New Prius owner in Ireland!

Hello all,

Following a very scary accident, fortunately without serious consequences for anyone (while the car itself has given up her poor life to save ours), I decided I needed a new car. Well I had my mind set on the Prius from the start to be honest, but me and my wife to be, after the scare, wanted a car that was big enough and with ISOFIX attachments (although no babies...yet) and with every possible safety gimmick we can afford. I was able to find a Prius for a reasonable price (model year 2007), and the geeky electronics are a good fit to the nerd in me .
It's a base model so no fancy stuff, and changing from a manual with NO accessories at all to an automatic with all sorts of electronic assistance (traction control? EBD? stability control? whew). They could have included alloys at least though, at least for eco-reasons .

I'm still familiarizing with 'the thing' so I look forward to reading ALL about the car and above

Tony

 

Hello all and thanks for all the replies!

I live in Cork, in the South of Ireland. The car (I have some pics, which I'll post later) was bought in Tralee, town of the Rose of the same name (of course), in the county of Kerry near Killarney. It is a 'light olive' (green-gray) colour that my wife to be likes a lot. I think the exact tone is the "pine mica" or something like that in the US of A.

The Base model of the Prius here in Ireland, like previously noted, does not have alloy wheels. That sucks, even from an environmental point of view. Ah well I can fit them when my ship comes in in terms of cash. . Other missing things are cruise control (pity), sat nav/bluetooth/fancy stereo (there's the stock one which is ok but nothing to write home about), front fogs (can live without them) and parking sensors (pity..). The price for a *new* base model (mine's 6 months old so it was cheaper) is 31.000 euro which is a lot of dollars .
On the upside, it includes all the security gadgets such as stability control, brake assist and all that sort of stuff, including curtain airbags. It does have the EV switch .

It is of course VERY different from any car I've driven before, don't forget we're in the land of manual transmission and many, many people shun automatics. Personally, I like the added comfort of the CVT and I don't understand what the fuss is about about using a manual, unless of course it's a sporty car and not a 5 door family saloon like the Prius. I would have liked some more accessories as standard since the price is jolly high even for the massively overpriced Irish standards. At least the alloys, for crying out loud, you can get alloys as standard in a bleeping Kia!.

Tony

 

And here's a picture as promised

 

So the plastic thingies are just protective covers for the real alloys? Because I had alloys on the old car and the spokes were cute, metallic and exposes. As a plus, these ones being plastic don't bother me as much in relation to kerbing (parking is a jungle, my friends..).
For the other equipment, no electrochromatic mirror (pity) but 4 discs and adjustable seats are standard on all Prii here.

Tony

 

None of that.
Automobiles of ALL brands are priced differently here due to different tax structure and all sorts of other reasons such as VAT, registration taxes and so on and so forth. It isn't by any means a problem that's limited to a particular brand or model. Try visiting any of the European sites for the manufacturers (such as the .co.uk ones) and comparing the prices.

Tony

 

Thanks!!!!

They look like alloys on the outside (like I've seen on other Toyotas) but they're actually plastic bits that conceal the real wheel behind. Strange innit?

Tony