When will you buy/trade?

[hiremichaelreid]

I think my wife's 1999 Subaru Legacy will be due for replacement in 2010-2011. I'm thinking of a 30 mile range small electric vehicle for her, but will re-evaluate over the next few years of course.

If my 2008 Prius lasts as long as it's predecessor, I'll still have it in 2022 and perhaps with a 3rd generation of battery upgrades, perhaps a dime sized fusion battery...

[dwdean]

When I sold the truck that my Prius replaces, it was literally the first time that I've "disposed" of a vehicle before I'd driven it into the ground.

I really have no plans on repeating that performance with the Prius; I'll keep it until it dies or becomes to expensive to fix/run. If there's any truth to the reliability reputation of Toyotas in general, we could easily be talking Gen IV or Gen V.

[mitch672]

I'm an "early adopter", I'll probably private sale my 2004 Prius, just before I pick up the new plug in 3rd Generation model , thats what I did with m 2002 Prius, when I bought the 2004

mitch

[edselpdx]

Not planning a trade in anytime soon, but certainly won't be buying a first-year PHEV. Might go for the 2011, but may jump into an EV of some kind once there's a 4/5-seater with a decent range.

I've also considered buying a Zap Xebra, but I'd have to keep my Prius (or do a car-share) for bimonthly 100mi roundtrip to pick up my daughter at her dad's, days where I am going more than 25 miles or so, and also for hauling/road trips (3-4X/yr.) I should start a bit of a spreadsheet to analyze costs of insurance, etc for keeping the Prius vs Zap + a carshare service... hmmmmm

[sdtundra]

Drive the Prius into the ground and maybe if finances allow in the future, pick up a Tesla for the weekend

[plusaf]

now i'm stuck... my '04 BC/9 is still a treat to drive, but with gas prices what they are, i've been hinting to my wife that she should trade her 22mpg '98 Camry XLE on a Camry hybrid.... saw some data the other day that the incremental price/payback period is $<900./1.8 years!!

so she suggested that she should use MY car more often....

this could cause problems...

[T_S_Kimball]

*wave* Long time no see, and it had to take an email update from Danny to get me back here...

I'm still paying off the '07, and will probably continue to do so for another three years. I like what I have, and at worst case I'm keeping an eye on the various styles of after market L-ion upgrades in the pipeline (in particular when the kit versions finally come out in 'decent' quantities).

My (actual) previous long-running car was a 93 Corolla (acquired in '96 as the second owner), and that was so close to the 200K mileage mark at trade-in that I should have just kept the durn thing another six months to prove the point.

Like others here, this car will be kept until something serious happens to it. And as an ol' techie, I'm not above modding the car in the interim.

--TSK

PS: WHY do I need to allow javascript from 'yahooapis.com' in order to post correctly??!?

[PriusSport]

Wait and see if they can get control of oil prices. Right now, the price is so volatile the car market is topsy turvy. You don't know where things are going.
Also, the electric car technology will change rapidly in the next year or two with the new Li-ion batteries. So you want to wait and see what happens there.

As for choosing between 08 and 09 Prius, I see they just went up another $400 on the 08 Prius. Over what I paid two weeks ago. With little car change expected in 09 and a still higher price almost certain, I guess the time to buy an 08 was yesterday.

[Mika]

Mine's a 2008 and so my previous cars were traded after they died. That would be my main goal. So, even if I wanted to get the latest & greatest, I'd wait a few years after the first one so the kinks are worked out.

[F8L]

For financial and environmental impact reasons I will likely keep my 2005 until it is either:

A: Not repairable (economically)

B: A more environmentally friendly (better milage, parts are recyclable and made from less toxic substances) vehicle comes out that will get over 200mpg and is under $35k, like the Aptera.

In the end I am not sure buying a newer plug-in Prius would be an environmentally sound choice for my diving habits vs keeping my current car unless the newer car over doubled my current 50mpg average.