<p>Gee, according to that site, my Civic Hybrid scored 9.5 on the air pollution index, and a perfect 10 on greenhouse gas emissions. Plus, we’re getting better mileage than the EPA estimates.</p>
<p>Not too shabby…</p>
<p>We’ve had our Prius since May 2007, and we love it. We are Toyota lovers so didn’t look at anything else. Some comments:
–Some will tell you that the cost of battery replacement is a big issue, but see post #20 and you’ll see that it is a non-issue because you’ll probably replace the car before the battery wears out.
–We hear people say that hybrids don’t deliver the gas mileage promised, but what car does? We’re getting 43-44 mpg, and almost all of our driving is stop-and-go city driving–a heck of a lot better than our ancient Camry. I loved it when the driver of a big, nasty SUV sneered at us in a parking lot this summer and said the mileage claims were a fraud. Um, and how many mpg do you think he was getting?
–Driving a hybrid does take some getting used to, but it doesn’t take long. We love the little Prius gearshift and keyless entry system. How cool is it to be able to drive your car while your key is in your purse? Now I get into rental cars and have to re-learn “regular” driving.
–Toyota’s original tires are terrible. We got a flat tire from a splinter.
–The feel of the car is different, especially on the highway, but you get used to it.
–Very roomy on the inside, front and back
–Visibility through back window has never bothered me (better than the Camry). I use the backup camera only for parallel parking, when I find it very useful–haven’t bumped someone’s bumper since we got the car.
–Easier for my teenager to learn to drive because of shape, length, maneuverability
–Love that bluetooth phone!</p>
<p>I get better mileage than most people I know with the Prius. It just takes little adjustments to increase your mileage by about 10 mpg. Starting off is a big factor. Geography is a factor - obviously, hills can kill mileage but you usually end up coming back down them.</p>
<p>
Citation, please, WashDad?</p>
<p>According to the EPA site cartera45 cited, for [url=<a href=“http://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Index.do]my”>www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/Index.do]my</a> vehicle’s model year<a href=“2004,%20All%20States,%20SmartWay%20Elite,%20in%20the%20%22Look%20up%20green%20vehicles%22%20box%20to%20the%20right”>/url</a> there were 4 vehicles scoring 9.5 / 10 for overall Air Pollution score, and 4 vehicles scoring 10 / 10 for Greenhouse Gas score. The Prius was one of the 4 in each category, and the only vehicles on that list were Hondas (hybrids and CNGs) and Toyotas (well, Toyota singular, only the Prius that year).</p>
<p>By now (2008 model year) there may very well be other low-polluting vehicles available. Can you offer us a link where we can explore further, please?</p>
<p>My husband drives a Prius (2004) and is very happy with it. He gets excellent mileage - routinely 55 mpg until he replaced the tires. The new ones probably grip the road more, and now he gets about 50-51 mpg. He is an engineer, so he enjoys paying attention to all the little details of how to drive it for maximum efficiency. Some factors that affect mileage are not in his control - he says his mileage is worse in the summer when people are on vacation, so he gets less drafting on the freeway :-). I’m not as patient about starting up slowly from a stop sign, but I still usually get about 48 mpg.</p>
<p>It’s the most comfortable passenger car we’ve ever had, except for the Toyota Previa minivan we had awhile back.</p>
<p>Rear visibility is not great, and I also can’t get used to how sensitive the brakes feel compared to the car I drive.</p>
<p>According to the site posted here, my 2006 also gets 9.5/10 on the emissions. And the Civic hybrid at the time got only slightly better mileage than the non-hybrid model. It was also much smaller than the Civic; my d couldn’t get into the back seat comfortably.</p>
<p>True, it’s not a “zero emissions” vehicle; there weren’t any when we bought the car in 2005. And it does not have any emissions when it’s idling in the car pool line or stuck in traffic.</p>
<p>I don’t have a problem with the rear window.</p>
<p>
I think I’ve been ‘stuck’ behind you before. :(</p>
<p>
The following site has good info on fuel economy…
[Fuel</a> Economy](<a href=“http://www.fueleconomy.gov/]Fuel”>http://www.fueleconomy.gov/)
This site has some info on ‘driving clean’…
[DRIVECLEAN.CA.GOV</a> - Home](<a href=“http://www.driveclean.ca.gov/en/gv/home/index.asp]DRIVECLEAN.CA.GOV”>http://www.driveclean.ca.gov/en/gv/home/index.asp)</p>
<p>ucsd dad - eat my voltage! </p>
<p>Seriously, my first Prius came with that sticker in the glove box.</p>
<p>Fantastic sites, udsd dad–they confirm that my hybrid was a great decision!!!</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for sharing your hybrid experiences! I had to chuckle at the comment about motorhomes, but I think any car can benefit from a rear view camera. The Prius we drove had a camera (comes standard with the nav. system), while Honda dealer did not even bother to install the navigation DVD (no camera).</p>
<p>The reason we were testing cars with navigation systems is that H wants a built-in version vs the plug and play one. One of his co-workers’ car was broken into because the owner had the suction cup on the windshield (read: Garmin in the glovebox). Thieves got away with a $200 navigation system, but the owner was stuck with $2K damage.</p>
<p>Pruis is amazing. Fun. Sensational. Id trade my x5 to have it back in a heartbeat (I got to use the one at my work this summer). The shifty thing seems normal fairly quickly. I was able to put down the seats (very easily)and stuff more into it than you would believe. It fit when I had to take my brother plus his 3 friends (total of 4 highschool boys and myself) to the bus stop eac morning, very comfortably. All around wonderful experience. When I gave it back and reclaimed my gas guzzler, I almost ran out of gas many many times because I was not used to having to put gas into it. I miss that wonderful car.</p>
<p>Haha, also, my boss likes driving the pruis around and he also has a nissan titan, a range rover, and a marerati!!</p>
<p>That’s the same site I was using. Perhaps you were in a California-spec state? I used Washington for 2008.</p>
<p>Have any of you hybrid owners had service done at an independent repair shop or do you only take the car to the dealer?</p>
<p>I usually take mine to the dealer because they are so close, but I have used Jiffy Lube for a couple of oil changes. All I have ever had done were oil changes.</p>
<p>We take our Prius to an independent mechanic for routine maintenance. The only time we went back to the dealer was when I couldn’t get a library CD out of the CD player - the library puts stickers on their CD’s and the Prius didn’t like it. The dealer had seen this problem before and had some tool that he could use to extract the CD. I think we also had a recall notice (not too alarming or I would remember what it was) that we dealt with through the dealer.</p>
<p>Any comments on the longevity of the Prius? Or the Civic? I’ve heard intimations of scare stories on the Pruis battery long term. My MO with cars is to buy around 30,000 miles, and then keep as long as possible. I don’t drive all that many miles a year, but have been renting economy cars of late for longer quick trips due to the gas mileage on my minivan. </p>
<p>Would love a Prius, esp as they start to become available used. But with the battery question, I’ve not pursued it seriously.</p>
<p>I admit I go back to the dealer (a different one than I bought it from). They are good and reasonably priced. I’m just afraid that our local dealers don’t yet have enough experience with the hybrid.</p>
<p>About the battery: I think that, like most technology, the price for the battery will come down as more and more people buy Priuses. I’ve had my car only for 2 years, and we have about 50,000 on it - no problems so far!</p>
<p>Our Prius has over 90,000 miles and we’ve had few problems so far, battery or otherwise. The only real trouble spot has been that the display blanked out for a couple of months and then came back to life again. While it was not working, we read in the Prius discussion groups that this is an infrequent but known problem. I’m thinking it might have been caused by the after-market installation of an iPod hook-up, which involved removing the dashboard and connecting the iPod to the display. Anyway, the display works again now.</p>
<p>You can find lots of discussion of Prius issues, including battery life, at priuschat.com.</p>
<p>My husband wants me to sell my wonderful old Toyota Corolla (over 200k miles) so we can get a second Prius. I don’t want to let the Corolla go, but I did look on Craigslist to see how much a used Prius would cost. They are out there but they tend to hold their value in our area, especially if they have the stickers that let you go in the carpool lane.</p>
<p>great lake mom - I have only bought one used car but I got an extended warranty on it right away so you might want to do that with the Prius if the battery is an issue for you. The Prius batteries are designed to last the lifetime of the car - 150k - 200k miles and there are people who are getting this with no problems. The problem with finding info on battery replacement is that it is needed so rarely. More recently they have determined that if something goes wrong, the whole battery does not need to be replaced - they replace the corrupt cell. The battery costs dropped over a third in the first year or so the cars were out and I’m sure have continued to drop, but I didn’t look up today’s replacement cost. There’s a lot of info out there about the batteries. The best local cab company around here is using several of them so I’m sure they are racking up the miles.</p>