Two kinds of owners.

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1. Is past or current ownership of an NHW11 required?
2. Is experience with a 2001 Prius in 2001 required?
3. Is owning more than one Prius or hybrid required?
4. Does participation in other hybrid forums or Yahoo Groups count? Since what year?
5. Attending 'hybridfest' when it was called hybridfest?
6. If you have to ask, you're too young?

Techies

I'm encouraged by those who have bought older Prius and brought them back to life or done creative things with them. Many are 'one trick ponies' but the best of them go on to do something else, a series of interesting experiments, that are unique, unconnected and expands our understanding. I also appreciate the 'gray beards' who continue to contribute even after their rides have changed or gone to others.

Greenies

Mostly harmless, great cooks, and good sense of humor.

Cheapies

You have no idea how much time and money I spend to save a nickel ... of recurring costs. But then this is also so much fun.

Pests, skeptics, and complainers

Not much change here. The Prius-skeptics, noise generators, and non-Prius advocates change usernames but are almost Kabuki-like in their behavior. Occasionally you'll smite one with a 'clue by four' and they'll grow. But eventually, you just have to filter out their noise.

Bob Wilson

 

I want more choices.

 

I'm sorry but in my opinion none of those reasons really suffices.

Most of you probably know about the dust to dust study comparing the environmental impact of the Prius vs. a Hummer. Well, reinterpretation of that study concluded that the Prius is unquestionably greener, but that is comparing the best with the worse. If a similar study was run comparing the Prius against cars like a Fit or Yaris, I'm sure the Prius would be placed behind on the green factor. One must not ignore the environmental impact of producing the huge battery.

Regarding fuel efficiency, yes I agree it seems unbeatable at the moment in the Prius, but if one is looking for saving money on fuel, the overall value of the car must not be ignored either. I'm in the market for a new car and I’m personally finding it difficult to justify a Prius with the features I want, namely moonroof, 17" wheels, leather, and fog lights. Only a Prius V offer those. In contrast, I can buy a car several thousand dollars cheaper with not only all that but more, in this case, I’m talking about the 2011 Hyundai Sonata. I opened a thread to discus the value of Hyundais (other cars section), so no need to go deep on details here. I know they are different cars, I have no desire to compare performance and handling because one is a hybrid and the other one is a full size sedan (according to EPA), but what they can be fairly compared against each other is on quality, fit, and finish of interior and exterior, and the Prius is just no match there. I checked out both and it really feels like comparing corolla vs. an expensive Lexus. Even on the fuel efficiency territory, the new Sonata is rated 35 MPG on the hwy and I think that is pretty impressive for its size while no match for the Prius. The money saved on gas in the Prius is unlikely to pay off my savings on the price tag for the Sonata according to my math and the Sonata is more loaded and feels far superior on quality. I don’t even care about this recall mess, the problem has been identified and fixed, it is just the value.

I realize some Prius owners buy it just for the technology or maybe the "cool" factor and I respect that, but other than that, I'm not sure if I agree with you all, please don't take me wrong.

And for the record, I would never buy a stupid Hummer…

 

That attitude is exactly the main reason why I got away from working directly with customers/consumers. I only deal with a small group of people, all day every day and it's so much nicer.

In regards to the original poll, I'm pretty much 50/50 right down the middle. Always been a bit of a techie, but over the past few years have tried to do whatever I can to be "green" (I really dislike that term, btw). I call it, being ahead of the game and prepared for the future.

I figure that oil / gas / electric prices are only poised to rise. So, I drive an extremely FE vehicle and I have an array of PV solar panels on my roof at home. The real dream, is having enough solar and/or wind power to be essentially totally independent of the grid. Obviously, there would possibly be times where I needed to pull from the grid to meet POU demands, but later that would be fed back in to the grid. Then, the PHEV (with a large EV range would be ideal) would essentially take me away from almost all oil/gas usage there is.

Ok, that's probably several years down the road, but small steps to get there will put me ahead of everyone else.

 

ya, i agree, but my current job allows me to have a special schedule that allows us to not have to use daycare. other than that, i complain a lot, but i actually like my job. sure i get a lot of whiners, but that is part of the job. the industry i work in is moving into whole new areas and the pricing structure (lets face it, it nearly always boils down to money!!) is pretty much still being experimented with.

new requirements are being implemented that people simply dont want. they want the latest and greatest but want to pay last year's price for it.

so it goes. but will probably stay thru thick and thin at least until my Son hits preschool which will be at least another year or more.

 

I'd like to vote "greenie", but in reality, when I was shopping for a car my parents were ill on the other side of the country. When the dealer asked if I wanted to sit in the car, I said no, I want to lie in the car. I bought the Prius because I could drive across the country, pay as little as possible for gas, and sleep in the back. Every other car even close is not flat in the back. I'm guessing that is not a reason that is going to make many "Why did you buy your Prius" surveys.
Now that I have it, I do appreciate both aspects, and really love the car.