New Prius Owner

So, I picked-up my 2006 Blue Package #7 Prius on Saturday. I bought the car from Ventura Toyota (btw, I highly recommend dealing with Robert Papandrea) and traded-in my 2002 Mercedes ML320. The trade-in sucked but I did get the Prius for MSRP.

So far, the Prius is fantastic as is this forum. The backup beep was annoying me to no end. I did a search on this forum and, voila, fixed the problem . . . er, feature <_<

A couple of things that are still a bit puzzling/annoying/etc. First, the voice recognition seems pretty poor. When I try to dial via the voice activation it's about 50/50 that it gets the right numbers. And, even if it does get the right numbers, it's problematic that it actually dials after pressing the "off-hook" button. This wouldn't be a big deal except for the second nit . . . you can't perform many functions on the computer while the car is moving. I searched for a solution on this forum but it looks like the only alternative is to disable a speed sensor wire, which I'm not really up for yet. Finally, downloading the address book from my Motorola SLVR was time consuming. I had to transfer each contact one at a time. Another useful hint found on this forum. In general, though, I love the Bluetooth integration.

The car is fantastic. It meets all of my requirements (great gas mileage, low-cost, commuter-lane access maybe, fits my bike, four doors) and it looks good to boot.

I'll try to take a photo of it next to my other car which is a Phantom Black Lotus Exige. The two cars are about as far apart in personality as you can get but together, they make great bookends.

I look forward to learning more about the Prius from the wealth of knowledge here on this forum.

Cheers.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(berylrb @ Aug 2 2006, 06:57 PM) [snapback]296748[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the warm welcome. My Exige doesn't quite look like the pictures of the Sport Exige in your link. Here is a photo of my other car:

[attachmentid=4335]

I think the Prius and the Lotus make great stablemates. They both actually get good to great gas mileage (the Lotus only weighs about 2000 lbs). They are both pure expressions of the intent of their respective designers, and both evoke passion in their owners. The Lotus has absolutely no electronics, has an OEM'd Toyota motor and an incredible chassis. The Prius has a boatload of electronics and an advanced hybrid engine. The Lotus is about as impractical as they come and the Prius is the ultimate in practicality. They are a perfect combination

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(berylrb @ Aug 2 2006, 06:57 PM) [snapback]296748[/snapback]</div>

Ignore this reply. Something strange happened when I posted and I got two replies for the price of one