New Prius C owner

It feels very odd to be posting to this crowd right now. I have had my C Three for almost a week now and I love the car. Previous to my current job, I worked various jobs in parts and service at a Toyota dealer for a little over eight years, which is how I got introduced to the original Prius. While I've always been fascinated by the car, but I never pictured myself owning one. At the time I was daily driving a low-11 second Eclipse GSX that in its prime went door to door with my friend's 588whp supercharged Mach1. I eventually got tired of the hassle of scamming that car though the state emission test, so I traded it to a friend for something more practical: a Civic coupe with an Integra GSR motor swap. That car made about 200hp in a small vehicle and managed a solid 35 combined mpg even without driving like an old lady. I figured I could enjoy driving a paid off car that got good mpg for a couple years and save up some money... then it got stolen two weeks ago.

So my C purchase was a rushed one. I didn't get the color I wanted or the options I wanted because I couldn't afford the time to order the car. I got the dark gray metalic color (forgive me, I forgot the name) with the steelies. I really would have liked hanaenro with the factory 16's and a roof, but my car was one of only six C's in the state, four of which were One or Twos. The remaining two were identically equiped Threes in the dark gray color, so I simply bought the one that was nearest to me for $300 off MSRP so I could make it to work on Monday morning. For a moment I debated a full size, but the content was not there for the money and I like small cars.

However, even though I didn't get exactly what I wanted, I still love the car. Most of my friends were ready to disown me (I'm only 25 and this is a grandma car, obviously), until I actually took them for a ride. Now they're all too fascinated with the energy display to say anything negative and too busy asking me for rides so they don't have to drive their gas guzzlers.

I think Toyota has a real hit with the C, because now the Prius is affordable to people my age, it's more aggressive looking than the full size, and it has a load of content for the money. I can't really see a better buy for the money as far as comfortable commuter cars go, though I question how long I'll be able to deal with how slow this car is.