I am considering getting a Toyota Prius hybrid car and was wanting some feedback from people who have them.

If you have on do you like it?

what kind of gas mileage do you get?

is it good on the snow?

what kind of maintenance have you had to do?

what about in the winter, how do you pre warm the car up?

We test drove last summer and came really close to buying it but I didn't want a bigger car payment but now with the price of gas up to $2.76- $2.85 here I am spending a fortune driving to work and taking dd to work.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated

thanks

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«·´¨*·.¸¸Jackie ¸¸.·*¨`·»
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email me at
tjbault@smithville.net

Previously I had a gas guzzling oldsmobile cutlass and I just went for the Honda Civic - now granted it is not a hybrid - I wanted a hybrid but they are just too new and too many problems. My civic gets fantastic gas mileage (and it's cute too!). I drive 60 miles round trip to work and the occasional in town runs during the week and full tank lasts me an entire week granted you keep your foot out of the gas. In my opinion that car is much more reasonable and great on gas. I get around 350 miles to 1 tank of gas and everytime I fill up it usually takes 12 gallon. It is wonderful and highly recommended by me. Plus Honda's keep their resale value too but then again so do Toyota. Love my car and I hope this has been a little help

I have a Toyota Camry Hybrid and I love it. It's bigger than the Prius and more "cushy", but it gets about 20 mpg less than the Prius, so it's a trade-off (for me anyway).

Everything I've read about Hybrids said that you will not get as good of gas mileage as the EPA estimates. My Camry is rated for 40 city/38 highway. I average about 36 for almost all city driving.

As I said, I love my car. It drives very well. It has a 4 cyl. gas engine, but it still has enough pick up for Dallas traffic. Toyota hybrids have an electric motor as the primary with a gas engine assist when it's needed. All other manufacturers have gas engines with an electric assist motor. That's why Toyota has such better gas mileage. I can drive all over the place and never have the gas engine kick on if I don't have a quick acceleration to make.

I haven't had any maintenance done on my car yet, but everything is comparable to a regular car from what I've seen. You still need oil changes, etc. There are no Major (in my opinion) differences in maintenance requirements. If you have a battery replacement, I understand it can be very expensive, but Toyota has an 8 year warranty on their hybrid engine systems (including battery).

I don't live where we get much snow, so I haven't driven on snow with it, but on the Camry (you'll have to check for the Prius) Toyota made Stability Control standard on the hybrid. I also don't pre-heat my car, but if you do it will run off of battery power. Your battery can discharge pretty quickly if you let your car idle too long, but it just takes a couple of minutes of regular driving to recharge the battery. The battery is charged by braking or by driving without using either engine (pretty much coasting).

I've finally gotten used to the smart key system (no key, push button start).

I've seen some deals on the Prius lately (special financing, etc) and I know they're changing their tax credit status, so you should check that out. You get a tax credit on your federal income tax the first year you own the car. The Toyota website was a big help on that front.

Any other questions, just let me know and I'll try to answer. I would love to see more people drive Hybrids, so I hope you get one.

Renee

The biggest thing that is holding me back right now is I am afraid that if it breaks down how much it will cost to fix. I am such a worrier about money. I know it has a great warranty. ( Right now my current vehicle is out of warranty 99 blazer) I know to replace the battery on the Prius is around $3,000

My payments now on my blazer are only $250, with the Prius we will be going up to around $400 - $450 a month. Which will equal out to what I pay now in my current payment and what I am now spending in gas, which some weeks I put in $60 or more. I know gas is only going to continue to rise, I don't think it will ever go back down again.

I just want to go into this well informed and not regret my decision since I will be paying on it for many years.

thanks for all of the help

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«·´¨*·.¸¸Jackie ¸¸.·*¨`·»
«·´`·.(¸.·´(¸.·* *·.¸)`·.¸).·´`·»





email me at
tjbault@smithville.net

I can't give you any opinions but this thread reminded me of something I saw in Reader's Digest last month. A guy wrote in the Life in These United States that as he went to pass a hybrid car struggling to get up a steep hill, he saw a sign in the window that read "I know, I know, but I'm getting 60 MPG"

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My DH's Toyota Corolla gets 37 mpg. Probably very similar in size... Never any problems -- all he's ever had done is oil changes. It is a 1999.

I'd suggest subscribing to ConsumerReports.org - Consumer Reports: Ratings, Buying Guides & Product Reviews for a month online. It is around $5 and well worth it to read the car review and especially the user reviews.

Good luck in your search.

The prices on parts are very expensive, so if you don't have an emergency fund that may be something to think about.. we just went from a new dodge dakota to a 4 door honda civic... I'm in love.. I thought I'd hate it after driving my expedtion. WE've drivin 250 miles and still have over half a tank..

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

We considered one, and ended up with a Corolla. In part, that was due to price and availability, and in part because there was a lot of publicity on the MPG for hybrids not being as advertised. I'm talking about things like this: Hybrid Mileage Comes Up Short - We also do mostly highway driving.

I am not sure about the Toyota but I bought a new Ford Escape 2007 in December. I considered the Hybrid for obvious reasons (I drive for work and logged almost 40 thousand miles last year most of it in town) but both the service man at the dealership and my private mechanic with an independent shop told me the thingy that charges the batteries (yes that is the actual name for it LOL JK) costs around $3500 and needs to be replaced three or four times over the life of the vehicle.
That made my mind up fast. I am already paying enough for the darn thing I could buy a really nice second used vehicle for the price of replacing the thingy.

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