What was your previous car?

I've noticed that many Prius owners have come from far more $$$ or high performance rides. I'm curious as to reasons for making a drastic change.

Novelty of a Subaru STI wore off? Kids? Environmental? Just growing up....the ritual of getting married/house....? Or empty-netters wanting to downsize?

I came from an 02 Accord SE 4cyl.

This has been covered on some previous threads, but we have a lot of new members.

As for me, my previous car was a Ford Aerostar van. It was old and we no longer had kids at home.

Tom

The wifes '93 Accura Legend Coupe had 205K and was time to retire, so we got her the Blue Prius. We liked it so well that 2 weeks later we traded in my '08 Honda Fit for the White one. I guess the biggest reason we bought the two of them is that she is averaging 56 MPG, up from 22 in the Accura and I'm getting almost 60, up from 38 in my Fit. You got to love that.

Well i own a lancer evolution X 2008 and i want a Prius 2010! Im getting older love to take my time to travel so a Prius would be perfect for me! Anyway here in Quebec we cant speed anywhere and now in Montreal the speed limit is now 40km/h so a Prius for that would be great, plus i love special ride even if they arent the faster!

Ours was a 2003 Toyota WiLL Cypha 4WD. Doubt anyone will know what it looks like, so here is a pic;


Our reasons for changing cars are all superficial, and as much as I love the new car I will always regret getting rid of the Cypha. It was in great condition really, but the mandatory vehicle checks were getting expensive and the air conditioning compressor failed... We replaced it, but got the sad feeling that more things would eventually get old and go bad - and that it would cost more and more to keep it up to standard to pass the checks. The top coat of the paint was beginning to peel in a couple places, it had salt damage to the inside of the body in a couple spots, etc. It was just old by Japanese standards.
The cost to bring it back into pristine condition and the cost of the scheduled vehicle check together was more than enough to make a large down payment on a new vehicle.

And, well, it was small. We always had trouble carrying things in it as the "luggage area" was closer to a "one suitcase spot", and the back seat was taken up nearly half by my son and his child seat.
But it was truly a wonderful car. Luckily we found someone to buy it from us who I can trust will take care of it and treat it well. (Toyota employee at the Toyota main company!)

The reason we chose the Prius was because it was just cool and we really liked the technology.

1988 Honda CRX Si. Original owner and at 396,000+ miles, it threw a main bearing on 01/30/09. Loved driving that car the entire time I owned it. 38-40 mpg commuting with mostly freeway miles and 42 mpg straight freeway road trip.

Wife's Car: 99 Ford Contour Sport (6cyl) - traded this one in for 2010 Prius IV + SLR

My Car: 94 Ford Aspire (4cyl, manual) - still own this one. it gets ~45mpg in the summer with 80% city driving. Will get rid of this one when the finances are in place to get a PHEV Prius or a Nissan Leaf (or whatever comparable EV car the other manufacturers come out with within the next 5 years)

My previous vehicle was a 1996 Jeep GC with 197,000 miles (19 mpg average). The main reason for buying the Prius, besides the mileage, was C4C came along at the right time for me.

My previous car was a 2009 C30 Volvo coupe, in balck, w/ 5cyl. turo. Fast, not too good with the fuel. 28 mpg (premium). Extremely sound auto with very commfortable seats.
Why, the Prius? It is much better with the fuel, 51 mpg, now. But, should get better and it likewise has been commfortable.
Picked up the car on saturday, 2.27.10.
I really like it.

I ended up Clunkering my 1987 Volvo 740 Turbo Wagon. At 370K miles, it was starting to nickel and Dime me to death in the last year.

I had already put in a PS pump, new battery, and a steering rack between Jan-and July when I bought the Prius.

Plus it needed about $1,500 to $2,000 worth of work to make it another two years. I needed four new steel wheels (Rust causing leaks) for my snows, AC work (a valve not compressor), new heater core the original was leaking. Plus there was some rust that was popping up in some places hidden from view that I figured would cost me $600-$750 to fix. And there had been this miss that only occurred in warm weather that had me and my mechanic at our wit's end trying to find.

Since 2005 and 2009 I basically replaced every electrical component that had any affect on fuel or the ignition trying to isolate the problem with no success. I was done with the car basically and it was going to be gone by Dec 09 because it was not worth fixing anymore.

Cash for Clunkers was a no brainer when it was offered and the 2010 Prius was my first choice.

I was already searching for a replacement in a 07-08 used Prius or HCHII when the C4C program was announced.

The old Volvo got me 20-21 mpg around town and 29-30 highway.
The Prius uses 40% of the gas the Volvo wagon did.

1994 Dodge Dakota Sport 4wd with plow. Served me well for 15 years. Miss it after a big storm: Prius bottom hits snow on private road I previously plowed.

I came from 2001 Acura RL 3.5 V6. Changed due to fuel prices.

E92 M3. Fun car, but too small for an infant seat.

06 Lexus IS250. Great car but got totalled by a Landcruiser. Would have purchased another but as with SDM44, the rear seats were non-existent and wouldn't fit an infant seat.

It was getting time to replace the 97 Camry. Thought we would just get another Camry but after reading here and test driving the Prius, the Prius just made sense.

The wife and I had a Gen 2 as a rental last year(March)for a ten day vacation thoughout Northern California. It really opened our eyes to the Prius. So when the lease on our 2007 Toyota Tundra double cab with the big 5.7 liter V8 came up in January we decided to make the
switch. We like the flexibility of truck, and haul a lot but we will adapt. Now we are the friends that need to borrow a truck, not the ones that have one.
Oh and one other reason
Tundra 16.4 MPG
Prius 48.1 MPG

06 Rav4 2,2D

83 Totyota Tercel > 93 Honda Accord > 00 Integra Type R > 04 Impreza STI > 04 BMW E46 M3 > 10 Prius PKG III and i also have a beater, my trustworthy 97 Maxima that i had for 10+yrs.

got a mortgage now + marriage!

Today: MB 06 LS, 96 ML
Before: 996, 930, E500, Land Rover, M3...

I'll no doubt upset a lot of people, and I by no means advance this as the ONLY demographic buying Prius. It's a diverse crowd. But it's been my observation that there is a percentage of Prius purchasers that I would call "Cheap- Rich Bastards". They usually own 2-3 vehicles, announce that The Prius is "The Wifes" and enjoy paying $31,000+ for a hatchback so they can drive it when gas prices top $4.00 a gallon. When gas prices drop? They go back to The Prius being the vehicle the wife uses, while they drive the sports car or SUV. But I think they like having The Prius in the driveway to show how thrifty, and intelligent they are when gas prices go up.