2010 Prius

[chiph]

A friend just bought one and we rode around the Fort Mill / Rock Hill area this afternoon in it.

Not the most amazing handling, but for what it is, it's an excellent vehicle. 45 mpg with four adults in the car (with a couple of full-throttle accelerations). Comfortable, quiet, a little different. On their recent trip up north, they averaged 52 mpg. The SMART car doesn't even come close to that.

The CVT means the engine does the usual thing - run the RPMs up to the top of the power curve and stay there. You get used to it after a while.

The engine start is seamless - if you move off slowly enough from a start, you can stay on electric motor only for quite a while. No judder or hesitation when it does start.

His didn't come with the near-mandatory "Obama" sticker -- he's looking for something suitable, like the classic "from my cold dead hands" slogan (which would make his Prius fairly easy to identify!)

Chip H.

[Eric]

A friend just bought one and we rode around the Fort Mill / Rock Hill area this afternoon in it.

Not the most amazing handling, but for what it is, it's an excellent vehicle. 45 mpg with four adults in the car (with a couple of full-throttle accelerations). Comfortable, quiet, a little different. On their recent trip up north, they averaged 52 mpg. The SMART car doesn't even come close to that.

The CVT means the engine does the usual thing - run the RPMs up to the top of the power curve and stay there. You get used to it after a while.

The engine start is seamless - if you move off slowly enough from a start, you can stay on electric motor only for quite a while. No judder or hesitation when it does start.

His didn't come with the near-mandatory "Obama" sticker -- he's looking for something suitable, like the classic "from my cold dead hands" slogan (which would make his Prius fairly easy to identify!)

Chip H.

I agree the technology is very impressive - but I question the value side of the equation. By which I mean, for example, one could spend half as much on a new Nissan Versa 1.6 (about $10k with AC) and get close to the real-world average mpg and have about $12k left in your pocket to burn through before the Prius begins to have any advantage in terms of saving you money. Assuming you spend $3k per year on gas, that's four years' worth of "free" fuel... .

Buy a slightly used Versa (or Corolla or equivalent, etc. ) for $7k or so and the gap widens that much more. And no elaborate technology to worry about/degrade/have to pay to repair.

Which is more likely to go 150,000 with minimal repair costs? Something like a new Versa or a hybrid?

This doesn't even get into the "elsewhere emissions" angle...