I just bought one about 2 months ago. my old VW was on its last leg.

I really like it. so far I am very satisfied, except the fact mrs.arrison convinced me to get the wrong color: sand dune tan. almost gold. almost brown, but kind of mashed potatoes mixed with gravy. shoreline gold. the inside is the same color.

who cares about the color while averaging about 50 mpg?

there's no waiting list, and you can easily get several grand knocked off the msrp on a new one. do it.

one other thing: it is relaxing to drive. surprisingly roomy, quiet & comfy. i can't fit a ton of music equipment in the back, but it is bigger than it looks from the outside.

Conchis wrote:. I worry some about repair and maintenance once it's out of warranty.

Talk the dealer into giving you the extended warranty. I think it is 7 years on oil changes, filters, general maintenance and 9 or 10 years on the electric battery and electric drive train parts. this will jack up the price some, but the list of what's covered seemed just about everything if you include the standard warranty.

SecondEdition wrote:There are two drawbacks, one pretty minor and one not so minor:

It's only a ten-gallon tank. But it really lasts a damn long time.

It's not very good in snow. I don't know why, but it is really not very good in snow. There were at least a couple times this winter where my brakes just did not do their job, and I came close to having an accident. I'm not sure if this is due to how I drive or how the Prius drives, but there you go. I personally think it's the car.

yes, the gas fills at the pump are quick.

I have noticed that the brakes do this smart sensing anti-lock action thing where it seems like "oh FUCK I AM GONNA SLAM INTO....... oh.... Ok..nevermind" took me a while to get used to it, but it must have something to do with the fact the brakes charge the electric battery and there's this weird millisecond delay going on. I don't notice anymore unless I drive someone else's car for a while.

No big deal, it stops just as well as any other car, it just feels different on the OH SHIT GOTTA STOP QUICK kind of stops.

So expensive!

I've been eying the Yaris. $11K and gets 40 mpg highway.

gio wrote:I recall a Geo Metro model from the 90s that boasted 50 mpg. It flopped like a wet sock.

But it was a Geo, after all.

I had one in college, bought used for $3K in the mid-'90s when gas was 95¢ a gallon. $5 got me through the week, and I don't recall a road trip that cost more than $15. Three cylinders, 933cc displacement, 50 mpg, manual steering and light power brake assist so you could save additional gas by turning the car off while coasting downhill with full steering and braking. A set of tires cost $75 after tax. It was big enough inside that I could haul the trio I was in, plus equipment, to shows provided we all carried stuff on our laps. As light as it was, it never needed brakes in the 50K miles I had it.

But that was the good part. A good strong crosswind blew the car off its tack on the interstate. The engine screamed if you did anywhere close to 70 mph. It also blew 2-3 quarts of oil through the oil cap between oil changes, and eventually blew altogether at 100K miles. Somewhere along the line, the radiator cracked, although a $40 weld fixed it. The design was so unsafe that my insurance agent referred to it as "the coffin box."

Oh, and forget letting prospective girlfriends see it.

It was a good idea that couldn't have been more poorly executed.

not crap.

blind people, however, have a bit of a problem with them.

Wife and I drove one around the UK last year. took a week. London-Brighton-Bath-Stoke on Trent-Windemere-Glasgow-Edinburgh-Newcastle-Nottingham-Oxford-London. Filled up twice. 30 pounds each time.. amazing mileage, in dash sat-nav, ipod jack, cruising comfy at 70mph on motorways, traction and stability control on A roads. it was december and very cold.


NOT CRAP

The bass player in my band's parents just bought he and his sister each Priuses (they are 25 and 30... and have very awesome parents) and it seems like a pretty amazing car. It still hauls a portion of our gear, and I think he said he went something like 900 miles on 2 tanks of gas. When these first came out, I lived in Berkeley and they were going for 35-40K with a waiting list. Now they are about 21K. Pretty damn reasonable if you ask me.

Even more reasonable if someone gives you one, though.

Not crap, but a huge waffle factor for Toyota intentionally designing the car for cult status. The "losermobile" styling, and therefore stigma, of this car is intentionally conspicuous and polarizing. With the polar ice caps melting and oil pushing $180/bbl right now, we really don't have time for this shit, do we?

I'd like to see a blockbuster hybrid with mainstream appeal. A hybrid that will get people laid. It must necessarily get to that point for hybrids, or any other fuel-conserving tech, to really matter instead of being a sanctimonious "lifestyle" statement.

A "green" car geared exclusively toward enviros but alienating everyone else really won't do shit. Make red-state suburbanites want it, using fuel costs as a hook, and they'll trade in their Suburbans and make a sizable dent in the US carbon footprint.