Today I bought a used Prius

Having owned a Prius only a few years ago, I can say that I have tremendous respect for them as an automotive appliance. They're ideal for getting you from point A to point B efficiently, comfortably and quietly. But as a car guy, I despised it. Absolutely putrid driving experience. So bad, in fact, that I just couldn't live with it as my one and only car. I'm much, much happier with my '13 Elantra 6spd. Same money, still great mpg (35-36), quiet and reliable, and a much better driving experience.

The Prius is a great car, just not for me.

I think the poor driving dynamics of the Prius are overwhelmed by the nerdy coolness of the information displays and interesting technology. It's very fun to be able to instantly see the results of various hypermiling techniques.

A selfie from this morning including many characters of this story.

Your daughter is adorable. I may be checking out that 100k mile Prius you linked to earlier. I need to have an appliance so the various projects don't overwhelm me with baby #2 due in five months.

That an older infinity? (white car) I like!

As much as I can't stand them myself, I see nothing wrong with buying one as an appliance to loaf around in, especially if you have other cool cars in the stable. Well bought for the price you paid!

In reply to dculberson:

I suspect you saw my comments in this thread.

My salesman was Mel, older gentleman. Keep the connection secret but I would love if you opened the price at $7750. Trying to reaffirm that is "what the market will bear."
I can get you the PO's number if you want to speak to her.

Now cleaned it is a nice car. Zoom in on the driver's side rear wheel well and you will see the rust where the metal meets the plastic bumper. Aside from that and the strangely missing wheel center caps there are really no other flaws other than maybe the smell of smoke or the strong smell of whatever they have used to now mask the smell.

If you come to town, look me up. There is a quaint diner across the street at the airport.

Coldsnap wrote: That an older infinity? (white car) I like!

Not just an Infiniti; The Infiniti. Your 10th place finisher in The $2015 Challenge.

Also not just an older Infiniti; the oldest. 1990 Q45, the flagship model from the inaugural year of the whole brand.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

That would be hilarious! But no I mean the one from this thread, in Sandusky. http://sandusky.craigslist.org/cto/5872962280.html

Having trouble committing to a "boring" car. I'm finding myself looking at Fiesta ST listings this morning. Problem is I spend a lot of my commute time in traffic so I think a small nervous manual would make me tired. The Mazda6 v6 manual is tiring enough in traffic. I should just get the $5.3k Prius - if I hate it I can sell it for that much easily here, I'm sure.

dculberson wrote: In reply to JohnRW1621: That would be hilarious! But no I mean the one from this thread, in Sandusky. http://sandusky.craigslist.org/cto/5872962280.html Having trouble committing to a "boring" car. I'm finding myself looking at Fiesta ST listings this morning. Problem is I spend a lot of my commute time in traffic so I think a small nervous manual would make me tired. The Mazda6 v6 manual is tiring enough in traffic. I should just get the $5.3k Prius - if I hate it I can sell it for that much easily here, I'm sure.

Having the advantage on knowing you personally, I'd hazard a guess that yes you'll have trouble to committing to a car as boring as the Prius, and yes, you'll hate it. I sort of feel bad saying that, because I really have a lot of respect for the car, it's a wonderful appliance and does a great commuting job. And I'll secretly admit it was fun in it's own way to hypermile and watch the dash. But beyond that, ugh. I spend a E36 M3 load of time in heavy traffic, and I still didn't like it. Are you looking for an automatic specifically, or just a good beater for the slog too/from work? There are plenty of them out there...I've got one I'm happy with, and now am shopping for a fun roadster for playtime.

dculberson wrote: In reply to JohnRW1621: That would be hilarious! But no I mean the one from this thread, in Sandusky. http://sandusky.craigslist.org/cto/5872962280.html Having trouble committing to a "boring" car. I'm finding myself looking at Fiesta ST listings this morning. Problem is I spend a lot of my commute time in traffic so I think a small nervous manual would make me tired. The Mazda6 v6 manual is tiring enough in traffic. I should just get the $5.3k Prius - if I hate it I can sell it for that much easily here, I'm sure.

Dude! I E36 M3 you not, just 10 mins ago I was laughing to myself that we were the only people cross shopping a fiesta st, and a Prius! Friday my wife wanted to test drive a nice 2014 st, and tonight we look at a Prius! But she doesn't think she can stand an automatic.

We should form a club

@Klayfish: Just something to slog to work for wife and I, and be backup for baby hauling duties. I think an auto is a good idea as this would be the only auto car we have. I have my truck and MR2 spyder for fun car duties for now - spyder may go away to make room for a newer convertible as part of the "pare down old cars" push prior to baby C2. Hmm. Have you driven a Volt? I drove my friend's and it seemed faster than the specs would indicate and maybe a little fun to drive. I've driven a Prius before and didn't like it, but it was pretty ragged out and I wasn't thinking of it as an appliance to fall back on.

@joey: That's hilarious.

I envy you guys- my wife refuses to learn to drive a stick shift (or rather sees no point in it), and at the same time hated the Prius because she said I drove it 'like an 80-year old man' when I was using hypermiling/more efficient driving techniques. I countered that no, I had yet to hit a single Farmer's market with it.

dculberson wrote: @Klayfish: Just something to slog to work for wife and I, and be backup for baby hauling duties. I think an auto is a good idea as this would be the only auto car we have. I have my truck and MR2 spyder for fun car duties for now - spyder may go away to make room for a newer convertible as part of the "pare down old cars" push prior to baby C2. Hmm. Have you driven a Volt? I drove my friend's and it seemed faster than the specs would indicate and maybe a little fun to drive. I've driven a Prius before and didn't like it, but it was pretty ragged out and I wasn't thinking of it as an appliance to fall back on. @joey: That's hilarious.

Yes, I've test driven the Volt a few times. I think the interior is a love it or hate it thing, I kind of dig it. It's pretty torquey off the line, but loses punch fairly quickly. So it's not quick, but has enough power. It's still pretty boring to drive, at least in the test drives I had, but I liked it a lot better than the Prius. Keep in mind it only seats 4 if that's a concern, and it requires premium unleaded.

If you're looking for an auto trans beater, why not look at something like a Civic Hybrid, Forte, Elantra, Mazda3? A Skyactive Mazda3 will get great mpg and isn't a snore to drive. My Elantra isn't fun to drive per se, but worlds better than the Prius...and I get 35mpg, even with some of my driving being Altanta rush hour.

Oohhhh, I love the MR2 Spyder. I've been considering it on my shopping list for a roadster/convertible, but they're getting on in age now. So my list toppers right now are Miata, Solstice/Sky, Mustang, S2000, 350Z

I've had the car for 7 full days and put on about 1k miles.

Trouble free except, the day I brought the car home I played with the car, in the driveway for about an hour. In that hour, I drained the battery and had to jump start the car.
At the time I figured maybe the car has been sitting for while and just needs to be driven to charge back up. I added my jumper pack to the trunk just in case. Since that day, I have added 1k miles and no trouble.

I did learn this neat trick to read your 12v battery's volts on screen from the car. I am dropping volts very quickly while not running (inside with radio on but car off.)
It appears that I have a factory battery and though I have not bothered to get it out yet (30 minutes of trunk trim and bracket removal), I suspect it to be a 9 year old original.
The weather has been 50-70 degrees this week but expected next week to be lows below freezing. Probably best to just replace battery as preventive maint. Dealer wants $227. Optima yellow is $150 via Amazon Prime. It will be here Monday.

Battery replacement with Optima yellow from Amazon

MPG has been 43ish with most of that being 70 mph highway driving.

Same battery was ordered for my car earlier today.

I jump through the fuse box in the front driver side strut tower area. It's a good bit easier than uncovering the actual 12v battery, especially if you have junk in the trunk, as it were. Normally jumping to the small positive terminal in that fuse box (negative to one of the strut mount bolts) would seem a poor idea since jump starting typically involves 200+ amps of current, but in the case of the Prius you only need to provide enough current to power up the computers and the DC-DC converter. Once the DC-DC converter is on, it charges the 12v battery from the high voltage battery, so you can unhook cables at that point and drive away.

I too had to jump from under the hood. It was required for me to do it that way since I did not have enough power to open the rear hatch since the latch is power operated.

The positive terminal in with the under hood fuse box is too recessed for my full size jumper box clamps to grab on.

My solution was to put a 10mm deep socket onto the nut and then clamp on the socket.

I daily a 03 it is a great appliance. Has enough torque to actually push you into the seat. And it hits 80mph on front stretch of road alanta. I rallycrossed a 01. Ran the ac to keep the engine running at the start line.

John - what do you do that has you putting so many miles on cars?

ProDarwin wrote: John - what do you do that has you putting so many miles on cars?

I said 1k miles which was an estimate of 78k-something to 79k-something. Actual math results in 833 miles.

"What do you do..." was mentioned earlier as NEMT or Non Emergency Medical Transport. We hold contracts with insurance companies to get people to and from their medical appointments.
I currently have 5 additional contracted drivers. 4 are owner/operators and 1 is in a company vehicle. I am short one driver who was also in a company vehicle. While short this one driver, I am back on the road pushing many miles myself.

It is common for the vehicles to see 40k miles per year.

semi zombie post... but I just picked up one last week...

we test drove a 2nd gen about 3 years ago and sadly i'm just too tall for them, my knee would hit the shifter and after short bit of driving my shins/calves would get sore from how much I had to angle my ankle to get the throttle...

I'd read that the 3rd gens are better in just about every way and finally got a chance to test drive them... more roomy than my '05 accord sedan but less than my 2k b5 passat... enough back seat for the kids and I love a hatch... ended up driving a few including a high spec III and a low speced IV.. ended up going with the '10 IV... 120k miles for about 7k... I like it as a toaster/appliance and more important my wife likes it... about perfect for her 25 mile commute each way (2ndary roads with occasional stop lights/signs) look forward to seeing what sort of MPG she ges... I sadly had to dump the passat as it wasn't going to pass emissions inspection without some $$$$ so I'm driving the accord for a while :(...

Congrats!

Convenient for this thread to pop up at this time. I'm actually thinking of getting a used 3rd gen Prius 4 or a Prius V 4. I need to get out and drive a few, I've driven the 3rd gen before, but its been a while.

eastsidemav wrote: Convenient for this thread to pop up at this time. I'm actually thinking of getting a used 3rd gen Prius 4 or a Prius V 4. I need to get out and drive a few, I've driven the 3rd gen before, but its been a while.

the V iv would have been my personal choice... I haven't tested one but I imagine the lack of the flying buttress center console would give a bit more room... but they cost more, are far more rare around here, and being that the MPG game was more important because of her commute the decision was made...

Congrats as well. I'm sure it will serve you well.

Seems like a good time for a personal update.
As of today 82,700 miles so about 4k miles added since purchased about 2 months ago.

As mentioned earlier, I replaced the 12v battery as a preventive measure.
I have also added General Artic Max Winter tires. They were cheap with a price of about $60 each plus mounting brought them to about $75 each for 195/65/15's. That's reasonable prices and implies that "consumables" will be cheap.
I have not seen a whole lot of snow since purchased but what little I have seen tells me that the snow grip I have gotten in the past from Artic Maxs continues with the Prius. Also, there is very little "tire roar" from the tires.
Summary: I have not had a chance to work them hard but the tires are meeting my expectations with no "glaring negatives."

Its winter along the Northern Coast of the United States and with that cold temps. The cold temps require the the engine run more often to keep heat in the cabin. Tankfull MPG rates have gone to the lowest of 38ish. When I first bought the car in 50-70 degree weather I was seeing 44ish.

The car has run w/o a hickup. I am still comfortable and it is still "interesting" learning this hybrid thing.
I bought the full version ($4.99) of the Android App, Torque because I learned that with the full version you can download special Prius software.
Pretty cool. Aside from things like rpm and coolant I am enjoying the separate voltage readout for each of the 14 hybrid cells as well as a percentage reading the tells your SOC (state of charge) and more.