Greetings from S. Florida

Well, greetings!

I picked up my Prius on Thursday of last week and haven't come down off of cloud-9 since.

I've been wanting one for a couple of years now, but just haven't been able to put it together until now. Posted a couple of pics in the pictures Sticky so I'm not going to repeat them here.

It's been a long time since I've driven much for pleasure (the lack of terrain here makes it kind of boring.) However, I drove almost 350 miles this weekend just marveling at the car.

While I think that there's all kinds of cool things about the car, by far the coolest is that little display at the bottom of the Consumption screen that lists the average mileage. I'd have been happy with the 45 on the sticker (that's what my parents get in theirs in California), the 50-51 number that's living there right now just makes me giggle each time I think about it.

If anyone has any tips on gliding, I'm all ears!!!!

Congratulation on your purchase, your car looks great!

Thanks!

Congrats on your new ride. Since you live in S. Fl., you should see 50 mpg almost all the time. Drive safe and save some gas.

Thanks!

That's basically what I'm seeing. I'm still on my first tank, so I don't have anything even close to definitive yet. The average number on the MFD is hovering right around 51.

If I use a combination of paying attention and CC with light traffic I can keep the graph of 5 min averages close to 75. But those aren't realistic conditions for me. I suspect that the number would be better if there were fewer inconsiderate drivers here and I was less concerned about driving defensively.

Just driving at 65 mph in the right lane on I95 can be a real challenge (because too many others are trying to do 70...) I've already committed to staying off the freeway much as is possible until I can move away from these nut cases.

You know, I know that everyone claims to have the "worst" drivers. I just know that when I go other places I find the driving behavior to much less egregious than it is here, and I positively long for the "worst" drivers in my home town; they're angles compared to some of the best here.

hey florida people.

I would like to know where you got your prii. i am going to buy soon, and trying to find a good dealer. seems the best i am getting so far is msrp. two best offers so far are from coggin toyota in jacksonville and sun toyota in new port richey. anyone have experiences with them? appreciate the help. hope to be among your ranks soon.

ryan

Hey Ryan,

No, I can't say that I have any experience with either of those dealerships. However, I'll say this, the ONLY reason that I bought mine from a southeastern region dealership was because I did it through the Costco autoprogram where the pricing is somewhat controled.

Beyond that, I'd say get out of the southeastern region (that'd be AL, FL, GA, NC & SC) or do something like the Costco thing. Even the good dealerships will be hamstrung by the region pricing rules.

Hey Ryan,

We got ours at Gatorland in Gainesville. We weren't able to get a deal on it; bought it for MSRP. That being said, our overall experience with Gatorland was pleasant. We got the exact Prius we wanted (ie: color and package) and weren't pushed into anything we didn't want, including extended warranties. It was a much more pleasant car-buying experience than we expected.

Congratulations on your new Prius, dwdean! Have fun exploring PC and everything your car has to offer.

I grew up in Coral Springs near Fort Lauderdale - can't say I miss it.

Congratulations, you made a smart move. Curious, what car did you replace?

Thanks!

And LOL....I live in Margate (actually if you threw a ball over the fence in my back yard, it would land in Coral Springs)....and no, I can't say that I'm going to miss it when I finally see it receeding in my rearview mirror for the last time, I really want to move back to California, I'm just not sure I can afford it.

The car that I was driving before was a Ford Ranger pick-up that I inherited. The truck replaced a Jeep Cherokee that was having major mechanical problems.

You know I don’t miss either. Maybe it was having spent about a month at Christmas driving my parent’s Prius. But I know at least some it was overcoming simple inertia (i.e. having a car with capabilities that I didn’t need, but keeping it because I had it.)

Congratulations again on your Prius purchase! I know Margate pretty well and used to work at a McDonalds there while in High School. I usually tell people I lived near F Lauderdale because no one has heard of Coral Springs or Margate. College and the Army finally got me out of the city and eventually the state. It really wasn't a bad place, but I like mountains and four separate seasons. Do you know that there are trees where the leaves turn colors and fall off? Amazing! I also ran into this stuff called "snow." I can't figure out who is making it but it is pretty cool when you don't have to shovel it.

I have been shopping around there a few times. May I ask who you worked with? When did you buy yours? and how much it was? i feel like they are charging too much. I'm guessing you had to pay dealer fees and all that.

Ryan

LOL....that sounds like what I do when people ask where I am from (as opposed to where I live.) If I answer San Francisco, they all know, but if I say Berkely most of the time I get a look that says they know the name, but have no idea where it is.

And yeah, I really miss having four seasons instead of just two (hot and tourist.)

And really LOL about the snow....sounds sort of like a DBA from Panama that used to work for us. He had to go to a client site one winter about five years ago. No one thought too much about it until we all realized that it was possible for someone in their mid-thirties to have never seen snow.

i lived in cs, now in lake worth..visit cs often for gf

Ryan,

We bought our Prius two weeks ago today, so on April 16th. Our salesman's name was Randy Marker, but when I stopped back in yesterday I found that he was no longer working with them.

We got a 2008 Barcelona Red Package #2 for $23,765, which was exactly MSRP according to KBB and Edmund's. Edmund's said that at best, people in our area were paying $23,725 or so for that car...a difference of only $40. Since the car was already on the lot and we knew we could bring it home that day, we accepted the cost.

I don't think many people get good deals from Gatorland, since they're the only Toyota dealer within probably 60 miles that routinely sees Priuses. According to the salesperson yesterday, they have a 3 week backlog right now. However, I've also noticed that a comparable car to mine is listed on the Gatorland website as a couple of hundred dollars more than what we paid...

We went to Jacksonville and put a deposit on one there. It will be arriving on May 22nd. it was only a few bucks over invoice, so i really can't complain too much.

Can't wait for it to arrive.

Boynton Beach here.... I just made a round trip to Lakeland (about 200 miles each way). While on the Turnpike (using Cruse Control) I did a little "playing around" with various speeds while watching the MFD instantaneous MGP. I ran at about 20 minutes at each speed. This very informal test let me to believe that at between 65 and 70 cost about 2-3 MPG. Going from 70 to 75 cost an additional 7-8 MPG. A BIG change.

Since then I have seen some speed vs. MPG charts (on these forums, I can't remember where) that confirm a big drop off just above 70. So, I just set the CC to 70 and roll at about 48-49 MPG. A lot of cars passed me but I passed a few myself.

Good Luck,
Bob

Have wondered what it would be like on the Turnpike. I've even thought about driving up to Orlando just to find out (OK and to visit Disney too.)

I work in Delray Beach and did do the communte on the Turnpike a couple of times; it turns out the commute is really "better" on I95. Would really like to see what happens out in the central part of the state, but I guess that's already been answered.