'05 noob just sayin' hi

Just purchased an '05 from a local Prius lover who put me onto this site. $3k w/ 170k miles and some clear coat issues. Already bought it some new Michelin Defenders, just 'because I like 'em, but barring a few minor bumps and bruises the car looks amazingly good and runs great (50 mpg without really paying any attention to what I was doing). Seller did mention/warn that these cars (used) are wonderful if you are the inquisitive type who likes to learn and can take care of stuff yourself. Not an engineer, but I'm already getting sucked in. These things are pretty cool.

The car is meant as a replacement for our youngest daughter "Car Killer Jones". This will be her third vehicle in as many years, and no I'm not an enabling kook, she lives in Baltimore - where cars go to die, or be killed. If the pot holes don't get her I have visions of her getting a jump from some man bun sportin' hipster, wearing pants two sizes too tight (ironically of course) and doing thousands of dollars of damage to a car worth half as much. Obviously we have a lot of teaching to do. I'm thinking of rat traps with glow in the dark Post-It notes around the battery and under the hood. Haven't searched these forums for it yet but I'm told a lot of engineering types hang here, so maybe I can get some help re-purposing one of those dog training collars with a big Tesla coil on the back seat for some behavior modification. Already having nightmares about living two hours away and the calls I'll be getting - but this is what she wants.

Never really cottened to the hybrid scheme, thinking that two systems means twice the likelihood of something going wrong, so was planning on holding out for a 200 mile per charge plug-in for ourselves, but youngest daughter is actually paying us back for this one so I figured "what the hell". She has a couple of friends who own them so we're hoping they will provide some positive reinforcement regarding the do's and don'ts of Prius ownership. Hope springs eternal.

Actually I'm already so enamored of the car that I'm buying another one tomorrow; an '08 with 150k and a bad strut for $2k. It's a runner so we'll see how it goes. Looks like I'll be spending a good bit of time here along the way. Great that so many folks are willing to share what they know. Gotta love the internet.