Yes it is true - I drive a Toyota Prius. It is hard to not be smug (South Park was right) when we're getting over 50 mpg around the city. Really! My wife and I bought the Prius last year, March 2007 as the last of the US tax incentives were being handed out for the Toyota Prius. You can't get a tax incentive for the Prius anymore. But you can get tax incentives for alternative fuel cars other than the Prius from the feds. Make sure you check with Honda, Toyota (Highlander), Ford, Saturn and the other car manufacturers that have gotten into the alternative fuel car game.
Perhaps you just finished reading my Prius Test Drive story. If not, I just gave you think for it. Go back and read it if you want to read about my test drive. I left off in the story where my wife and I were out to dinner when the Toyota sales manager came to where my wife and I were having dinner to drop off our new Prius. I was impressed with her customer service and told everyone at her dealership what a great job she did for us.
Owning a Prius One Year Later
It has been a year since we got the car. At first it really was my car. In fact my wife still refers to the Prius as my car even though she now drives it to work everyday. Since I work at home as a mortgage broker, a daddy to a beautiful daughter, and Internet Marketer I do not need the car that much anymore. In the beginning she wasn't sure about the looks of the car and did she want to show up at her work in one. Now today though she proudly drives it to her office. I think her smile gets bigger as gas prices continue to climb.
Immediate Gas Savings
Like I wrote in the My Test Drive article, I had a BMW 325i that the Toyota Prius replaced. Immediately, it got double the gas mileage which saved us about $150/mo given all the driving I was doing that time with my job. This was pre baby and when I was still working out of an office. When my wife started driving the car full time, our gas bill dropped again. This time we saved another $150 by dropping her gas bill in half. Now today, with me being able to work from home and her driving the Prius we spend a little under $100 on gas for the whole month. Where before we got the Prius we were spending at least $200 for me and another $250 for her.
Does The Prius Cost More Because It Is A Hybrid?
I'm not sure how to answer this question. I think in hindsight we might have paid a little more on the car than we could have. We got the 10 year/100,000 mile extended warranty for an extra $2,000. I don't know if we needed to. Many people I have told about this suggest that we got taken. However, our line of thinking is that the Prius are still a relatively new car and haven't had that long of a time to be really tested so the extended bumper to bumper warranty might do us some good in this case.
We might have also paid a little too much for the same type of car in another brand or even for another Toyota. We're not really sure. And at this point we don't care much anymore. What we know is that over the course of just one year we have saved well over $2,500 in gas maybe more. If we own the car another year we should have all of our money back that we might have over spent. We also haven't had any maintenance problems and the oil gets changed every 5,000 miles per the dealer specs.
One other thing we did was to take the money that we got for the BMW and payoff my wife's car which had a payment around $485 per month. When we got the Prius we put nothing down on it and our payments are at $495 month. We also had a reduction in our insurance because of the Toyota's ratings and because we no longer owed money on my wife's car. So for what it is worth, we're paying $10 per month more but we save a great deal at the gas pump.
Additional Things We Like About Our Prius
- For starters, for me - I'm super excited that my wife likes the car now. I still kid her about calling it my car. There isn't a week that goes by where I get a call from my wife on her way to or from work telling me how happy she is that we got the Prius. I'm happy because she's happy.
- The Prius is a hatchback. We just completed a huge remodel on our home and for weeks - I mean weeks we were shopping at every hardware store in the Phoenix area looking at light fixtures, sinks, faucets, granite tile, paint, furniture etc. We would leave home and three hours later come home with the hatchback part of the car filled with remodelling stuff.
- With a baby, it is very easy to put the stroller in the back and access in and out of the back seat with the baby car seat is a breeze because there is plenty of room in the back seats. In fact, my wife and I have taken several 3-4 trips for quick weekend get aways and I sit in the back next to the baby. I have a lot of room for my legs with the front seat pushed forward a bit.
- Another thing we like is the turning radius. Neither of us has ever had a car that maneuvers as well as the Prius. The car is so easy to get around in parking lots and other tight places.
- We also love the Prius for the idea that we're not using as much gas which ultimately makes some difference for the environment and in the world in terms of the supply of gasoline.
- And the last thing that we love about our Prius is uh - did I mention - gas mileage? Yep it really is over 50 miles per gallon.
Okay, the point of this article series is not to smug at all . More, this article is reaching out to anyone who has thoughts and questions about the Toyota Prius in terms of likes and dislikes to help address those concerns. As far as we can tell this is one car worth standing in line to get.
