Prius... that word just makes me giggley nowadays. I thought I bought a kind of unique colored vehicle. Come to find out months later, other red Prius'i appearing around as I travel. (Lots of silvers to make up for the multiple reds I've seen.) I've conversed with a few folks about my new toy. Some who were planning on buying one for sure, quite a few who were just curious about mileage, and just recently an owner of a red '06 Prius, that I parked mine next to, just for giggles.

I am really lovin' mine *got it July '07*. We went to the Toyota dealer and just wanted to see one of these "hybrid" car thingies, and they happened to have 2 of them. A black one with very summer hot leather seats and all the 'spensive features, and then the "Barcelona Red" one that I got, without the fancy shmancy stuffs, but roomy enough I could get mom to sit back there and still have plenty of leg room, which I think was one of the things that sold me, not just the gas saving part. (ps. My other vehicle, my first love, a White Ford XLT '99 Ranger, isn't a major gas guzzler, but it was still getting fueled often enough.) Turns out I got my Prius within a certain date range, so I did get some government refund on my taxes. If it had been September (I think) there would have been none.

Mentally to myself, I compare drivin' my Prius to playing the old sit down arcade version of Pole Position, with the low/high gear shift. I never could learn to maneuver a real stick shift+clutch. But the simplicity of the regeneration brake thing is the highlight of the drive, pretty much. I use it often to coast, instead of the braking, and then eventually the brake, combined you can stop quicker, and smoother. (It's also really great for slick ice, I avoided sliding through quite a few sneaky black ice patches, where the anti-lock system was kicking in, but by throwing it into regen brake mode, on top of braking, was actually able to roll to a stop on ice. Found me a nice iced up parking lot to practice on. Try and put the car into swerves, etc.)

I think the only thing I ended up having issues with was getting it out of a bad snow parking job I did. (Dang passenger side driver said, park it in the unplowed driveway, not on the road. Then changed her mind.) Let's just say that, Putting it in Neutral and pushing does NOT HAPPEN. Putting it in Reverse and pushing, DOES NOT HAPPEN. You get the front end of this baby stuck, Make sure to have cat litter, towels, or some other thing to get traction with. Kuz that baby is planted! No amount of rocking Forward/Reverse could wiggle it loose. (We were fortunate a lady from the neighborhood stopped and asked if we needed help. She went back to her place and got Towels! /boggle... Absolute learning experience. It took awhile, but we got 'em under the tires and the vehicle out.)

Mine is now a year old (24th I believe) and only seen the Toyota Service place 3 times, IIRC. (2 oil change/maintenances, and 1 for the Simonizing.) Yeah, my mileage varies, since I don't hafta do commute stuff, but we have done a ton more distance traveling than my truck will ever see.

I prolly coulda done more research on the Prius. Personally I have not heard of bugs or problems. (I don't quite recall there being many if any downsides in the Consumers Report mag.) I do wish I had a bluetooth enabled phone to hook up to it, but all in all, I'se a happy gal, and enjoyin' the 40-50 mpg in the summer. (30'ish in winter, but I regen more watts from friction/traction. And not many people complain about only getting 30mpg, just me.)

It's like the boyfriend I never had :oops: . Push the right button *plus brake* to turn it on. :mrgreen:
And now I've said too much... /Disappear
whoops, wrong button... try that again...

I do ride my bike to work and it's frequently 95-105 with a headwind but I only have 2.5 miles. ;)

Plus it took me 10 minutes to walk to my car and it takes me 10 minutes to ride home.... I spend just as much time in the heat or rain so what difference does it really make in the end?

I switched to biking because there's no way I'm heading to a gym. I'm way too lazy and enjoy playing games a lot more than running in place. And in the end, the gas crunch has just reconfirmed that I made a good choice.

I drive a 1980 ford f250.... costs me $30 a day in gas to get to work and back :(

*but I'm currently unemployed so it hasn't left the driveway in a couple days :lol:*

America as a whole is on the brink of change due to the fuel issue. Here in California (and I'm sure lots of other parts of the States) many drive 30-90 minutes to work and then again home. It used to be normal here. But suburbs are going to dry up into foreclosure ghost towns as people find they can't afford to live there anymore. Urban housing is going to go through the roof.

One of my co-workers was racking up over $750 in gas bills a month. She went out and bought a new sub-compact and even with the car payment and insurance, she's saving $400/month now.

Ridiculous!

I used to inspect those. They were shipped to my facility from the factory and they could not leave the lot until I released them. Ahh, the power to hold all Toyota's and Lexus's from being shipped to dealerships, how fun. And hopefully the kinks will be worked out by the time you need to look for another vehicle.