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The Winter of My Discontent

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by The Electric Me, Sep 16, 2009.

  1. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    Well People of Prius Chat, I have something to admit. I've more or less decided to try and squeeze one more winter out of my old 93 Honda Accord. It will be scary, it needs front tires, new battery, and the engine is smoking from time to time. However here's my logic.

    I don't have a garage. My vehicle parks in the elements. A brand new shiny Prius would just make me nervous all winter. With my Honda? Bring on the snow, ice, hail whatever. That's maybe the #1 reason for waiting.

    Other reasons? More time for Toyota to adjust the 3rd Generation. Maybe by next spring or summer issues like Oil Change interval, Grabby brakes in reverse, Cargo Net, and loose rear view mirror will be resolved. At least I hope so. But I don't see any disadvantage in giving Toyota more time to react to these early "problems" and I don't see any disadvantage in giving Toyota more time to see what other problems might manifest.

    Of course in the meantime, I'm not really a Prius owner. I'm just a Prius Chat "stalker"....reading posts and dreaming of the day.

    Maybe it goes back to childhood? I've often found I enjoy the anticipation more than the event. Approaching Birthdays, Approaching Christmas.

    At least when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground, I can hop in my old Honda and not really care too much what might happen if I decide to try to creep to work. As long as nobody was hurt, I wouldn't even be that upset if I got hit and the car got totalled. A new car? Why should I obssese about it all winter?

    Plus, I'll get feedback as to Winter Mileage with The New Prius, while waiting for the tempatures to improve, when The Mileage should be better.

    That's it...I'm rolling the dice that The Engine doesn't really go south....one more winter for The Accord.
     
  2. Bobsprius

    Bobsprius BobPrius

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    Well I think you had a nice writeup for sure and can understand your points, and well taken.

    I live in Buffalo, aka SNOW during our winters as well. I guess it's all upon how you look at things in life. I used to own a GEN 1 Prius and had a Honda Civic Hybrid but was so uncomfortable (physically) from riding in that car, other than that Loved it. The seats were cloth, it didn't have heated mirrors and mileage really suffered in the winter months. I went from 43 to 32 in a heartbeat. I don't expect the Prius to do that since my Gen 1 did not and with the enhanced heating system to warm the car up quicker with the modifications on the 2010, I expect it will also warm up faster in winter, thus saving fuel and getting better gas mileage.

    This car has the heated mirrors and heated leather seats and much more safety equipment than my Honda. I value Life as I get older now, and wish to enjoy some fine attributes in life in middle age (50 ish).

    My logic was to take delivery of my 2010, and keep it for 4 years, then by then I think we will have a world of different new choices out there, and if not, so be it. But in the meantime, I am loving this car, if you can truly "Love a Car". I agree, anticipation is something that's an important part. But I read and find new things each day with my car. I actually "enjoy" driving it every day. That's important to be Happy every day. Now for the idiots that are driving like fools and you want to avoid them at all costs, as a ding, dent or smash is not a good thing, but it doesn't matter what car you have, it could happen. People certainly are so preoccupied today when driving. It's not like it used to be for sure. But I can tell you when you DO GET YOUR PRIUS (should you move forward) you will love it and wonder why you waited. :)
     
  3. JRitt

    JRitt Bio-Medical Equip. Tech

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    Does it even snow or get below 30deg in Portland?
     
  4. thothWiz

    thothWiz Junior Member

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    I completely understand Electric Me's point. I love my brand new shiny Prius. But I'm quite nervous about it. I've owned 2 cars in past 10 years, and each time, it would get a minor scratch within 2 weeks of me getting the car. I would feel sad about it for many months, but it would not be bad enough for me to go out and fix it.

    I told myself I should wait until the end of the winter, but I just couldn't help myself. I'm pretty happy so far. I really love this car. Ask me in the spring whether I regret getting the car early. I got a III. I'm already thinking form time to time maybe I should have gotten a V. But in general I'm very happy. I'm doing 53.9 MPG on my first tank so far.
     
  5. markderail

    markderail I do 45 mins @ 3200 PSI

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    Meh. G2 Prius in nearly the worst winter conditions in NA - Montreal, Quebec.

    Third year without a block heater - and no grill blocking.

    However, this year, I'm getting the BH installed, and winter tires with spikes. Regular high-end winter tires and the car's oversensitive traction control don't mix.

    So, "Electric Me", no excuse, you could get a used G2 Prius NOW and keep it three years, then get the Plug-In Prius (G4) and go nah-nah-nah to the G3 owners.
    That's my plan...
     
  6. RodJo

    RodJo Member

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    Electric Me,

    I'm almost at that point as well. IF I understand the cargo ship tracking thread: unless my Prius lands in Newark within the next week, I'm out of luck until at least Thanksgiving. By that time I probably won't be able to even get proper snow tires. So it's starting to look like another winter for the convertible.

    Of course, I just placed my "order" in May, so it might not come in until March. And yes maybe some stuff will be fixed, or the coupe version will be announced. At least I can experience the Prius iPhone App and have happy dreams untl then....:D
     
  7. SmellyPuppy

    SmellyPuppy New Member

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    We get some snow pretty much every year. Last year we had an historical snow event. I live in the hills and we got over three feet in a few days. There were closer to two feet in town. The city has very little snow clearing equipment and the metro area ended up shutting down for almost a week. We also own a Subaru with snow tires to get up to the mountains on weekends. The roads were so rutted and icy I had to go buy chains so we could get to the airport to catch our flight back to Denver for Christmas.

    Here at 800 feet we had 19 days below freezing with some sort of precipitation. It was an unusual winter.