NBC Blasphemers

I hate to say it but I don't expect any better from NBC. I spent the day driving many short hops in 97 degree weather and I averaged 52 MPG. Not bad for many stops (long enough everything cools down).

I have only owned my Prius for 2 weeks and I already have 2400 miles on it. I am a long ways from an expert driver but I believe I can beat 35 MPG! :mrgreen:

 

I know I am...only one week, and almost 500 miles...and I am getting around 60 MPG, in mostly city driving.

 

do not know. Any car commercials during the breaks?

But if they do, they must be hoping that you and I will not visit the Kelly Blue Book web site and compare Prius depreciation with (a wide variety of) GM vehicles.

I reccomend this simple exercise to potential buyers sitting on the fence.

 

I do not know, would not hurt to send emails....assume that they will never acknowledge them though

NBC was the network that a few years ago 'faked' the gas tank fires in sidesaddle GMC gas tanks by inserting exposive squibbs to 'hurry the explosion'..

Some time later, after their fraud was uncovered, they apologized....

 

Just reread the article; you will noter that they uh, sort of quote Consumer Reports, not their own 'expert'.

And this came off of MSNBC, if that makes any difference, not NBC proper.

My insurance DID go up over my previous Honda Civic Hybrid and in turn, the HCH cost more to insure than did my 2001 Chevrolet Venture van.

Then they confused the issue by jumping to the Accord Hybrid and glossing over the cleaner air aspects (although they threw us a fish by allowing the Hybrid SUV owner to comment on lower emissions).

Eh, I will get my 'opinions' from people I trust, not CR and MSNBC, or even Edmunds or Kelly Blue Book. I can research what a vehicle is worth in my area my checking local ads as well.

 

Save an average of $81? Is this remotely true? After all the calculations... how many years do you really need to own the Prius to actually come up in comparion to the Camry???

 

with the price of gas the way it is now, i would be saving about $81 a month over my truck.

 

The best in town tank we've ever seen in 45. Highway, maybe 51. 35 is awful low, but realize there are lots of people like us who never get any better mileage.
And they did mention the "green statement" aspect. Many of you have stated thats why you did this as well. :|

 

i think a write in campaign would be very helpful. if we were to direct interested viewers to PriusChat, then maybe they can read some real world results by real people instead of car reviewers.

also, i read the CR report on Priuses and i dont remember them getting mileage that was only a few mpg higher than a Camry...which btw... only gets the mid to high 20's around town. my dad has a 2005 and the only time he hit 30+ was on the freeway driving from WA to Texas.

 

I finally put my PriusChat sticker on the vertical rear window, in a corner where I can't see out anyway.

Funny. I didn't see that story on NBC, but the local NBC affiliate in Chicago felt compelled to "break" the "news" (no longer news by Aug 14 or 15) about emergency rescue workers and how they require special training to handle hybrids.

I guess they don't need special training to handle other vehicles. Certainly the reporters had no special training. It was a televised blog job (yes, I spelled that correctly).

 

HA! In Cali, used priuses are getting new-car MSRP. Depreciation my nice person.

 

It was on NBC Nightly News

I saw it on the Evening News tonight.

The first two quotes they attribute to CR were in fact by the CR test guy.

But, the 'automotive analyst' claiming they depreciate faster and are more expensive to ensure, as well as that last quote about 'making a statement', was not by Champion. The written article is wrong. It was by some guy from Edmunds.Com.

Which, if you know Edmunds attitude on hybrids, is right in character.

They also truncated the insurance quote - the actual quote was "Because they cost more, they are more expensive to insure" which is very differnent from just "more expensive to ensure"

Gotta love that trust we have in Journalists these days.

 

Tempus, careful removing your tongue from your cheek;-)

 

It was also on the Today show but they had adjusted it to say the insurance was more because the car cost more. Katie said her sister bought a Prius and loved it. Otherwise it was the same as the Nightly News spot. They did have a red Prius on the show.

 

I save $80 a MONTH in gas... I don't know what the hell they're talking about. And comprehensive insurance for my Pri and liability for hubby's older car costs $100 more a month than liability only for both our previous cars.

Hmmmmmm.

How hard do you have to drive a Pri to get 35 MPG?

Anyone willing to blow their current tank to find out for us? :lol:

 

When CR published their data I sent several emails and posted on their question board on how they got their data and why the city milage was so low as compared to the city. I was never able to get a clear response from them. The best they could do is the data is what it is. I have kept careful records and my worse tank was 44.55 m.p.g. (my second tank) and after one year my overall average is 51.46 and other than keeping to the speed limits I have not even tried to push it. I can't even imagine how CR was able to get 35 m.p.g. in the Prius. I saw the report and it did appear to be biased. My insurance is not higher. As near as I can tell from adds in the paper for used rental Prii the resale value is good. They were asking almost the value of a new Prius for a used one!

 

How much does MSNBC get paid by Damlier/Chrysler and GM to write this stuff. I want to know of another car that can carry four adults, all their luggage and a large cooler and go about 560 miles on about 11 gallons of gas at 70-75mph. Plus the Prius costs less than my Ford Taurus on insurance. As far as depreciation I could still probably get just about what I paid with 12k miles on the odometer. They got 35 mpg with jack rabbit starts from every traffic light and stop sign. I've tried and haven't been able to get my mpgs that low.

 

My worst tank has been 42. I think if your main concern is money, then buying a Prius is not the best idea. My last car - a Suzuki Aerio SX, averaged around 28mpg and only cost me 10K. I doubt my Prius will make up the $18,000 in gas savings. Even if I got the bottom of the line Prius at $23K it would take me forever to make up that in gas. But the Prius is a MUCH MUCH MUCH nicer car then the Aerio. I think people should realize that buying a Prius isn't all about saving money; it's about saving gas, polluting less, and drivng a pretty nice car with a lot of cool features. And I think my insurance went up just slightly from the Aerio.