I have a bad feeling that gas prices will not go down and yet, continue to climb. Being that the hipotetic case, I was thinking on replacing my beater with the Prius, which gives a hell of a lot of miles per gallon. THey are sold out and even with $5000 over MSRP?

Comments?

 

dont know but I was stuck behind one on a side road today doing 20 in a 35 .. are they really that slow or was it just the damn driver?

 

Be prepared to wait a LONG time. A co worker bought one, and he has waited five months! And the demand is growing.

The Prius is a nice choice. The distinction is that you NEVER have to plug it into the wall.

And about markups. The Chevy SSR pickup truck at $45,000 on the window is fetching $65,000 around here.

 

SIXTY FIVE THOUSAND?! lol I would piss my pants if I saw that at a chevy dealer.

 

The Civic Hybrid is a good pick as well. Take into consideration the price. For instance a Honda Civic LX can be had in the $15k range while the Hybrid is in the $20k range $5000 buys a lot of gas!

 

yeah they're even popular with celebrities. i believe cameron diaz has one, tom hanks, leonardo dicaprio, larry david from Curb Your Enthusiasm / Seinfeld has one and even Kristin Kreuk was here at Cerritos Toyota wanting one and willing to pay extra to have it right then and they couldnt supply her with one on the spot. im sure theres other celebrities who have them too.

 

That is CRAZY. The local Chevy/Caddy dealership here has had 3 sitting out front for at least 3 weeks now. Only seen a few on the road. Really not selling well here. Don't understand the markup.

 

Hybrids = stupid waste of money.....

My GF father has a Civic Hybrid. Very nice. Excellent quality. Excellent gas milage...

But I added up what he paid extra for the car..
Plus the added expense of the expensive oil changes

He is not saving one penny... Plus, now that his car has over 100K (yeah, he drives a lot) he was informed that he might need to replace the batteries around 125K... At a cost of 2000 dollars..

Now what is he really saving??

 

You got that right. Even if you assume the regular Civic gets only 25 MPG and the Hybrid gets 50 MPG, you would have to drive the hybrid over 110,000 miles (assuming $2.25 per gallon) just to make up the $5K difference.

 

Plus I have recently heard that if you are in an accident, rescue teams cant/wont do much due to the electricity in the car. If you need to be cut out with the jaws of life, its not happening

 

The MPG shown on the Prius' sticker is that of the EPA, meaning the buyer wont be getting anywhere close to that. If i rem. correctly, the avg comes out to 36 city. And it will take many years (somewhere around 7-10 i think) to come out on top as far as saving goes.


But its about more then just MPG for the buyers who really want one and which others wont get.

And they're one of the coolest looking cars out there

 

remember that you also get a tax break if you buy a hybrid.

 

^ somethin like $2500 tax break

 

Paying 25k just so you can get a car with nice gas mileage seems a little extreme whether you're getting a tax break or not.

 

aint paying that, no way. MSRP or less, i think if u order one u pay MSRP. Just need to wait a long ass time.

 

buy a used insight

 

I think its down to $1500 and pretty soon the imported Hybrids wont qualify at all

 

the best part is, most of these clowns won't even own the cars long enough to get any benefit from them

 

some people enjoy helping the enviroment

 

dude

we are not clowns. We are taking serious the fact that gas prices can continue to go up and we need to do soemething about it. Whatever the amount of money the car costs, the cartel (OPEC) might just not increase the quota of barrels per day. And with the increasing demand of gas, prices will just go up. Remember, they are a cartel, they can do whatever they want, like diamond rings.

 

Yep, your all right. And if you watch the used price of hybrids, as the hit over 70,000 miles the resale drops like a rock. No one wants to get stuck with having to replace the batteries..

Yeah, the tax deductions is only 1500, but dont forget, that you only get to see about 30% of the 1500 back...

I am all for aletrnative fuels and saving what resources we have left, but I honestly think we need to develop the hydrogen cell befor we try and make better mileage vehicles.. so unless you drive ALOT........ it doesnt really save you anything but time of refueling your car..

 

^^^^The voice of reason. If the current price of gas started getting to me, I'd just get a Honda Civic HX "beater". It only costs $14,500 well equipped, gets 40mpg+ and doesnt have the performance penalties inherrent with Hybrids (though not exactly burning the roads up either).

 

I'm just telling you, I work w/ alternative powered cars, and you are in for a rude awakening if you think purchasing one of these is gonna save you ANY cash, unless you plan on owning it for 5+ years.

 

what kind of alternative powered cars do you work with?

 

It's not just about saving money, it's about saving the environment and using less fuel so that gas prices don't continue to rise because of all the gas hogging SUV's sucking up what little oil resources there are in the world. Supply and demand.

 

Buy an H2, they should be getting really good discounts now...

 

my family owns a deep cycle battery company, we have been working w/ some of the industries best for years w/ various types of battery power etc. things like the EV1, etc.

 

reality says, SUV's gas mileage isn't that bad. Yes things like the H2 getting around 10+ is rediculous. But other cars like the big navigators etc are getting 15+. What's the avg CL owner get? ARound 20 w/ the last poll I saw

 

25......but again 1 or 2 cars it's not a big diff.....u extropolate for the US Market it adds up fast. Savings is savings.

 

I don't even understand how someone would pay MSRP for a Chevy SSR. Hmmm, slow funky looking truck or a 'vette, I dunno.

 

you guys do better then us first gen guys, some of them don't even get 20.


So let's say theoretically these cars save you 1,500 a year in gas. Most of these things are 5-10K over their non-fuel alternative counter parts. Gonna take a long time to get those savings, esp. since most of us here don't really keep cars longer then 4-5 years.
Not to mention most of these alternative cars are leased.


I do agree if you are looking to better the environment this is the way to go, but most people are buying them because they think they will save them money.

 

Oddly enough, my coworkers Prius showed up in the parking lot at work today. I'll make a long story short.

I got a test drive that lasted only about 200 feet. But I know why. He took delivery just about as the dealer closed, so he hasn't had much experience with the car. And the guy is a degreed engineer, and these guys don't like being asked questions he can't answer. Give me a week, and I'll try to give you a review.

The styling is modern, but not to my taste. Fit and finish is just fine. Nice screen like where the navi is in the CLS, shows what is going on with the powerplant(s), radio, climate control, etc. 1.4L gas engine in front on the passenger side, electric motor in front of the driver. The trunk suprised me. I wasn't expecting one. Not huge, but not small either. Could probably hold three sets of golf clubs.

Other comments to all of you:

Yes, I also wondered how a good crash would be handeled, seeing that battery technology isn't environmentally friendly. But I don't see why the jaws of life couldnt be used. Insullated handels and gloves should protect the workers.

BTW, this guy travels 50 miles to work, and uses expressways exclusively.

And someone complained about a prius driving slow. It may be typical of the type of owner.

I'm keeping an eye on this thing. We just MAY being conditioned to $2.50 a gallon gas, then, when we are used to it, it'll get bumped to $4. Remember, we live in a country where high gas prices don't make bush and cheney lose any sleep. Add to that, every day, oil sources diminish. There WILL come a day where gas will be worth $100 a gallon.

I haven't done much research looking into this due to time, but I will bet our federal government isn't busting the budget to research alternative fuels, the real answer.

Remember this when you vote this fall.

 

^^^BTW: Joel waited 7 months for his Prius. He knows how to communicate effectively. After plunking down $500 for his Prius, he got pissed about waiting. His oldest son was just of driving age, and needed Joels old accord. He contacted the president of Toyota, Usa, and got a pretty quick response.

Now, if you plunk down $500, you have to wait a full year to get your car.

 

I've never seen a non-luxury/non-exotic car have a waiting list.....

It's like two years for an SL65 :o

 

Minch: After 9/11, it's a brand new world. I don't doubt Joel. He announced the buy in late December, and had a son coming of driving age. Joel would give him his old accord. Couple of weeks he was told. After a month, couple of months he was told.

Check it out if you want. Call Toyota and see. I dunno, I havent got time.