Dude, you’re getting a Prius
For the last year or so, I’ve been going back and forth in my head about getting a new car. My 2002 Toyota RAV-4 has treated me well over the last 6.5 years (except for the occasional mocking comments from my wife and friends that it is totally a chick car), but at 161,000 miles it now is in need of a bunch of work. Finding out last week that the air-conditioning is dead has finally pushed me past my indecision point and I went to the Toyota dealership today and placed my order. I should take possession of a 2008 Prius on next Monday.
I look forward to trying to game the gas mileage as much as I can with the cool feedback system and will do my best not to be “that jerkwad guy driving the Prius asking why you hate the environment”.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:26 am
A few tips when your new toy comes in, all as they relate to my experiences owning a silver ’05.
1. You WILL be distracted by the display, learn to use the buttons on the steering wheel instead of reaching for the touch screen. Don’t worry the novelty will wear off eventually. Hopefully you won’t get in an accident in the mean time. ;)
2. Unless they fixed it, the voice recognition doesn’t work that well. It needs to be pretty quiet for it to recognize your voice properly. When it does work, some of my favorite commands for the Nav screen:
a) I’m Hungry (displays restaurant icons)
b) Parking (displays parking icons when you are in a city needing to find a place to park)
c) Home (Routes you from where you are, to home, provided you’ve set that location)
d) Gas / fuel (shows gas station icons)
e) I would love to find an voice command that turns of all icons, haven’t found one yet, not sure it exists.
3) For the first 1.5 years, my MPG was in the mid-high 40′s. As the care “broke in” I was able to get much better fuel economy. Millage in the winter sucks. To Help improve it slightly, turn off the heat when you are sitting at traffic lights, so the car will auto-shut-off
4) The bluetooth in the ’05 is ok. The stuff I’ve been able to get to work, works well. I’ve never had a phone that would let me transfer my phone book to the car, so I have to type in a phone number manually, or dial from my phone instead. When you need to type something into the car, or edit a nav destination, you can only do so below 5 mph. There are hacks you can do to override this “Feature” though it requires a little hardware.
5) You’ll get the best millage traveling around 40-45 mph on country roads. Going faster causes the engine to always turn (but not use gas) thus addig to the friction in the system. One of my favorite roads to drive down was Trindle road, west of Mechanicsburg, the rolling hills do wonders for the MPG’s
Guess that’s it for now…
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 am
OH NOES! SMUG ALERT! :)
J/K… I’ve had the good fortune to ride in a Prius and it’s a very nice car. Toyota makes quality vehicles, and the Prius is no exception.
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:19 am
Thanks for all the tips Gerrit. My wife had a Prius for a day as a rental car and we were both definitely distracted by that crazy display. I did not get the model with the built-in navigation system (I have a Garmin 340 and will likely get a Dash or a Tom-Tom later). I’ll let you know how the Bluetooth works out.
John – I thought of that South Park episode when I was at the dealer.