Buyer's Remorse

understood. to buy a car for a purpose it wasn't designed for, and then to have the secondary purpose not work out can be disappointing. i'm surprised the chips aren't keeping a close eye on the carpool lane. on the plus side, your car may be worth a decent amount when the stickers run out.

 

Yes this happens to everyone in SoCal too. The HOV stickers are not always a benefit. Many times you will find the other lanes are moving better than the HOV lanes.

There is so little enforcement on the HOV lanes, I see so many breaking the rules and just going on there....further congesting the lanes. I just wish the government gets rid of all the HOV lanes and make those lanes available for everyone to use. That would free up so much traffic

 

You might have bought the right car for the wrong reason.

The reason that I say that is that I was *less* than impressed with the Prius when I first started driving it 72,000 miles ago.
However (comma!) what's not to like about $30 fill-ups and the ability to get the first 8-10 miles on EV???

My Prius has won me over (mostly) over the last three years, and it's not like driving to work is going to be a joy in almost any other vehicle.
I guess I'm just getting spoiled by not spending $50 on a tank of gas.

Good Luck!!

The silver lining:
You're in SOCAL. Since you've already qualified for the tax reabtes, and the car already has the sticker attached then it's resale value is remarkably high for a $30,000 car.
If you're racked by buyer's remorse?
Sell it.
Or?
Wait.
The next gas price spike is only one international incident or Gulf hurricane away!

It's not like you bought a new Camaro which is now worth only half of what you paid for it.

 

The title should have been "Dissapointed in HOV lane",

 

You should have gotten a good price for it. If you bought this a few months ago, you would have gotten all the California rebates, federal rebates, Toyota rebates.....It was literally a better value than buying a Prius III

 

Not at all. Yes, there are carpool cheaters and road boulders but the HOV lane always moves. Nothing wrong with venting but remember there are thousands of people in the regular lanes that would gladly take your Green Stickers.

 

Some things I've noticed in observing cars in the HOV lanes: the front seat passenger often has the seat reclined, becoming almost invisible; kids in car seats, likewise- especially with window tint; natural gas powered cars ( Hondas and Fords, for instance) look just like the regular models; and the rear passenger in a chauffeured car is hard to see, again with tinted glass. I would put the put the violator number somewhere between 10 and 20%.
Having said all that, I'm with you on the fact that this means there are still a lot of scofflaws out there. But once in awhile I see one of them get nabbed, and (hopefully) there is a huge fine attached to show that driver the error of his ways! And maybe seeing one guy pulled out of the HOV Lane keeps a few others honest.
As mentioned, there were some really competitive deals out there recently, and I hope you got one of them.

 

Note that you have to keep the car for 3 years to keep that California rebate.

As others have mentioned, it's the failure of the HOV lanes, not the failure of the car. That said, I blame both Caltrans and some Marin County cities for the failure of the HOV lanes, but mostly Marin County cities who don't want the HOV lane through their respective city. Makes absolutely no sense, and it's fair to say that HOV lanes on 101 are sporadic at best, and therefore limited benefit.

For example, through Sausalito on NB 101, there are 4 traffic lanes and 0 HOV lanes. But when you reach Mill Valley, there are 3 traffic lanes and 1 HOV lane. So in other words, you could have easily extended the HOV lane for 2 miles through Sausalito, but nope. Same situation on SB 101, where there are 3 traffic lanes and 1 HOV lane in Mill Valley, but it becomes 4 regular traffic lanes in Sausalito. Let's not forget that either direction is fed by or received by at most 4 traffic lanes on the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

Green sticker problems are like rich people problems.........

 

Agreed. Except the problems I mentioned apply not only to people with white/green stickers, but also the carpool, vanpool, and commuter/airporter buses.

 

But with the greatest respect, isn't your grumble about the car the same as saying a Ferrari is no good because the highway has an 80 mph limit? It's not the cars fault your local area doesn't correctly police the roads.

 

I don't know where these Ca. HOV stickers are leading us.

The HOV stickers have probably been single-handedly the greatest incentive for Plug_in sales. Now we have green HOV stickers going to 70,000 and if they stop there, PHEV sales could drop off, so some groups such as Plug_in America may ask for yet more green HOV stickers (guessing). But BEV's in Ca. are allowed to keep getting white HOV stickers ad infinitum, so it seems like the HOV lane incentive could be in trouble due to over-population. So the plan in CA is now to add a carbon tax on gasoline, which if it were to get up to a couple $bucks/gal could shift sales to Plug-Ins. I suppose, but carbon tax disincentive is not a proven successful sales approach for getting people into Plug_Ins vs. ICE or hybrids.

 

I have non buyer's remorse.
There is not one mile of HOV lanes in my state
Not one of the Zero miles of HOV lanes allow single occupancy vehicles.
My state matches this with a $0 incentive to buy sensible cars.
Toyota does not sell a Prius PHV in my state.
Toyota does not make or sell the vehicle I need, a Prius v PHV anywhere on earth.
In contrast to this long list of fail, Dianne Whitmire did offer me a good deal on a Prius PHV from Carson CA. I worried about mechanics and did not take her up on her winning offer.

I console my self with the best MPG station wagon/van/SUV available. (I need 65 cubic feet of cargo room)

 

You have a fine car. Don't sweat the small stuff. You will drive that car trouble free for a long time.

 

I bought a PIP in July mainly to get a green sticker. I live in Sacramento, and it saves me 15 minutes a day both ways having it.

There are a lot of cheaters who use the carpool lanes here too.

I paid about 3k more for my PIP after all the rebates...I think the green sticker is worth that..considering I save 2.5 hours a week.

 

Would it be cheaper to cheat on the HOV lane and taking the risk of getting tickets? I think not.

If you got $6,500 incentives, PiP would've cost less than the comparable NEW regular Prius.

Will you save money by buying a used car? Yes, but comparing a new to a used car is not valid.