Is the Prius a good choicefor me?

I'm sure some Canadians will chime in soon, but the answers are (1) yes, it has proven to be very reliable, and (2) yes, MPGs will be less in cold weather, but (a) it will still be better than any other car in cold weather, and (b) you are driving long distances that will take advantage of a warmed up engine. You didn't say whether you were thinking of a 2nd generation car or the new 2010. 2010 has improved mileage, power, handling and seats.

 

Yep, it is reliable, and even with the cold weather, it should still get 40-42 MPG.

I would get one (just make sure you get good after market tires).

 

Actually, it should get even higher.

Here's my 5.5 years of data for my Iconic model (2004) in Minnesota:




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Hey, we bought a 06 a year ago. We got all of our PST ($1400)back. And it actually only took about 2 weeks to get it.
Our car had 72,000kms on it and now is at 107,000kms. Haven't done a thing other then transmission fluid myself ($40)..and it didn't need it. I also did the plugs just last Monday...again didn't need it, but since we have put 30,000+ kms on it in a year and I had NO idea what's been done to it by the previous owner, I thought I'd better do them.

Our average has been 4.4-4.6L/100kms (53mpg-51mpg). This is the first summer at our house, but over the winter we got 5.6L/100km (42mpg).

My opinion, you will be VERY happy with the car...I would highly recommend it!

BTW, we live in a VERY hilly area, and our house is built into the side/top of the Niagara Escarpment. Before we moved here we only had the car for 2 months, but we were averaging 4.2L/100kms (56mpg) for those 2 months.

 

If you are looking to keep the purchase price down I would recommend a used Civic or Corolla. They are plentiful and reliable and get good fuel economy. Driving 100 km per day I would expect that you would be driving mostly highway.

A 2005 Civic is rated at:
5 speed ---- 29/32/36 mpg
CVT -------- 31/34/39 mpg

A 2005 Corolla is rated at:
5 Speed ---- 28/31/37 mpg
Automatic -- 26/29/35 mpg

Either of these cars can be found for $7000 to $9000 with 60k-75k miles. For a student on a budget, I can't in good conscience recommend spending the extra money for a Prius or other hybrid car. It is FAR more important to get your studies completed and minimize the amount of debt accumulated during school.

 

Ya, you can get the PST rebate on a used car. You have up to 4 years to claim it. However, and I tried to get this, you can't get the ecoauto rebate on a used one.

You can look around on autotrader and find the odd one for $15000. The catch with that 08 Prius is, it isn't a catch....it's a SCAM. What they do is tell you the car is somewhere in the US and they are being deployed to Afgan or something. You send them the money via paypal and they'll have the car shipped to you. Ofcourse, you send them the money and that's it...never to be seen or heard from again. I'm willing to bet the pics (if on autotrader) are all blurry right?

Where in Canada are you?
There is a base model 04 with 92,000kms on it for $13000 about an hour away from me....they can be found, theres a few others on there as well in that price range but higher kms.

 

I'm in Ontario...just outside Toronto.
That is a fully loaded Prius. Nav and all. I doubt you could get it for only $4000. I think they ment 24000.

But yes, you could get any Toyota dealer to service it. There's very little that they need anyways.