Toyota Prius


 
Wow, I'm really late to the party on this one, not sure how I missed it.

Congrats on your upcoming RAV4, it will definitely serve you well. As we get older, the higher stance and easier in/out of RAV4, Honda CRV, etc. is a real bonus, plus better sight lines while driving and all of the safety bells and whistles to keep us from running over one another!

Just to pile-on to the Prius love-fest...wife has a 2004 Prius, which is the first year of the second generation, and I have a 2012 Prius Plugin, which is the first year of the plugin option. My wife loves her car, it's still going strong. The only major repair was the display system computer, which would have been a $3K repair had it not been covered under warranty. My car has been rock solid, 108K miles to date and no major issues. We take our cars to an independent garage that specializes in Toyota and especially Prius, and the owner tells me that he rarely ever replaces the batteries in these cars, so any fears you may have (or rumors you may hear) about battery failures is very unlikely. He owns several, too, and says they just keep going and going. In fact, Toyota extended the battery warranty from 8 years/100K miles to 10 years/150K miles starting with the 2020 model year.

My wife's 2004 Prius gets close to 50 mpg. My 2012 plugin gets closer to 56 mpg between fill-ups and with several electric recharges. My plugin was said to get 15 electric-only miles on a charge, but in reality it's closer to 10. The current plugin says 25 electric-only miles, but I suspect it's less. The plugin battery comes at the expense of the loss of a spare tire. That's not been a problem so far... 😐
 
I was thinking about holding out for a 2021 RAV4 Prime but the cost differential between the standard hybrid and the Prime on the RAV4 is $10k. Yikes! That's a whole lotta petrol partner. So we opted for ordering the 2020 XLE regular Hybrid. Price difference on those is only about $700 or so. And the cost to benefit ratio is outstanding. Plus it gets me a Japanese produced version. I have noticed a slight difference in quality between the same vehicles actually made in Japan vs here in USA. (sadly). So it's no wonder they won't trust us here to build such highly technical products
 
Congrats on your purchase Larry! I'm sure it will serve you well and you'll get many years of enjoyable service out of it. I also think you'll also enjoy the decision to go with the Rav from a joint and overall comfort standpoint. Easy to get in and out, no bending down etc are the reasons you see so many SUV's on the road today, plus, as Crhis highlighted, the signtlines to view traffic are much better. Great choice!
 
Out here in Colorado, you never see a Prius any more. I actually thought Toyota had stopped making them.

While the Prius was de riguer a few year back, it is all Teslas these days around here.
 
Yeah, ever look at a Tesla up close? Made worse than an old 70's Chrysler product. Misaligned body panels gaps all over the place, orange peel paint. I can't believe people line up to pay all that money for that kind of "workmanship?"
 
So many Teslas here in Silicon Valley. Of course, the factory is here. I remember initially the Model S exceeded the maximum 100 score in Consumer Reports ratings; not the case anymore. Can't speak to body panels and paint, but boy are they fun to drive. Extreme, immediate acceleration with little noise. Very little maintenance relative to a gasoline powered car. And its features and performance have the potential to improve with every software update.
 
My son in law was going to get one. He was all gaga over them until he saw how poorly made they were. He's going RAV4 Hybrid as well. The quality of a Toyota over those is night and day. For what they cost I really expected far far better
 
Not saying stupid. Don't put words in my mouth. You know as well as I do people will line up for miles if they think something is "fashionable" and let's face it. People sure aren't buying those things for the economy of them. They're a fashion statement pure and simple. I just think for the $$$$ they charge (no pun intended) they could make them a WHOLE lot better than what I've seen on the streets.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
Out here in Colorado, you never see a Prius any more. I actually thought Toyota had stopped making them.

While the Prius was de riguer a few year back, it is all Teslas these days around here.
Click to expand...
They probably go with the flow over there? Big attraction is the power plant which provides such instant acceleration and performance, but I have heard that quality is lagging. And then where do you go?
 
Not enough plug in stations for electric cars in the midwest yet. Interesting comments about Tesla performance in the cold weather too. I never thought about what extreme cold might do to an electric car. I'm driving a Ford Focus which has been an OK car. I liked my 2013 Camry SE V6 a lot more.
 
Well I do find myself kinda chuckling when it's brutal cold here and the line of Tesla's is 1/4 mile long waiting for the charging stations at CherryVale or Sam's Club. IIRC it takes about 60% longer to fully charge and you lose about 40% total performance and range below 20F. And it gets worse the lower you go. So you gotta plan a whole lot better in winter.
 
Well we pulled the trigger today on a new 2020 Rav4 Limited Hybrid. $4k more than we planned on spending but we thought about it. We had an XLE on order but figured that with all the extra comfort, convenience, and safety features over the course of time we'll own it we thought why go the next 5+ years thinking "it would have sure been nice had we gotten this or that". So we pulled the trigger. Take delivery on Monday evening. I know it looks dirty. It literally was rolled off the truck yesterday afternoon just before they closed. There were people waiting in line to look at it LOL when we cut the deal on it.
They had gotten 2 in. A dark blue one and this one. I liked the pear red color and I liked that this one was built in Japan. We currently have 2 Highlanders. One is 20 years old built in Japan the other is 9 yo built in US. The 20 yo one is still a tighter more well screwed together car IMO than the US made one. So even though the Pear Red was $500 more than the blue I opted for it.
20200808_103443.jpg
 
Wow, that looks sweet and it doesn't look dirty to me. Enjoy the high mileage and especially those safety features that will prevent you from running over someone. :D
 
Ya know this thing is loaded with cameras. There is one under the rear plate, one up on the roof with dual lenses pointing front and rear, one up under the 3rd brake light. And 2 more under the side mirrors. You can literally have a 360 deg view, even the rear view mirror has a switch to go from conventional mirror to an LCD/LED screen using the camera up under the 3rd brake light.
So I said to my wife just that very thing. No excuse for running the sprinkler over LOL. We're looking forward to it. Killer sound system too. I tried my favorite Sirius station (49 the soul station), and Sly and family Stone came on. Sounded like they were playing right in the car LOL
 
Very nice Larry, I'm sure you will be very happy with it. I really like the color. I'd love to get a new car but just can't justify it when we put under 3000 miles total on both cars last year. Barbs Santa Fe has just 49K on it and it's 6 years old. She drives the 4runner to work so the Santa Fe doesn't get dinged up in the parking lot. Sometimes sits there unused for two or three weeks at a time.
The Santa Fe has been in the body shop getting a scratched right front fender fixed for a week after the garage attacked her car, amazing what stucco can do to paint. Six 5-6" scratches, no dents $ 2018 to fix it.:mad:
 
She's still working so we'll have her drive the hybrid since on her driver we still put 8 to 10k per year. The other car I drive we only put 5 to 6k on it. So she's been using 10 to 12 gal gas wk. I figure going from a 15/16 mpg car to 40 or so she will only need a fill up every 3 to 4 weeks. As it is I only use about 7 to 8 gal wk due to the newer Highlander get about 3 to 4 mpg better than the older one. I typically average 19 to 21 mpg in the newer one. So between it being more efficient and driven less I figure the hybrid would be a good fit for her use
 
Well so far almost 2 weeks with new car and I must say I am IMPRESSED with it. Check out my latest mileage rating. And no I was not driving. I was parked in front of my house after running errands1598100610267.png
1598100610267.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top