Purchasing a New Prius

They are scarce everywhere, but not as scarce as some dealerships will lead you to believe. If you decide to buy one (which I bet you will after reading about them on this site) my advice is to call all the dealerships within whatever range you are willing to drive. In the chicagoland area all the dealerships told me there was a 6-9 month wait. I called downstate Illinois dealerships and found my car the second day. Rural areas tend to have cars in stock or at least shorter waits. I was driving mine in less than a week, and found a wonderful salesman who shortened my drive by 4 hours by meeting me halfway with the car (Matthew King, Mount Vernon,IL). And if you buy a prius, you will love it!

 

Dianne is selling them under MSRP. See her post in the Dealers & Pricing forum.

 

I didn't notice at first that you edited your first post. You may get more responses by submitting your own reply with questions, as people often just read the new posts.

I haven't had my car that long so I'm not the best one to answer questions, but here goes...

No the salsa red only comes with the tan interior. But you could always get seat covers if you don't like tan and you only want the salsa.

Not many mountains in chicago, so no help there.

The handling seems good so far. Some people have problems with crosswinds at highway speeds, but I don't notice that any more than in my previous car. Mine has the vehicle stability control as well as the antilock brakes and traction control so I worry less about the handling than I might in another car. Snow seems ok though some people on this site reccommend upgrading the tires.

I haven't had any problems, mechanical or otherwise with my car. Some people do, as with any car, but this site provides lots of good advice on getting things fixed, ect.

Drifter

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cyclesome\";p=\"68862)</div>

Since you're new to the site, we should probably warn you. This is definitely a FAN site (in the true sense of the original meaning of the word....fanatic). If you like the car HALF as much as the folks here do, it will still be the best car you've ever had! 8)

Lisa

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cyclesome\";p=\"67877)</div>

Just dandy, though it depends on how steep and how high There is nothing in PA that will challange it. If you do the big ones, like going over Angel Pass in CO at 70 MPH, the Hybrid battery will drain to the point the computer won't try to use electric and you must live with the little ICE near the top. Of course the battery will be all green not long after you crest and put it in B. ;-)

You should NEVER, EVERThe OEMs stink on snow. They don't have enough traction even on roads that were plowed but still have some snow/crud. The traction control light (car with squiggle lines under it) came on a lot just stopping and starting. I debated getting dedicated snows on their own rims, as I have had on all my cars since I moved to VT 25 years ago from So. Cal. But they take space in the garage so I looked into the newer "all weather" tires. You will find a lot of discussion on the topic in the forums. I decided on Goodyear TripleTreds and I love them. Others have chosen Michelin Hydroedge.

The traction control will not allow the tires to spin (the electric motor could be destroyed). The only time I had a problem with the TTs was the day I bought them and tested on a relatively steep hill, with 4" of unplowed snow, from a dead stop on a less steep section. I got about 15' up and the car stopped. I ended up mimicking the OEMs on that hill plowed (see below *) and took my foot off the accelerator so the car would roll back a foot, then start again. With a 10 MPH start, I had only a couple of TC bumps which is what the OEMS did from 10 MPH when it was plowed. (*) On the OEMs, this same 'test' on the plowed road had the TC kicking in and the car sloooooowly jerked up the hill as the TC stopped the tire rotatation, then the OEMs slid down the hill a bit (as I said, no traction) then gripped again. A "2 feet forward, 1 foot back" type thing. That is when I decided they had to go! The TTs handled that test fine, just a couple of TC hits.

There are too many to answer this question. Better than the '95 Honda Odyssey (which wasn't bad) but I'm sure nothing like an Audi TT

No "recall every one ever built" ones. Some earlier 2004s had a few recalls, the most widespread was related to the bizarre lack of ability to use the gas gauge to know about how much gas was in the tank. People resorted to using the computers constant "MPG since reset" number * 10 gallons to figure out when they really would need gas. A few have had to have the display replaced. Overall, not many problems as a percentage of shipped cars. The only recall on my '04 BC built in August is a new NAV DVD (not the hardware, just the data DVD since a lot of people complained of inaccuracy).

Enjoy your new car, you will LOVE IT and soon wonder how you got along having to put a key in a slot and turn it to start your car. You will also wonder why you have to get the keys out to lock and unlock your house. ;-) With VSC and side air bags, it is one of the safest cars on the road.

Do be aware that cold temps hit the MPG hard because the engine doesn't shut down much. If you have a long commute it probably won't be as bad, mine is under 10 miles. In the fall, I was getting 47 MPG. In January when we had 2 weeks where it hardly went above 0 F (The daily highs barely hit the average lows) I hit a very sad 32.2 It has been ~ 10 - 25F lately and I am straddling the 40 MPG line. On a lovely 55 degree day in December on a "perfect for Prius" road (meaning few stops and max speed 55 MPH), I got 58.8 MPG for 31 miles.

 

Believe it or not we have lots of hills in El Paso, TX (someone told me it was flat and dry - seems to rain here 3 days of the week). It climbs the hills just fine. I have no problems staying with the traffic on the highway. My wife says it has more power than her old Honda Civic.

I am not sure about the snow but I have heard with certain Goodyear tires it performs really well in snow.