I went to buy a car and got a Prius!

Hi all,

First an introduction, I'm Rob from Milton Keynes in England. middle aged (ie old) with young family.

Car Preferences: I've always preferred comfort over performance, that said up to only a few years ago my budget hasn't really offered that although past few cars have been ok and with comfort, better performance does generally come hand in hand. eg bigger car, bigger engine

Environmental freak - er not really! If trees wilted behind me as I drive past like Thunderbird 2 taxiing it wouldn't really bother me - with two young kids though I guess I'm changing my point of view though it irritates me that over here most answer to climate change by the goverment is slap a tax on it - But I won't go off on one about that!

Anyway! So my Renault Grand Scenic 1.9 diesel MVP was coming to three years old so time for a change. We liked the Scenic lot of decent useful gadgets (The French do stuff their cars full of them!) We went back to the Renault dealer not knowing what to buy next - The options to us was a new Scenic (but there was nothing new in the 2008 model) or go for a different Renault, or keep teh car. We looked to change a large saloon - the Laguna. We took one out for a test drive and although it was decent there was no WOW factor about it. The best bit was the automatic locking when you got out of range of the car sensor (about six feet away from the car) - Cool we're always leaving it unlocked!

Having left the Renault garage a bit none plussed and not knowing what to do we went for a surf; All the major manufacturers. Whatever we looked at nothing jumped out at us, volvo, Ford, Vauxhall (GM), etc

The eldest boy being a bit of a car freak decided a Dodge Caliber was the car for us and I liked the look of it so next day off to the Dodge dealer. But as soon as i sat in and saw a handbrake it put me off "How 1990's!" I'm so used to an automatic parking brake I just can't envisage going back to a ratchetty old handbrake! and then a keyhole as well - Nope this car was off my list straight away!

The dealer also had Nissan. We wandered about and the boy saw the Qashqai but I wasn't at all impressed again the technology was just too basic.

We left and saw the Toyota dealership next door. Now last time I drove a Toyota was about 15 years ago. I was always impressed by the gearbox. Yeah let's go and have a look!

So in we went and I looked for a decent sized car and saw the Avensis - that's more like it I thought. Jumped in had a good look round - No handbrake - Good Start. No Keyhole - excellent! But it was lacking again just nothing that made me go YEAH. The Kids had also jumped in the back and I felt the knees from the eldest dig in my back. Hmm no good at all!

Next the Verso Toyotas version of the Grand Scenic. Urrrgh.

Then the Prius!

What the Heck is this? I'd never heard of it. The wife had a look and first thing she noticed was the leg room in the back - she was impressed but I assumed the seat was well forward. So jumped in the front and fumbled about for the seat lever but it was already all the way back! hmmm!

So told the eldest to jump in the back whcih he did. no knees in the back - I'm impressed its a bit of a TARDIS.

Then I actually looked aroung the car and WOAH COOL! no gear stick a little knob - obviously an automatic! No Handbrake - tick the box! Push button Start - another tick. Satnav - that'll please the wife! The kids were now looking around and found the bottle holders - they were impressed! hahaha easily pleased my lot!.
The missus jumped in the passenger seat and started hunting about two more cup holders - the kids were mightily impressed!

I adjusted the rear view mirror - What The Heck is going on there! I use my mirrors a heck of a lot this was bizarre - a rear view mirror with no rear view to speak of! I jumped out and went to the back to investigate what that bar was! hmm.
Looked inside the boot and was disappointed - that's weird not much depth at all doesn't look to big at all. We spent a couple of minutes discussing whether the boot would pass the hockey stick test! Shut the boot and then I noticed the logo 'Hybrid' - erm OK!
Having been around some 'sexy' technology all my working life I was a tad intrigued so asked the 'hostess' who kindly got one of the dealers to come over and I spent the next 15 minutes or so discussing the car.

He was pretty clueless but I got the gist of the engine technology but was dubios the performance was all he cracked it up to be, so for nothing more than intrigue booked a test drive the following week.

During that week I read up on the Prius and the thing I really liked about it more than anything else was that over here ther are three models - that's it. No poncing about worrying about the added extras - basically they offered two pages of add ons: roof racks, mats etc all minor stuff. except leather seats - which we don't want anyway! Unlike the Laguna we tested that we ended up with additions worth about £5000 just to get it up to the spec of our current car. With the Prius there's no messing about you know exactly what you pay for, if you want something extra you need the next model!

By the time the test drive had come me and the wife had convinced ourselves that if it was any good we'd do a deal! It had every gadget we want that is useful - and then some!
The eldest boy though by now was adamant he was leaving home if we bought it!
After we'd dragged him into the car once the normal bribery had failed we drove back to the dealers and eventually went for the test drive. You've all done it so you know what it's like the first time so I won't go into the details. When we returned I'd decided to buy it. The eldest kid had very quickly changed his tune once he saw the central console light up! haha
But I suggested that I needed to hire one to try it out properly. I'd read that crosswinds would blow you around a bit and wanted to check it out, more for the wife than me, as she is a very cautious driver.
The dealer immediately offered us the car for the afternoon so we jumped back in and drove it for a good three hours properly really putting it through its paces.

As I said right at the top performance isn't a concern for me - I drive faster than I should and the Prius might just be a little below what I really want but hey I owned a Skoda 320i once! it is bloomin loud under hard acceleration - but no problem just turn the stereo up! But I want this car because it's not a car it's just one big gadget and I'm just a sucker for that! It stands out form the crowd for so many reasons. How many buttons on the steering wheel - hell Schumacher's Ferrari only had about eight! intelligent parking assist, Voice recognition, Bluetooth, Cruise Control and four cup holders!!!!!!

OH YEAH - two weeks or so til Xmas!

 

OK so one thing I really wanna know and it's caused a big debate here....

is it Pr-EE-us or Pr-EYE-us?

The kids have already christened it 'Mozart' - nope I have no idea why either! but I guess we should know how to pronounce it properly!

 

Thanks (and thanks to everyone else.)

Can't recall seeing a Pruis in Milton Keynes but I work in London and see a few of them there as they are 'congestion charge' exempt so owners will be saving £8/day for the privielege to drive around the City. (I use 'drive' in the loosest sense of the word meaning edging forward a couple of yards every minute or so!) I guess the Prius would come into it's own there.
Though I will still be using the train to commute. I could drive but I'm just not a morning person and I can sleep on the train! The Prius is good - but not that good - hahaha

That said I'm not really sure that'll be the case in MK! Don't get me wrong I believe we'll be making a huge saving in petrol but can't envisage consumption being outstanding!

MK is unique in the UK. It's a new town that is based around a grid system with roundabouts between interchanges. All these roads are deristricted and mainly dual carraigeways so you can drive at the national speed limit 70mph throughout the town. That lends itself to hard acceleration between the roundabouts (which are plentiful and mainly just a few 100 yards apart.) Currently we get about 30 - 32mpg in our 1.9 diesel around MK which isn't good for this car. And about 40 on runs outside the town where I'd probably average about 80mph on the motorways.

With that in mind, my thoughts are that if we can get 40mpg around MK I'll be more than happy. Whether I'll be able to temper my instinct to hard accelerate is yet to be seen though on the test drive the loud noise under hard acceleration did cause me to lift my foot earlier than I normally would though.

It seems MK is a bit of an oxymoron - in that it was purposefully built around the car but the result is that it doesn't actually suit a car's performance.

Having said that there is no other town or city in the UK where you can get from any point to another (North, South, East or West as quickly.)

Apart from not being condusive to good economy, the tyres also take a beating as many roundabouts you may take at 25-30mph if the roads are clear consequently the near side front especially takes a hammering and it you don't swap them round regularly even a decent set will be completely shot after 15000 miles.

 

Roundabouts are excellent they keep the traffic moving quicker than lights. Though have there limitations at the busiest junctions.
I would think many more minor bumps are caused at roundabouts through careless driving although it is so easy to do. Umpteen times I've nearly done it when I see the car in front edge forward as though it's starting to pull away then the driver has a change of mind. Often you've assumed he's gone and look for the next gap and if you haven't got your wits about you - *bump* flattened bumper!

RE the FA Cup I don't follow football too much - since I became an ice hockey fan - but did laugh at the Barnsley result. Saw some of the Man Utd game v Arsenal - very surprised by the result too.

Re tyre pressure - what's Toyota's recommended PSI - 40/42 seems high - though not doubting the results.