Emack76 Intro

Hi All,

I really like this site. It gave me the confidence to take the dive into an older GenI after I lost my last car to a deer strike. MPG has been a requirement for me for a long time. Even as we searched for another family car, we went for the hyundai tuscon because it gets better than 30mpg. Not too shabby for what it is.

I commute ~100mi/day with 95 of those miles being highway. 30 of 95 is on the interstate, while the remainder on 55pmh state highways.

In the mid-2000s I ran with a 1997 VW Passat TDI. It was quite the fuel miser itself, averaging 45-50mpg of diesel. Unfortunately, with the expensive price of diesel and quirkiness of those cars, the total cost of ownership was higher than I had hoped.

I had purchased my wife a '05 Mazda3, which got good 34 mpg if one drives for economy. It was getting small for our growing (darn kids) family of 4 so when we offloaded the vw, I got her a new tucson for the family. This left me with the 3 for the commute. It was a great little car, but eventually one of the monster deer here in mid-mo took it out. Total loss.

After looking at every model that might ring in at near the total loss settlement, I eventually found a 2001 Prius with 150k miles and a freshly refurbished traction battery. I had a civic hybrid on the hook too, but there were too many complaints about those early models. I picked up the prius a few days ago for $4900. Pretty reasonable for the good condition it appeared to be in. The 'what to look for' guide here was VERY helpful. It has also had it's HV battery recently reconditioned/refurbished as well. It would be nice to get another 50k miles out of it.

Now the interesting part of my story, is that I'm an avid motorcyclist. I ride 12k-15k miles/year, and that's almost purely during the commute. In fact, I'd ride year round if weather would permit. Here in Mo, that won't happen though. At any rate, that does mean that my secondary commuter may sit around for weeks at a time. Especially during the summer.

The good news is that extreme heat seems to be an enemy of the hybrid system, so my old prius won't see those conditions (but the 2012 victory cross country sure will). The extreme cold seems to only pose a problem for fuel economy, but not to overall wear & tear. Hopefully I got that right.

At any rate, just a little about me... Again, I'm happy to have found this community.

Cheers!