I just sold a Prius. Maybe two.

[trof]

I don't sell cars.
I Just showed ours to some friends.
I would term them 'wealthy' and not too concerned about gas prices, up until now.
I always thought they'd pay any price, as long as it was just available.
I was wrong.

She drives an Escalade.
(Caddy SUV)
He drives a Tahoe.
(Chevy SUV)
And a humongous crew cab Chevy 3/4 ton pick-up.

She really liked our Prius.
Surprisingly, he kinda liked it too.

Today she just bought a Prius.
Traded in her Caddy.

He even rode in the back seat.
He's 6' and maybe 280 lbs.
"Hell, it's got more leg room than my Tahoe."

He told the salesman, "Give us a little while. If I really like it, I'll be back."

Say what you will about the overall environmental effects of driving a Prius. But it looks like I'm getting 2 gas guzzlers off the road.
Yea me!
:-)

[Dangerously Amused]

1. You go, boy!

[dkf]

2. And we wonder why Detroit is in bad shape...

[Kolesar]

5. Honda hybrids were a marketplace failure

They pulled one of them Accord or Civic(?) off the market.
Toyota recalled more cars than they sold last year.
Just sayin'

[dkf]

7. Hybrids that marginally increase crappy MPG won't cut it.

[catnhatnh]

13. Over an Escalade and a Tahoe???

You may insist on waiting for a perfect (green) world but I'm betting people seeing their gas bill cut by two thirds are going to like this shit...remember:the perfect is the enemy of the good....just sayin'...

[tavalon]

14. a prius gets 50mpg

Not exactly marginal. There is an aftermarket battery that can bring that up to 100mpg. Not shoddy and having ridden in and driven one of my partners Prius, I can tell you they are filled with nifty gadgets to make the otherwise environmentally clueless enchanted.

[dkf]

16. No, not the Prius. The poster said Honda Hybrids were a failure

and I swear the Hybrid Accord still got pretty crappy mileage.

[krkaufman]

32. The Honda hybrids are also the reverse of the Toyota scheme ...

... and aren't amenable to aftermarket plug-in conversion. (Honda's are gas w/ electric boost; Toyota's are electric w/ gas boost. Increase the electric storage, add a plug-in, and the Toyota's now have a usable electric-only range.)

[kestrel91316]

12. A recall is where you go in to the dealer and they do free repairs.

It isn't like the cars get returned to the manufacturer, lol.

Everyone I know with a Prius (and that's MANY people because, as you know, we Californians are stupid tree-huggers) LOVES the darned thing. Period.

[nashville_brook]

15. i love my honda civic hybrid -- 40 mpg is pretty wonderful

and when i bought it i would have had to pay nearly 10K more for a Prius and wait a while. so, it worked for me and i'm really happy with it.

[Tumbulu]

21. I love my hybrid civic

and my average mpg for it total 18,000 miles is 53.2 mpg. The best I have gotten is 69.1 mpg for 168 miles and the worst was 43 mpg for 85 miles. That is way better than any non hybrid car that I know of. And I don't do any silly hypermiling techniques. This is normal driving.

[thevoiceofreason]

3. My wife bought one yesterday.

I'm about to trade in my suburban for a Hybrid tahoe (I have to have a big vehicle).

[FREEWILL56]

17. Maybe you should be thinking diesel.

I had a chat with a guy in Green Bay that has a small 4w diesel truck and he gets 90mpg highway.

[thevoiceofreason]

18. Problem with diesel

There are no more refineries that can be expanded to make diesel (several are down for the long-term from Katrina and Rita). So, until they build more refineries, especially those that will/can make the cleaner diesel, I will stay away from them (because they still have a higher pollution factor per mile than regular gas).

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Good for you.

Nice news for a change.

[mahina]

6. I love mine, (2005) but it's not great if you are 6'4"

Can't see out the window. Just sayin.
We have two, they are great! Esp if you are height challenged like myself. My 6'4" son, not so much. Sadly.

[tularetom]

8. I'd love to buy one but it's too f%^kin small

I'm 6'2" about 230 and I feel like my knees are bent too far for comfort. And my head hits the headliner so I have to scrunch down to get a better view out the windshield. It'd be hell for me on a long drive.

I'll probably wait for a plug in Camry hybrid.

[trof]

23. Hunh. I'm same size as you. I'm very comfortable.

:shrug:

[Nihil]

27. Interesting ...

I'm 6'0", my eldest is 6'1" and we don't have any of those problems.
My 6'4" nephew hasn't driven the Prius but he was comfortable as the
front passenger.

I'll admit that I have the driving seat right back but, after adjusting
the other seat parameters, I find it every bit as comfortable on long
journeys as my Subaru Foresters were.

Maybe it's the difference in body shape? (Not a snarky comment, just meaning
that I have a fairly long body rather than particularly long legs.)

:shrug:

[krkaufman]

33. I'm also 6'2", 240# male.... and feel the Prius has plenty of room

(and shifted "down" from a GM/Pontiac Grand Prix)

Did you try adjusting the seat? ;)

[Warpy]

9. Those gas guzzlers will just go to folks

who can afford the initial price (once it's marked down) but who will have to struggle to keep the tanks filled.

It's going to take 10 years to get all those dinosaurs off the roads.

[GreenPartyVoter]

37. At one point an SUV was all we could afford from a used car place. But after a few years we

were finally able to swap it for a Subaru Forester.

[Captain Angry]

10. I really don't like the visibility in the Prius.

I had a hard time seeing other cars behind and beside me.

I have an Escape Hybrid, and the sight lines are much nicer. My parents love their Prius. I love my Escape. In the winter the mpg isn't so hot, but it can get where it needs to go, carry 4 people and gear comfortably. In the summer, the mpg goes way up.

It's nice when a car can sell itself. I've given test drives of my Escape to people who can't believe you can drive an SUV any distance solely on battery.

[trof]

24. I agree, rear viz is somewhat limited.

Once I got used to it, doesn't seem to be a problem.
We got the 'base' model without rear view camera.

[Captain Angry]

31. That's what my folks have.

And I'm sure if I spent more than a few test drives in it, the visibility problem would go away. But initial testing made me very uncomfortable.

[Nihil]

39. The thing that made me "uncomfortable" during the test drives ...

... was the way the engine would stop while waiting at traffic lights ...
kept thinking the damn thing had stalled until I remembered that it was
just being smart about petrol consumption and would "wake up" whenever
necessary!
:-)

[krkaufman]

34. Winter MPG, reportedly, can be much improved via an engine block heater...

... to pre-warm the engine.

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-modifications/41639-block-heater-economics.html

[Jane Austin]

11. Today she just bought a Prius.

She's lucky. There's a wait for them here in Austin.

[krkaufman]

35. chortle. I ordered mine the Monday morning Katrina hit NOLA ...

... and took delivery just over 6 months later.

[gear_head]

19. (Prius) how is the throttle response?

I've read others writing...
the Prius was very nice,
until we drove one.
Goofy two engine system.

perhaps someone here would like to comment.
TIA

[CRF450]

20. I drove one for about a day for a relative. I didn't like it.

The electric motor off the line is pretty torqy, but for passing power anymore than 55mph, its god awfull slow. It would be decently quick for many of you here, but I regularly drive a high performance car that can do 0-60 in 5 seconds. The Prius rides smooth, but its handles like shit because of the skinny tires and soft suspension.

I'd like to have a hybrid, but I want a car thats enjoyable to drive, not a tincan that drives like crap. The Lexus high performance hybrids are nice, but they dont get that much better gas milage as what I'm getting in my Trans Am (average 22mpg, and have gotten up to 31mpg/hwy) plus they're expensive as hell!

[Tumbulu]

22. test drive a hybrid civic

it is a wonderful car. And you can see out all the windows.

[CRF450]

30. I'm sorry but, I'm really picky when it comes to cars.

I'm a performance car nut, and I love speed. I really like to see somebody make an affordable, hybrid/all electric, rear wheel drive, high performance coupe. The Tesla Roadster is an awsome car, but way out of my price range. I wouldn't mind a high performance sedan after seing the Pontiac G8, maybe GM can put their two mode hybrid system in it?

What I dont get, is after looking at the Civic Si coupe, how can a 4 cylinder motor such as what it has, rated at 197hp get hardly any better fuel milage than my car which has almost 350hp with twice as many cylinders?? HP rating should be mostly irrelivent cause when a car is driven narmally, it shouldn't use much gas. My car is rated 18/29, Civic Si is 21/29.

And I'v realized this a good while ago. If Honda and Toyota can make such fuel effecient cars, why cant they seem to do any better against the domestic brands when it comes to regular sedans, trucks/SUV's and high performance cars?

I sometimes feel that they are in bed with big oil just as much as the demostics.

[trof]

25. I'm happy with it.

It's all I need.

[Greyskye]

29. Throttle response is fine

Since the Prius uses a continuously variable transmission, you don't get the audible feedback that you might be used to from traditional transmissions (engine roar and gears winding up). This fools a lot of people into thinking that the response is a lot less then they are used to in other cars.

We've 'sold' at least two Prii ourselves, simply through letting friends test drive ours. :D

And welcome to DU, gear_head! :hi:

[lectrobyte]

41. Excellent and incredibly smooth. If you are not used to a CVT then

the fact that the engine RPM does not map to the speed of the car can be a bit misleading. With 300 ft/lbs of torque from the electric motor, those who have figured out how to bypass the traction control can light the tires at will, but won't get the greatest fuel mileage.

[4dsc]

26. Bring back the 1990 Honda CRX

I could sell a million of those little rockets in today's market.. Without all the safety devices that are required today, I think 50 MPG would a be a god sent..

http://images.importtuner.com/powerpages/0506_01s+1990_honda_crx_si+rear_side_view.jpg

[madokie]

28. Yea You

would you give me one;-)

[GreenPartyVoter]

36. Well done!

[lectrobyte]

38. I love mine. My brother was impressed enough to trade in his

sports sedan on one last month.

[trof]

40. She just told me she was spending $400 mo. on gas for the Escalade.

"I HAD to do something."
She and her family came for dinner tonight.
While mine is the base model, hers has every possible option.
Her 6' husband and 6' 1" grandson (back seat) were passengers and were surprised at how comfortable it was.