This was the end of my Prius...

I had tried everything to save my ride, anything. I was looking for comfort and quality, roominess, and a decent hwy mileage, in descending order of importance. Clearly, getting the highest hwy fuel efficiency as possible was a hopeless mistake. There is a lot more to a car than just that. My quest for an used A3 or a new Jetta was becoming unrealistic without a good financial loss. Audi and VW dealers have changed their minds. What was possible once and filled me with hope was becoming less likely now… excessive miles that kept adding up in a such new car was their excuse for my remote success. Obviously, depreciation caused by the recall mess was certainly playing a role. Besides, there was body work done in the past as well, nothing major, but any minor flaw in an used car always escalade to unfair proportions. Then, totally unannounced, an idea hit me like a thunder! “Of course, there is one more carmaker which I carry much respect and admiration, why not?” I eagerly thought. What came after was the end of my Prius.

It was a cold day in Southern WI. As I stepped outside and glanced my 2010 Prius, I was reminded to remove the idiotic grill block… “I will save the insulation foams for what it is supposed to” I thought. As I drove to the dealership, I waited the engine to warm up and turned on the manual heater at a comfortable level… “No more chilling inside the cabin, it must feel nice for once”. Inevitably, it also came to my memory my feelings when driving my CR-V to the dealer moments before trading it for the Prius last summer. It was a mixture of apprehension and excitement… “Will this Toyota hybrid really meet my expectations?” “Really only one way to know”… The feeling now was of alleviation. The road pavement irregularities on my way to the dealership, as always, felt dry and sarcastic, more so than usual on that late afternoon… “It’s about time to abandon the practice of o over-inflating tires to maximum side pressure and acclaim comfort”. As precisely instructed earlier, I approached the dealership garage and the door automatically opened to reveal my new ride inside, immaculate and beautiful… “Superb!”. I parked the Prius right next to it to transfer my belongs and I could not help it but notice how much further my new ride was being embellished by the presence of the bizarre hybrid style next to it… “What in the world I was thinking?”

Anyway, the once inevitable financial compromise had become hardly any loss at all… thanks to a very audacious marketing campaign of America’s fastest growing car company, which also happens to be the most fuel efficient automaker in America overall as recently declared, the hope for my new serene ride, the 2010 Hyundai Sonata, transformed to reality. Fortunately, the launch of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata came just on time to rescue me from the Prius resale value plunge… 2.5K discount incentive on the 2010 model provided by Hyundai Motor America plus 1K for trading a Toyota also by HMA plus 2.5K bellow MSRP provided by dealer who wanted to clear all the 2010 inventory as soon as possible to focus upon selling the gorgeous 2011… “the game has changed to my side now…”

As I drove my new car home from the dealer and fully enjoyed the fluent and tranquil ride, the absence of rattles and creaks inside the cabin was astonishing. I could not believe the improvements on my surrounding visibility at any direction....it felt like driving a convertible compared to the Prius. A surge of excitement and joy overtook me. Dusk was approaching briskly and the neat and cozy blue light of the instrumentation glowed softly before my eyes. I have driven many luxury cars in the passenger seat and I assure anyone that the Sonata’s interior is highly competitive on the quality and luxury feeling against those. I started, once again, checking out all the gracious extra features, which my Prius III missed compared to the standard features on my new limited trim Sonata with Bluetooth and iPod connection. I also must stress that this is a very fair comparison since both cars are priced very similarly at the configuration levels I acquired them, about 25K. “Where do I start though?” “It’s hard to believe”… I hope I don’t forget anything but it’s almost inconceivable… leather seats, wood grain interior accents, heated front seats, dual automatic climate control, sunroof, Infinity audio system that stands for the denomination premium, auto-dimming rearview mirror with homelink and compass, leather wrapped steering wheel, power driver seat with lumbar support, automatic light, iPod/USB jacks, 5-star crashing ratings… and, of course, lets not forget the exterior… the elegant 17” alloy wheels and fog lights. You may ask, what extras did my Prius III had compared to my limited Sonata? Well not much… the smart key, which liked to act foolish when near my cell phone, the touch tracer display, which I found useless and would have appreciated a HUD instead, and of course, the better fuel efficiency… lets do justice here… after all the Prius does currently have the better fuel efficiency on the market… not that I care much at this point as I said in my order of priorities earlier. I’m still having a hard time believing that the Prius III costs about the same as the top Sonata trim, the limited edition. “Good for me” I thought, once again.

The next day, it was time for another 6-hour long hwy trip… I packed all my bulky toys into the monstrous trunk and realized I could fit everything in there. “Superb, no need to fill the hatch and compromise an already-compromised rearview”. I decided to focus on other aspects of my new majestic ride at that time. As I pushed the gas pedal furiously, the 175-hp 2.4L all-aluminum engine delivered the power I was so desperately deprived from… handling was responsive and genuine and I realized the real car feeling was back … “simply cool”. Cruising on the hwy was a breeze… comfortable, pleasant, and solid. The seat and lumbar support felt great… “I may not need that physical therapy anymore after all”. I opened my legs wide for that extra comfort and my once claustrophobic knees were now thrilled with their new and larger home…“Thanks boss…” There was no need to monitor energy bars any longer or play games with the display, after all, being tired of playing games with my old ride was also part of our mutually growing boredom. When briefly cruising at 75 MPH and before hitting the upcoming snow storm, I called my wife to test the Bluetooth. “You sound much better now” she proclaimed. Then, all of sudden the light rain started and changed to light snow, then heavy snow, which changed back again to rain… that furious Midwest winter was acting again, this time, for 70% of my trip and it reminded me how poor my Prius would do in such conditions... It also reminded me the words of my Hyundai sales guy warning about maximum fuel efficiency approximately after 10K miles only in that kind of engine in the Sonata… Not that I was much preoccupied about it at that profound moment of tranquility and satisfaction when navigating through 3 states and feeling the fresh snowfall. Nevertheless, I’m sure someone would be anxious to know that my final indicated trip MPG was 36.4 with a little over than 1/3 of gas left in the tank. EPA hwy ratings for my new ride is 32. No grill block, no over-inflated tires, bad weather, my usual speed for bad weather, brand new engine... no tricks... just drove it. I was missing that. The last time I was over EPA in my Prius was in the beginning of October…

Thanks Hyundai for saving my ride.

Cheers...

 

And I won't miss your spelling.... English is just my third language FWIW...

 

I will soon post the file with all my trip MPG data with graphics and all the details, but yes, you're right, I won't pursue the report with statistical analysis. My intention was to have 100 trips with one whole year of sampling, but it did not go that way...