The Island Beater

Hey there, just bought my first Prius, a 2004 stock with only 65k miles. It's real neat to see such a large community of Prius owners - and the pride and ownership they seem to take in their cars.

My first experience with a Prius was, coincidentally, a 2004 - in 2004. My wife and I had just moved when our car broke down. We needed a new car quick -- preferably a modern one with safety features because our first child was due in the next couple weeks, so while we looked around for something suitable, we rented an affordable "compact" car from a local rental place.

When I arrived, the guy showed me one tiny compact (whatever boring thing it was faded into memory long ago), and then said "But in the same category, we've also got this. It just arrived on the lot; would you like to take a look at it?" It looked like a cross between a bullet and the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future. Excitedly, the rental guy ushered me into the driver seat ("Don't touch anything yet!"), and climbed into the passenger seat next to me.

"Ok, where is the key?" I asked, wondering if maybe it had fallen off the fob.
"That is the key. It goes here." He showed me how to remove the door key, put it back in, and then insert the fob into the vehicle.
"Is that... a power button?" I asked, starting to get excited. I love tech; at the time I owned a tricked out iBook with a Gentoo OS I had built from the ground up, so the idea of a power button start on a car (complete with standard I/O symbol) made me giddy with delight. I had never seen a "hybrid vehicle" before.
"Press. The Button." so I did.
All of a sudden, a screen in the middle of the car turned on. It. was. a. touchscreen. Drool began gushing from my mouth. As the rental guy walked me through the steps and I began to move the car around the parking lot, I realized the engine hadn't even started yet. I was in love.

During the rental period, I got about 55-60mpg, including a 5hr drive down I-95 (where the name of the hwy is also the speed limit, apparently ), which was quite impressive, especially since at that time, gas was starting to inch above $2.00/gal for the first time, with no end in sight. Even more impressive was that we were able to fit four adults, including two very pregnant women, fairly comfortably in it, with plenty of room in the trunk for suitcases. And a cat. That other "compact" car couldn't do that.

Alas, I was also poor, and could not afford a Prius at the time. In the early years, all Prii I found were always tricked out by the dealers -- when you could find them at all -- and usually cost upwards of $30k. (We ended up getting a new Elantra for $14k and were very happy with it for several years. For comparison, it got 26 city/34 hwy.) It simply wasn't worth the cost - even with the cool touch screen - as it would take about five years to barely make up the difference in fuel savings vs sticker price, and the Elantra wasn't noticeably smaller. Even today, with higher gas prices (well, sort of; they're going back up) and smaller gaps between the price of hybrid and conventional gas vehicles (and EV's expected to fall in price soon thanks to Tesla's new battery factory), it's still hard to justify buying one at this time based on fuel economy alone, so I've held off.

My personal commuter has almost always been a fuel miser, whether it be a Metro, an Echo, or a motorcycle. I've always been fascinated with hyper-miling and fuel sipping (those two got an average of 46 and 35mpg, respectively). It's an addicting game - especially when gas was over $4/gal.

Now, my travels have taken me to the other side of the country. Just moved to Oahu and, while looking for an island beater to commute to work, I saw one of these babies for sale. I couldn't resist. Again, I'm looking for something on the cheap because all the big money went into the family SUV (there's 2 kids now, plus two large dogs). While it was more expensive than some other options, I was still enamored by my first experience with a hybrid a decade ago. Unlike most sub-$10k island beaters, usually brought over by military service members from the mainland with well over 100k on them, this one had never left Oahu, so had very low mileage, which is what ultimately sold me.

It's not perfect, and certainly shows signs of wear after 10 years, but most of the expensive components are still in great condition, and I'm eager to understand how everything works, maybe make some custom mods, and make this thing my own. I'm learning, and it is exciting to find there's a large, robust Prius mod community out there. I joke with my wife that - unlike civics or sport cars - instead of souping it up to make it faster/louder/blingier, Prius modders brag about ways to drive it more slowly. With all the stats on mpg's and engine/motor usage, it really becomes a game where the high score is making the gas tank last as long as possible without pissing off the people driving behind you.

I've seen many other Gen2 Prii with well over 150k miles still going strong, and Toyota has a penchant for long-lasting vehicles. Given the condition it's in, I'll probably be able to keep it for many years, and run it into the ground.

So that's my story.

 

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