New car!

[Shellie]

Sunday we picked up our new Spectra Blue 2008 Toyota Prius. Holy crap is it purdy. It completely stunned me when I saw it for the first time in the dealer's service garage.

Once I either find my camera, or get a new one, I will post pics of it, but here is what it looks like:



Beautiful!!!

[Tessian]

nice to see they're trying to make it look like an actual car now

Congrats though, as soon as I got out of college in May '06 I bought myself a brand new Honda Civic... still love the fucking thing but I don't know if I could have resisted the hybrid novelty of the Prius if it had picked up steam by then like it does now.

Have they fixed up the downsides of its system yet? I know when it first came out the electric part kicked out on highway so you'd get like 45mpg city and 20mpg highway.

[Zeus]

*Borat* Itsa very niiice! I liike!

They have definitely trimmed it down a bit like Tess said. It looks a lot sleeker.

I would get a hybrid but it really makes no economic sense since all of the gas savings over the course of, say, the first 8 to 10 years is offset by the increased cost of the vehicle. I actually looked into it when I was getting my Civic. They wanted $4k more for the Hybrid.

I ain't no environmentalist, so there was no benefit to me, particularly when you consider that there's the potential of increased maintenance costs due to the electrical part. It's really all about the costs for me. And I gotta look into how the hybrids perform in the winters up here, I don't want to have a diesel-like hassle.

When they come down in price I may get one eventually. I love the fact they're putting hybrids in SUVs. THAT's a great idea

[Tessian]

Yeah it's the same with me... I wanted the most fuel efficient car I could find and the '06 Civic coupe won it out for me. City driving I get ~30mpg, highway I've been known to get up to 35. I want the fuel efficiency so it saves me money.

Which year civic did you end up with?

[Zeus]

Yeah it's the same with me... I wanted the most fuel efficient car I could find and the '06 Civic coupe won it out for me. City driving I get ~30mpg, highway I've been known to get up to 35. I want the fuel efficiency so it saves me money.

Which year civic did you end up with?

2001 LX-G Sedan. I luvs my Civic.

[Tessian]

Yeah it's the same with me... I wanted the most fuel efficient car I could find and the '06 Civic coupe won it out for me. City driving I get ~30mpg, highway I've been known to get up to 35. I want the fuel efficiency so it saves me money.

Which year civic did you end up with?

2001 LX-G Sedan. I luvs my Civic.

Aww so you don't have the digital speedometer and the windshield so steep you can't see where your car ends? I loved my redesigned baby... I can't live without radio controls on the steering wheel anymore.

[Zeus]

Yeah it's the same with me... I wanted the most fuel efficient car I could find and the '06 Civic coupe won it out for me. City driving I get ~30mpg, highway I've been known to get up to 35. I want the fuel efficiency so it saves me money.

Which year civic did you end up with?

2001 LX-G Sedan. I luvs my Civic.

Aww so you don't have the digital speedometer and the windshield so steep you can't see where your car ends? I loved my redesigned baby... I can't live without radio controls on the steering wheel anymore.

The newer Civic stepped up a notch/class as well as price. It's really not fair to compare. It's better to compare the old Civic to the Fit, they're the same class. My car was fully loaded and it costs $21k, which is the same as the Fit is now up here. The newer Civic is at least $4k more.

My Civic has been a rock, though. I have over 100,000 miles (164,000km) on it and I've done nothing other than basic maintenance and tires and brakes once each.

Well, not including my windshields. The record for my windshields lasting without a crack is 10 weeks. My luck with that is brutally bad. I actually only changed my windshield twice so far even though I've gotten about 11 cracks in them. That's not even including 2006 when I actually got hit by a rain of rocks that were falling off of a truck while I was commuting.

[Tessian]

my car is pretty much fully loaded (minus leather and a nav system) and cost just about that much... maybe one grand more tops. I got the EX.

Sorry for the threadjack, Sera

[Zeus]

my car is pretty much fully loaded (minus leather and a nav system) and cost just about that much... maybe one grand more tops. I got the EX.

Sorry for the threadjack, Sera

In America, cars are about 20% less expensive than up here. There are TONS of people from here who go to the US get their vehicles. My cuz bought his WRX from down there and saved $15k.

[Tessian]

Couldn't resist But I did not know that so that's cool.

[Zeus]

Couldn't resist But I did not know that so that's cool.

We get taxes up the ass up here on many things, mostly hidden. Cars are just one of them. You guys are much more of a consuming society down there and one of the big benefits are you get real deals (we never see deals like you guys get on Black Friday no matter how they try to bullshit us) and generally lower prices. That's why even when the exchange rate was at $1.50 Cdn for $1 US people would still go to the US to shop. Now that it's even it's like having a wicked sale every single day.

Although, in retail locations, our DVDs are generally cheaper. You have to go online to get better deals from down there. Not sure why.

[Shellie]

Have they fixed up the downsides of its system yet? I know when it first came out the electric part kicked out on highway so you'd get like 45mpg city and 20mpg highway.

It does get more mpg city than highway, but thats because the battery gets charged more during city driving, so it can rely on it more.

However, the highway mpg is excellent, especially if you use the cruise control. I have looked at a Prius owners forum, and they talk about a driving technique that maximizes your mpg. I havent quite figured it out yet, but with a live MPG meter, its natural to adjust your driving to get better mpg

The car is more expensive than a non hybrid, but it is not just because of the hybrid technology. It really is a car with a LOT of features. I thought my old Jeep had a lot of fancy features, but this thing is amazing! The only thing I wish it had were auto lights, which I have on my Jeep, but its not that big of a deal.

I had to take the car in to the dealer today for a coating they put on the interior and exterior that protects the finish and keeps things from soaking into the fabric, etc. It eliminates the need to ever wax the car as well. The coating made the color absolutely beautiful. I have got to take some good pics..the pic above does not even begin to show off the depth of the blue.

I think Im in love lol ...and I dont even get to drive the damn thing...Sine has a further way to go to work, and even though it was MY idea to get the Prius, he will be mainly driving it....pfft...lol

[Shellie]

nice to see they're trying to make it look like an actual car now

This is a 2001 Prius, I think it looks more like a conventional car than the 2008 we bought.

[bovine]

this is all interesting, but does your hoverboard work on the water?

[SineSwiper]

Something like 46 MPG city and 42 MPG highway, though that's with the new MPG standards. (A car that would have normally get 60 MPG would have had 48 MPG on the new standards.)

Features include:

* Bluetooth capability with steering wheel controls (I need to get a bluetooth phone now.)
* 6-disc CD changer with MP3 playback (/w steering wheel controls)
* Backup camera in reverse
* A tiny little stick control for D/R/N/P
* A power button and park button
* SmartKey for complete hands free key control (don't need to get out my keys to unlock/lock or start the car or open the trunk)
* Digital readouts
* A control panel for all functions: audio, MPG readings, A/C, etc.
* Temperature controls on the steering wheel (just set a temperature)
* Hoverboard DOES work on the water