Anyone here drive a Hybrid car?
 

I'm buying a new car and with the gas prices the way they are, I can't help but look at the Hybrids. Specifically the Toyota Prius.

Anyone have one? Have you heard good/Bad things?

lady in my apartment bldg traded in her porsche 911 for a prius, no joke! she loves it...everytime i see her the first month she had it, she would talk about it. she claims she is averaging in the mid 50mpg.... and pays $75 less at the garage since its not a premium car lol

they have great deals on them in NY... not sure about your area

I am on my second Prius .. best car i have ever purchased!!!! I dont think i will ever buy another car at this point.

Megan

I bought my Prius back in November, there is not one thing I don't like about it. It rides very smoothly and you can't even hear it running. I had to get mine fully loaded, NAV, Sirius, Bluetooth, B/U cam, and Homelink! I would highly recommend you getting one. :)

the pro-car I had on call at the Phoenix Forum was a hybrid Prius .. and i was VERY impressed .. could easily be one of our next cars

Do you find that you save enough on gas to justify the extra cost?

plz someone correct me if i am wrong but i read an article a few weeks back about Prius and cost and vs comparable cars...teh average driver will only save approx. $1,500 in gas a year. so if u r planning on buying a honda civic you would probably take about 3 years to break even due to the cheaper price tag of teh civic. but if you are looking at buying other cars that are approx $22k to $24k, than you will really be saving money since the other cars will not get the same MPGs....

plus, keep in mind, the prius is actually roomy and comfortable inside, its not like sitting inside a small toyota yaris....

I know a few people with Prius' they have only said good things.

I think they bought it for the comfort of knowing they are driving a Hybrid and not for the savings in gas tho..

They are great cars, and yes you will save a lot in gas money. They are scary to work on though.

Another factor is that with the gas prices on the rise, we can expect Hybrids to hold thier resell value much better. Not to mention the government tax rebates (here in canada)

their so ugly tho

Funny you mention that. I was talking to a friend who works at toyota and he says the same thing.

prius is a good way to go. i dunno about 50+ mpg but if you drive normally you shouldnt have a problem getting in the mid 40s.

another plus about the prius is its very inconspicuous. No police attention what so ever.

I bought the 2008 Toyota Highlander with the Hybrid a few months back and love it. I had issue with an old Toyota and had vowed never to buy another Toyota or an SUV for that matter.

Stopped by to talk to my buddy who sells them and bought one on the spot.

I have a friend who drives a Prius and gets 51 MPG. I'm happy to be driving around with plenty of storage space while still getting 30+ with the Highlander.

The Camry Hybrid is nice too. It's only a few grand more than the Prius and gets almost 35 MPG.

Not yet, but they make more sense with every passing day.

yes.. prius, best investment ever.. bought it used out of state and brought it to california and got the carpool stickers immy... this was 2 years ago. still runs great and saves my ass all the time fighting the LA traffic jams...i keep passing these big bmw's / porches / maseratis etc while the are going 5 mph, i am doing 80 in the carpool lane..sweet.

45 mpg since i got it (never reset the computer)... and you are so right, my prius looks so lame, i have never even been stopped in it..and you get free parking in LA and santa monica etc..

No but I want one

I wouldn't mind to give a hybrid car a test drive

pssh, prius? All the cool kids are preordering the Tesla Roadster now a days...

pssh, tesla? Old news. The REALLY cool kids are preordering Fiskers, baby

07 civic hybrid owner here... My vote would be NO if you drive "normal" distances. I for 1 drive 750 miles a week so its worth it for ME.

From the standpoint of purchasing right now? tax credits are disappearing and there's much better gas mileage cars about a year away. I for one will be going after that VW Golf/Rabbit diesel hybrid whenever it finally comes around.

If I were you I would simply get what you can for CASH (~$7k?) and DEAL WITH IT for a year or 2. The current generation of hybrids will TANK in value when the 80MPG vehicles roll out the shitty 50MPG simply won't be enough.

Also think about your SPEED if you drive 60MPH everywhere you go you'll get the advertised 50MPG on the nice days. Cold weather will TANK your gas mileage and so will running the AC. In my civic hybrid when I drive 80MPH everywhere I get 38-40MPG There are some normal vehicles out there that can hold almost 30MPG at those speeds so think about your driving before purchasing. If you're OK with driving like a granny you'll get good gas mileage.

Also the next gen Prius will be much more powerfull and a little bigger. No matter what I'd say now is NOT the time to buy a hybrid. Honda has several nice cars coming and Toyota is also rolling some nice things out SOON!

noooope!

Good points, but not very useful.

NOW is the perfect time to buy hybrids. When 80mpg hybrids are out... will the perfect time to buy be 4 years later when 120mpg hybrids come out? No, now is a good time to buy a hybrid. If everyone waited for the next hybrid, the business of hybrids would not bloom... there wouldnt be another hybrid. Gas savings aside, we need to contribute to the growth of hybrids, electric, hydrogen and any other alternate fuel vehicles so the market keeps thriving/growing so we get past 80mpg, 120mpg,...


the VW's you mentioned will definitely be outstanding vehicles. BMW currently has a version of the 5 series with a 2 liter diesel (as far as i recall) which gets about the same mpg as a prius :)

Lets keep the race for efficiency moving

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh

I love you, Susie. I've already admitted that I'm a really bad person, so I was about to post the same thing.

I'm not buying an ugly car. I don't care if the Earth heats up to 250 degrees, there are no rainforests, and we have to use human bodies for fuel.

Just encountered my first major issue with owning a hybrid vehicle. I got accosted in the parking lot of Staples and ended up answering a strangers questions for 15 minutes.

Aside from that...

Id rather look into the honda hybrids. Just not a fan of the way the prius looks.

I read VW is coming out with a diesel hybrid that gets 69 mpg

I'm waiting for Toyota to come out with the plugin hybrid Prius. Will get over 100 MPG. Toyota has been playing with 2010 release date. We'll see. Right now you can add the extra battery for $10k on secondary market, but I want mine to be Toyota from bumper to bumper.

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9930421-1.html

The ones buying Prius purchase it for environment reasons mainly.