New Prius Buyer... A Teen?

You can get reasonable inexpensive pre-owned cars with very good safety ratings.

They aren't as cool as the Prius '04 however.

 

I don't think $2500/year was a typo. My son, who just turned twenty, was $2500/yr from State Farm. He drives a 1999 S10 pickup. When we get our Prius his insurance is going up to $4000/year ( not a typo) because he has 2 tickets and no accidents. He's been driving since 16 to college and work. We've told him and he's very upset but he's the one who caused it. So far it hasn't hit home and he hasn't modified his driving yet. He's very responsible and is a supervisor at his work but somehow it doesn't transfer to driving.

 

What Dealership did you ending finding your Prius at PTbiz?

I was just curious what Dealership did you ending finding your Prius at PTbiz?

 

Nope, not $2500/yr. But in the first post where a dollar figure appeared, it was $2500 per month.

 

Congrats again on the car!

But $3400 per year? Ouch! You said $2500/mo before.

 

HEY now, I have an 03. :mrgreen: I selected mine OVER the 04 as the 04's don't fit tall people in the back seat. Another interesting reality has been that I've had little trouble keeping my consumption computer over 50 mpg, while 04 owners struggle to get midway into the 40's. My driving is heavily highway biased, with a very hilly area near where I live. Even with that, I'm sitting over 51 mpg right now on my classic. EPA claims aside, so far, everything I've read and heard has the classics beating them on the fuel economy cycle. That aside, I did like the interior alot better in the 04's, but it'll take much more than a Lexus look to get my hard earned $$$.

 

Yup, and I'm taking it on a trip to Canada in 12 days!! Look for another trip report when I get back. :flame:

 

Hi Pete,
You do sound like a most reasonable sort of new driver. Having a Prius will be less tempting for your aquaintences with more horsepower than experience to try goading you into a street race Insurance is nearly 50% "How much damage can you cause with the car" and 50% "If you destroy it, how much does the company have to shell out". For that reason, a beater is cheaper to insure, no real $$ value. One thing that can help is a "good student discount" I don't know what age it kicks in, but mine held until I was 25 because I held it all through college.
My advice to you as a new driver is - Learn REAL FAST to be defensive. Look around and figure out what idiot in front, beside or behind you is going to put your car in the shop.
A friend of mine's daughter was hit twice when she was 16-17 by adult drivers. One was a rear end when she was waiting for someone ahead of her to turn left (no special turn lane). She had no way of avoiding this. The second, some fool pulled a U turn from the right lane. Perhaps if she had more experience in being watchful, she MIGHT have avoided hitting him, who knows. My 16 YO niece (who I would describe as a cautious driver) totalled the 280ZX her grandfather ( no not MY father) gave her. Ran smack into an RV that pulled out in front of her. Again, MAYBE more experience might have saved the car. By the way, not ZX didn't have all the safety features of newer cars but her seatbelt saved her from any injury.
The last one I will relate is my wife's accident last winter. She approached an interesection and the light turned yellow, so she stopped as she had plenty of time. She was pushed halfway into the cross street by a jerk that figured if HE had been at the same place when the light went yellow, he would run it. So he did, except she was in the way. This guy had no insurance and his license had been revoked. Air bags did not deploy, wife and 2 daughters fine with seat belts on. $3,500 in repairs. The lesson? We both now check the rearview mirror when we plan to stop as a light turns yellow. WAY too many people think green means go, red means stop (but only if you feel like it) and yellow means go really really fast even if you are doing 35 mph 200 feet from the signal.
I hope you are lucky and get your new Prius in a timely fashion.

 

makes me wanna cry. i want a prius so badly, even a beaten up '01. but it will be atleast 2 years before i can get one. by then the car may not be special anymore because there will be so many hybrids.

and to the gentleman who started the thread, have you considered driver's ed and defensive driving?

and if you decide to take both, do drivers ed before defensive driving. there is an insurance loop hole that could save you 25% of you take them in the correct order.

 

Drivers ed is the 3 month long, basiclly school course in which you get a certificate that you can give to an insurance company and most give you 10-15% off your insurance.

Defensive driving is an 8 hour class room course that teaches you to be observant so that you do not get into bad accident situations. at class end you get a certificate for a 10% reduction by law of insurance rates.

which is why if you take drivers ed first and get the 15%, then DD then the insurance company MUST give you an additional 10% off.

do it the other way and you only get 15% total, 10 for DD and 5 for drivers ed.

 

Ordered my Prius mid-January

I live in Atlanta, GA, and though I cannot be assured of anything, the dealer told me about 8-12 weeks for my wait. I think I did use a smart strategy though:

Initially I visted a dealership to get more information and perhaps order my Prius. When I got there the terms were a $500 deposit, REFUNDABLE. The only problem was, 20 people on the waiting list meant I would get my Prius sometime in December 2004!

At any rate, I kept calling around and found a place that told me they had 5 people on the waiting list. At first I thought it was because this dealership was small, but it turns out this was, according to them, the largest dealership in Atlanta. This intrigued me so I found out the details...$1000 deposit, NON-REFUNDABLE. I was so excited, I plopped my $1000 down on the table right away! Of course, I had already decided to order one, so I just wanted to get on the list ASAP. Even better, it turned out that I was the only person on that dealership's waiting list whatsoever to have ordered a package 9 Prius!

It seems like low, refundable deposits are really gumming up the system, which is why I'm not surprised that people get multiple calls from other dealers with available Priuses- because most likely someone on multiple waiting lists had already gotten their car and declined. People go out and get on multiple lists, and end up creating confusion and inefficiency in the distribution of the available cars to everyone else. In the end I think Toyota will get through the waiting lists quicker than we all think due to the fact that many waiting list spots are taken by extraordinarily selfish people who put themselves on multiple lists. I say make them all at least $1000 and NON-refundable so that this practice is limited.

Anyway, we will see how long it actually takes to get my Prius...I also want the Black Package 9

Kevin