Oscar, Our First Hybrid and First New Car!

Hi everyone. We wish to introduce Oscar, our Driftwood Pearl (beige) '8 Prius package 5. We got him back in January, but work severely reduces the time I have available to post or take pics of the car. Every third week I'm off work but sick with chemo. So I'll have more pics later on I hope.
We love our car, especially since it is our first new car, ever! I will admit, I almost talked us into the HCH, but that's another thread. Like most users, mileage began very low, but has steadily increased. Best trip to work so far (90 miles each way 75% interstate) has been 50mpg. A substantial improvement over my 2000 Alero at about 29mpg. Since Jan 29, I have taken the car from 2 miles on the odo to 4100 March 7.
I joined PC to gain some user opinions on the Prius and HCH when I got diagnosed. All the people here plus a friend who bought a '7 Prius convinced us that we should go for it. And with my communte to work combined with gas savings from the Alero to the Prius, our monthly payment impacts us just over 300 per month as compared to the full 480 month payment. About $180 less in gas per month. What a huge difference. Once we factored that into our monthly budget, we realized we would be getting a brand new car for about $308 per month. And here we are.

 

Fog lights. though more like flashlights! Here's two more pics. The first pic is the first night I drove it to work. The second is more recent with my best mpg trip yet. It was rather warm for us if you see the temp in the MFD.

 

As for doing any mods, won't be doing anything until chemo is over and I have the strength and most importantly patience to do them. But what I would like to do: I'm gonna see if my dad can help me fabricate a block to mount behind the front grille to partially cover the lower air intake for winters; install EBH; get scanguage; install EV mod (for going to bank from work); and second most important, an iPod interface to the head unit that is as close to my Pioneer Avic D3 as possible. I like the coastal tech version of the EV switch and may try getting it from them. They have an iPod interface that sounds perfect but they say out of stock forever on it. Need to send my address book to the Prius but that doesn't work with the iPhone. Gonna try taking the PowerBook out there and see if it will, who knows.

If I do run into the gas tank burping issue, then I will either remove the bladder from the tank or replace the tank with one without the bladder from another country. Oh, and I'm 5'9", but the driver seat will have to come down some for me, but that can wait until spring! That's all I can think of for now. Just woke up. Here's a pic from this morning, and the only significant snowfall we've had here in Memphis. Looks like Oscar is grinning and itching to get out and spin wheels. The Bonnie is my older car that Gary now drives.