First Time Prius Buyer!- NEEDS HELP DESPERATELY!

Is there a place you could charge at school? Get a used Nissan Leaf

 

1) You could bring the same CD to Prius with and without JBL to sample the difference. JBL has an amp under passenger seat so you can turn the volume up and something happens as opposed to not much. Bit high road noise can bring audio down on highway.

3) Nav necessary? No can use Garmin. Nice to have built into car instead of plugging in though.

4) Rented four w/ solar, got in car on sunny, breezy day near 70F, surprised how cool it was in the car. Don't know about hot days, but others do.

6) I'm seeing a lot of the all new '13 Accords around town and it's my favorite. In summer Prius is showing 55+ on MPG gage. I'd probably get about 31 or 2 in Accord / Camry.

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Being 6'2" and having rented '13 Prius Four, I wouldn't get anything w/o the full power seat. Others see it differently. Can change the seat tilt which cannot do w/o power seat. Basically I'm sitting (in 2011 Three w/ mechanical seat) with head about 2" from roofliner even though I'm 6'2". I'll skip details why, but the seating / steering wheel arrangement virtually force me to do so.

 

If saving money is the only reason that sway you to buy a Prius, I would convince you not to. There are many posts that calculates annual $ savings on gas compare to many other compact cars with close to 40mpg ratings VS spending a few thousand more for a Prius. It will take you a few years and many many miles to make the extra $ you spend on the car back. A used honda fit, Mazda 3, etc would make more sense to me if I were in your shoes.

But if there are other reasons that makes you want a Prius then go for it. Toyota is running some awesome Summer sales, you might even qualify for the $1000 college credit.

I don't think the Leaf would work out for him. The Nissan LEAF® CAN get you 75 miles on a single full charge. Going 50 plus miles on the highway is pushing it. Plus there is no $7,500 tax credit for used.

 

You are really the only person who can decide what features you must have and how that works with your budget. The fact that you are going to be buying used adds another wrinkle as you will have to factor in miles and condition into the equation.

 

I walked into the dealership looking at the Scion FRS, but they have this brand new 2013 Prius for 21,500 as a door-buster. My responsible half could not walk away from that deal. Plus like you, I have always been interested in hybrid tech, and the mileage game

 

I was commuting about 1000 miles a week and wanted something good, reliable and gas efficient. I bought a trim level 2 and have been very happy with it. While my commute got much better after almost a year I'm still happy with the choice.

 

I would say it depends what driving OP does. If hwy only, a few diesel or even gas cars can get numbers surprisingly close to hybrid. However, if city driving is significant, hybrid is the way to go (2x better MPG).

PS: should it be in the newbie forum?

 

Assuming you get a good price and all that, what you're describing is a III. One step up from base, it's got the JBL and bluetooth for the phone, and it'll do music well enough to make blood come out of your ears. 2010 or such has a phono jack if bluetooth doesn't work right for IPOD/equivalent.

Comments from people who have it say that the in-dash nav, which is IV and up, is barely worth it. From a $ vs. function, a Garmin/Tom-Tom will do you better for less. Assuming that you even need that given that after grad school and all that commuting you won't be able to get within 100 miles of the route without your reflexes kicking in and leading you either to the house or school before you realize it.

V and all that get you the really fancy stuff - auto brake, lane keep, self parking, etc. You're a starving college student, you don't need that stuff.

As far as getting a cheaper car and skipping the fun on the gas: My personal belief is that gas prices will rise faster than inflation. There's lots of funny bugger stuff going on about just how much there is out there in oil reserves, with financial rewards for CEOs and such if they say they have more reserves than they actually have. Maybe we've hit peak oil, maybe not, but we're slowly getting closer. When the idiots in Wall Street finally figure it out that's it coming (never mind, "actually here"), that's when prices will spike. And cars like Priuses will suddenly make more monetary sense. If I (and you, if you go this route) are wrong, then you'll have overpaid by a grand or two. If I'm right, you'll save X, where X is unknown, but likely big.

Good luck!

KBeck

 

According to kbb , it's about $16k for a used Leaf in my area. You could check. If you could charge for free at school, that's even better.

 

Toyota hit a home-run (more like a couple grand slams - like most important car ever?) with Prius because it is a very practical 5-passenger family car also with lots of hauling space (due to liftback design) that , by the way, also gets 50 MPG which no one else can really compete with. The one draw back for some is lack of seat comfort and lack of luxury. I believe Prius in 2006 paid off for my family, but I now have to consider other cars now since my state (Virginia) is taxing the living daylights out of Toyota hybrids, in addition to the fact that hybrids cost ~$3000-$5000 more than an equivalent non-hybrid anyway. If you are putting 15-20,000 miles per year, you have a shot at enough fuels savings to pay it off. Especially in CA due to highest state taxes on gaso (VA has lowest gaso taxes). You might consider Plug_in PiP Prius or Volt if you need the CA Green Pass for HOV. Something like a Camry might be more comfortable for long trips, depending your body size and fit to the Prius seat.

 

Fellow commuter here... I have a 90-140 min commute in each direction (yay ny metro traffic)
#1 thing you want is a RELIABLE car. Probably anything with 35mpg+ will do, as long as it has super low mileage. You will rack that up fast!
I'm in a different stage of life... graduated grad school 10 years ago and have a good job. I just bought myself a new prius... my dream prius! pimped up, performance package, solar roof, getting rims... but... it's STILL only package 3.

You likely won't require anything above a 3. When I was a post-doc, I classed-up my gen 2 prius by selecting black paint. Made it look a little sleeker and it was free

My husband bought a scion xA when he was in grad school... that thing was fabulous for that stage of life. Inexpensive, solidly built, and something like 38mpg? Might want to investigate the scions as well.

One other thing to consider: Does your commute have HOV lanes where certain very efficient vehicles are permitted with only 1 passenger? If so, definitely invest in a car that can go in the HOV lane.

Good luck!

 

My married daughter and her family (4 children) have been living with me for the past 18 mos. (They're hopefully moving out next month.) Find a place of your own near campus and make everyone's life easier.

 

You're going to school, so if you get a Prius you'll need to be looking at something like a base level G3 (2010-).

If you're worried about crap like rims, sunroofs, and sound systems then it's pretty obvious that you're not studying economics. You're probably already five figures in debt (and climbing) for your school, and you're bumming a cot at your gf's house, so I'm thinking that you'll want to be thinking more fuel efficiency, and less bling. 17-inch rims will cost you 2-3 MPG, and even the humblest G3's have an aux input, which means that you can use your i-thingy for whatever it is that you listen to.
You can probably get by with a G3 with 75,000-90,000 miles on the clock, since you're going to bolter the 100,000 mile mark in very short order and thus your trade in value will be trashed even for a Prius, which you're about to discover is fairly high, especially in SoCal.

You wanted advice.....

Good Luck!

 

Harsh but true.

 

The ONLY advantage to a 3 is the solar/sunroof to keep the interior temp a bit lower. The navigation is poor at best and the bluetooth handsfree has issues that seem not to be just droid related. If money is a concern it is a waste of money to go above a 2. Until Toyota/Panasonic resolve the bluetooth compatibility issues it is a non-feature and a source of contention.