[lojeff]

I am almost sold on the prius. I drive 120 mostly highway miles per day. I basically need a commuter car during the week but want something that the whole family can use on the weekends instead of the minivan.

Currently, I have 150,000 miles on a Honda Civic. The civic was/is great. I plan getting a new car before the end of the year.

There are 2 things holding me back on the prius. First, no dealerships have them available for test drives. I cannot imagine buying a car without a test drive or two.

Second is the durability. What is the prius going to be like with 150,000 miles on it? If I go for another Civic or a Camry or Corolla , I am pretty confident 150,000 would be well within thier useful lifetime. Thoughts on the prius lifetime?

 

[gschoen]

-If you speak to a dealer, you can get a test drive. Worst case sceanario is you order one, it comes in, you drive it, and decline to receive it. No dealer would make someone buy a car without ever driving it!

-That said, hopefully there will be vehicles available soon. Production has increased dramatically this year, especially the last two months, and waiting lists are clearing. There are vehicles in inventory in dealerships in parts of the country, check the dealer forum.

-There are a number of Prii with high miles, of course not as many as Civics, Camrys, or Corollas! Regardless, read about the two different Prius taxis in Canada, taxi service is the most demanding I can imagine. Consumer Reports reliability finds Prius BETTER than Civic, Camry, or Corolla (okay they're all very close). While that only represents an estimate based on a few model years, after a few years it's generally reliable for the long term. Most cars with long term problems start with short term problems. CR said it's among most reliable of all Toyota vehicles. No special treatment for being a hybrid, either. (same scale as all other vehicles)

 

[majordude]

... and waiting lists are clearing.

Actually, out here in SoCal (where gas is $2.60+ :shock: ) the average wait for blue or red is 3+ weeks.

The largest dealer in town (Power Toyota's chain of dealerships) is charging $3,000 OVER MSRP and adding leather and crap to bring the cars up to $32k!

Some dealers will let you have it for MSRP if you go through their fleet or Internet sales departments.

Either way, these cars are hard to come by.

 

[BIF]

... and waiting lists are clearing.

Actually, out here in SoCal (where gas is $2.60+ :shock: ) the average wait for blue or red is 3+ weeks.

...these cars are hard to come by.

Hard to come by? I think a 3+ week wait is NOTHING; barely enough time to sell your old-fashioned car! I waited two or three months. Others have waited for 8 months or more.

 

[lojeff]

I did a search on prius taxis and came up emtpy. Do you have a link?

The basic deal here in NJ is a $500 deposit gets you on the list, when it comes in, test drive and make decision. $500 is completely refundable. My issue here is one test drive and then a decision on the spot. In addition, none of my friends or co-workers have a prius so I haven't even driven in one, never mind a test drive. MSRP + $100-$200 in tags+misc.

I have been told by a couple of dealers that the wait on the full package (ie NAV, VSC etc) is shorter than the base model or package #4 (which I prefer). Any thoughts on the Nav? I use it in our minivan but with the prius, I thought I'd rather see the stats being than the NAV maps.

 

[Hep]

To check the long time durability, I've just taken a short hop into the future. 2015 actually. Our Prii are one of the very few current cars still on the road! Jenna Bush is president. You don't want to know the price of gas!

 

[frenchie]

I did a search on prius taxis and came up emtpy. Do you have a link?

Yep : http://www.hybridexperience.ca/Toyota_Prius.htm
(bottom of page, including links to detailed service and maintenance records) 8)

 

[hyperion]

No link for the taxi's but have you tried "limos?" There is a company operating some Prius taxis in Cambridge Ma. about a year now. They say they get a lot of the "M.I.T." types as customers and they are willing to pay double rates to ride in the "green" cars.

 

[PriusNH]

As far as commuter machine...my husband drives that same 120 mile round trip everyday. He's had 3 Civics and a Ford Focus. He just got sick of having a "kids/small" car. So when we saw a Prius (he was there to look at a Corolla) assumed it was spoken for...but it was available. We test drove it-and if it had been up to me I would have bought it on the spot. We figured we couldn't decide in 20 minutes to spend that much money...so we went back the next day after investigating. They charged MSRP, and it's got the NAV/Bluetooth, Package 6. With the price of gas just going up, we're saving at least $100 a month on gas alone.

I love it. Best purchase we ever made. He's been averaging 54mpg on his commute.

I'm happy because he's out of town this week so I've had the chance to use it all week. It's great for putting the car seat and our 2 year old in the back. With all the side airbags, etc...I'm very secure in how safe it is.
I'm proud to say I averaged 56mpg on my way to work today.

It's already got over 5K miles on it. From what I've read, Toyota seems to be one of the most reliable cars out there. I'm not too worried about piling on the miles. I'm sure this car can take it.

 

[Moon]

I have the NAV. I didn't think I'd like it, but I use it ALL the time. I do still pop over to the mileage screen, but after awhile, you start to understand what really helps the gas mileage and you stop glancing for the car to give you hints. Average mpg is always available with the touch of a button, so I keep my map screen on more often than not. My favorite thing about it so far: if I can't see the street sign because of a gigantic work truck, etc., I just look at my screen to see the street name in big block letters. It's been a great help!

As far as the durability, I really think these cars are built to last. They've been on the market longer than most folks think, and since "technology jitters" is one of the major reasons people prefer to refrain from hybrids, I think the company did a lot to make sure you're covered. The warranties that come with this car are lovely. I don't think you'll regret it. I can say, it drives more like a luxury car than a mid-sized due to the electric power assist on the steering, power breaks, etc. Call your local dealerships to arrange for a test drive. Many of them will let you drive one without even bothering to put a deposit down.

Also, I went through an "Auto Nation" dealership at first and ditched them after awhile. They weren't getting what I needed (I'm guessing the bureaucracy was jerking their chains) so they were trying to talk me into something else. Later, I went with one of our local, independant party dealerships and got a car that weekend. It just depends on what you want matching up with what they have available. Call around. You may be surprised at how short your wait may be.

--Moon

 

[Tadashi]

My wife and I did a test drive. I was planning to test drive and think about it for a week but we ended up getting two of them when we got back to the dealer. Heck we were only going to get one to replace my stolen F250 but the wife traded in her beat up Honda Civic right then and there. We are not power hungry race car drivers so it performed as good or better than her Honda Civic so we figured what the hay.

We have absolutely no buyers remorse what-so-ever. unlike some of my other impulse buys.

 

[[email protected]]

Actually one should not lump all of southern California together. I did not encounter any San Diego dealers here running over MSRP and I know two people who got theirs with no wait, although both were flexible on color. When I got mine it did not have any major add-ons (like leather), although it did have the floor mat/cargo net/first-aid kit set that I did not order, but that was pretty minor (and the first two items are pretty handy). So decide how flexible you want to be (I decided to hold out for by blue, even though I could have gotten a differnent color a month earlier) and check around. You may find tha the wait is not as bad as you expect if you are lucky.

 

[Astrowoman]

Actually one should not lump all of southern California together.

I think I bought during the month of golden opportunity (end of Feb) but none of the dealers I contacted quoted above MSRP when I mentioned getting an internet quote. I was flexible on color. There were no unwanted add-ons. It was Pkg 6... I might have had to wait and/or pay above MSRP if I had insisted on something different from what was on the lot. At that point the larger dealers had maybe half a dozen on the lot.