time in many years that we didn't do a Slurpee tour.
Awwwwww!

Are you finally growing up?

Well, Maddie went to work and was tired and Emma didn't want to waste the gas, so there was no point in going.

MarleysGh0st · #22 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:19 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:
MarleysGh0st wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:We didn't make it to 7-11 at all yesterday. It's the first time in many years that we didn't do a Slurpee tour.
Awwwwww!

Are you finally growing up?
Well, Maddie went to work and was tired and Emma didn't want to waste the gas, so there was no point in going.

There's no question that the girls are growing up, but I think there was a time when you wouldn't have let that stop your fun.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #23 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:33 am

MarleysGh0st wrote:
PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:
MarleysGh0st wrote: Awwwwww!

Are you finally growing up?
Well, Maddie went to work and was tired and Emma didn't want to waste the gas, so there was no point in going.
There's no question that the girls are growing up, but I think there was a time when you wouldn't have let that stop your fun.

I don't know what it is, but I have been really tired lately. I have taken naps three days in a row. This morning I woke up feeling hot, despite the fact that the fan was going. I turned on the A/C and Jeff told me that it was cold enough upstairs.

SportsFan68 · #24 Post by **SportsFan68** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 11:48 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: I don't know what it is, but I have been really tired lately. I have taken naps three days in a row. This morning I woke up feeling hot, despite the fact that the fan was going. I turned on the A/C and Jeff told me that it was cold enough upstairs.

Is there any West Nile virus in your area?

That probably sounded screamingly presumptuous, Jeff being a doctor and all.

Sorry.