new owner: six weeks and deeply in love

Hi all,

it has almost been six weeks since I picked up my brand new 2010 Prius III from the dealership. I already put about 1100 miles on it, and I can't put in words how much I appreciate this car!!! Every morning I climb in I feel utterly happy, it is by far the most awesome vehicle I ever had.

We bought the car more or less on a whim. Here is why it happened:

I love my husband, but ....well - we have a completely different set of preferences when it comes to cars.

We do have two cars already, or my husband has, to be exact. For the last five years we shared his 2003 GM Yukon Denali and his 2005 300hp stick shift Volvo sedan. The truck was labeled as my ride to haul around the kids and their gear, and he takes the volvo to work - till the weekend rolls around, and he takes the truck to pull his boat or take the kids places (they don't fit in the back of the volvo with him in the front). I than have to take the volvo.

Ok two cars are more than plenty, but here are the issues: I hate the truck. Its huge, the gas milage is 11.7 mpg. I am from Germany, we have smaller cars there, I had a VW Polo before I moved to the States. I don't appreciate driving a whole apartment block with a boat hitch attached. I am gritting my teeth everytime I fill up at the gas station. . I would never have bought that thing, but my husband needs to pull his boat with it - a boat with two 150 hp engines that like to take a good sip also

I find the volvo equally hopeless. My husband says is has 'good' mileage, which might be somewhat true in comparison to the truck. But I don't care for the 300 horsepowers, neither do I need a stick shift to have fun. Well it gets me from A to B ok - if it wasn't for the accumulated fast food trash my husband collects in there and the tons of stuff for work and the computer stand on the passengers seat, the smell of cold smoke in the cabin, my husbands reluctance to put gas in it before it barely runs on fumes (I have been biting my nails quite a few times, wondering if i would make it to the next gas station), and so on and so forth.

Bottom line I wasn't happy all those years about our cars but willingly put up with the situation because a third car just for me just didn't make any sense.

Till I broke my right hand nine months ago. Because of that I have been in surgery and a cast on and off since, and I am lined up for surgery number 4 in fall. With a cast on my right hand I can't drive a stick shift. So while my husband is out and about with his truck and his boat on a weekend, I am homebound with the kids, a cast, and no car

Which is when I decided against better judgement that I had had it with his cars, and I want my own. I admit three cars can't be justified, not even if one is a Prius, but I told my beloved it is time to lose one of his babies if need be, and that is was my turn to pick a car.

So now I am a proud prius driver, making 55 mpg, with plenty of space for the kids on the back who love my new car also. I love all the gadgets it comes with, the hands off phone, solar panel, smart key etc.

But spoiled brat I am, I already want more!

I do a lot of short trips of less than 3 miles, dropping of the kids at school of other activities, getting groceries and the like. So my Prius spends a lot of time in warm up mode. It still has awesome gas mileage, but I OOOHHHH so wished I had a plug in battery pack that would let me do a couple of miles without running the ICE. So down the road, sometime not so far in the future, I will put in a conversion kit or upgrade to a plug in prius when it becomes available, or an EV, do not know as of yet. Don't tell my husband though who tends to sit on his cars for about 10 years or so and is still gritting his teeth over this car ;-).

I am not a Prius owner to safe money. I am saving gas, but that is not the same. I bought the prius to support a carmaker like Toyota that put money, time and effort into developing a new technology instead of maxing out an ancient dinosaur technology like diesel that is just a dead end road, for max profit. 'Clean' diesel is becoming a huge health issue in Europe due to those nano particles that are not caught by the best filters. I consider the Prius as a valid contribution to a future independent of foreign oil and thus a support to our troops, it doesn't even matter if I believe in global warming or not (- I do!)

Most of all I am amazed that over night I turned from a rather aggressive road raged plagued driver doing 80 on the left lane, into somebody happily setting up camp behind a truck in the right lane doing 60. Before I would huff and puff over a slow driver in front of me, now I am glad for such a person because the rage of all the other cars behind hits him, not me. Unfortunately, I am too much of a sissy to insist of driving the speed limit with a mad crowd behind me, but maybe overtime I get more feisty....

Last, but not least, a question: I am still within the trial period for the satellite radio. Is it normal that I can't save stations like in FM? The 'slots' on the screen are just black, and I have to dial from station to station. Or is that some kind of dealership demo mode?

Thanks for this chat, I have learned so much reading through the threads the last couple of weeks:cheer2:

 

thanks for the welcome, and the advise concerning the satellite radio!

As I can't save any stations, I hope that means I have the demo mode, maybe the service won't get turned off after 3 months?? I think I saw a thread somewhere where that was the case but can't find it any more. I won't complain and see what happens. One can always hope

 

thanks, I will ask for that! Meanwhile I just wait and see what happens. I don't really need to save any stations, I just listen to NPR. So it's not much of an issue, I was just wondering why I don't have the option.


One other thing I forgot to mention in my OP: I love love LOVE the HOV lane sticker!!:rockon:

 

Oh, thats nice! Really?? :blush: How so?