my students are not happy about the Prius

Great, that is the last thing I would want a teaching telling my kids.

 

Never heard it from a teacher, but when my parents bought a conversion van quite a while ago (I was about 17 at the time), the dealer mentioned that when he was a kid, they'd call a vehicle like that a "shaggin' wagon". Naturally, my parents were out of earshot at the moment.

 

Prius's get in wrecks just like other cars.... there should be plenty of batteries available in perfect condition in the junk yards.. as long as they don't try to gouge us for them.

I expect there would be a large glut of supply verses demand so the price "should" be cheap.

 

As a Teacher, here is your chance to provide some valuable education.

 

everyone seems to think the batteries on the prius will fail in 3-4 years. what idiots. a trucker who gets 5mpg and spends $600 on gasoline a day argued with me. Nobody realizes that prius batteries last for the life of the car. We're driving Toyota hybrids, not Hondas...lol

 

Addressing the battery issue: I just traded in my 2004 Prius with 169,000 miles on it. The batteries showed no signs of depletion. I was still getting 48 mpg's. I'm quite sure they would have gone to at least 200,000 before needing replacement. Toyota engineers think things through very carefully.
Happy motoring!

 

I got similar comments/reactions from one of my sons (who's into high performance cars)...while my other son thought it was cool (he's the smarter of the two ).

 

yes, and batteries are always getting cheaper... we are right on the cusp of going full Lithium.. when that happens, the NiMH batteries will drop even more in price and demand.

 

Ah, didn't realize you taught music--never mind. I still think it would be a good opportunity to make them think in the context of economics and global issues. But better in a science or econ class.
~T

 

I just got my Prius a week ago and your thread jumped out at me because I got some of the same reactions from students - the same comment about the battery! I had to tell them that the battery is covered by an 8-year warranty so in three or four years, Toyota should be replacing it for me, if it goes "bad".
I also got the car-dude-guy-student who said "why did you trade in your bmw for THAT??". I told him all the reasons and he just said "oh. well then." :rockon:
Mostly the kids have been totally thumbs-up on the Prius and not too surprised that I got one. Several of the teachers here have them and I've been lusting after one since I rode in one. I don't miss the luxury car- "Sybil" is more fun to drive. :cheer2:

(I never name cars but we are calling this one "Sybil" because my son said "it looks like a car that is trying to be several kinds of cars all at once")
V

 

any student that doesn't like the car gets an F