What Car Did You Drive Before Your Prius?

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2004 Prius First new car $USD 25000.
1996 Honda Civic. Bought used $USD 9500. My average MPG was about 38, the same as the combined (old) EPA.
1988 Dodge Colt aka Mitsu Mirage. Classic 'econobox.' I loved it. 30 mpg. Bought used $USD 3500
Unknown Age: Peugeot 204. Bought used for ~ $USD 2k.

 

2008 Toyota Prius
2002 Lexus GS300 great car not the best on gas
2004 Nissan Altima surprisingly bad on gas for a small engine
1996 Mercedes S500 horrible car, horrible on gas
1995 Toyota Corolla great car, wish I still had it.
1991 Jaguar XJ6 beautiful car, horrible electrical issues and gutless engine

 

My "new to me" 2007 Prius is replacing my 2001 Honda Insight. I also own a 2009 Tacoma.

 

Mb c55 amg.

 

1989 BMW 3 series
2003 Nissan Altima 2.5 SL
2004 Honda Accord EXL
2008 Toyota Prius (package yet to be determined)

 

I saw this in another forum and thought it looked like fun.

The '07 replaced a very nice, original 1991 Acura Integra. While I loved the cosmetics and flicking through the 5-speed, the high trunk sill made loading difficult, the power seatbelts were odd to get used to, the seating position was very low--felt like you could drive under trucks, 5th gear was too short--it felt a little tiresome on the highway, the AC was getting weak, and it would have needed a timing belt before long. I do still miss things about it, but am happy with the switch, overall. I love how the Pri swallows up cargo and how easy and practical it is. It's also a more comfortable highway cruiser.



Oh no, I guess there was one of these threads some years ago--shoot. I may have even posted in it. Wow--where is my mind? Well, anyone for a redux?

 

The question was What did we have before! Not a complete history of your vehicles!
Even this is an old thread. I went from a fully loaded 2005 Dodge Magnum RT AWD with all options.
Sure miss that HEMI but not the 12 mpg.
Ride comfort,entry and exit,And room inside actually pretty comparable.

 

Yep--I started a new thread and forgot about this earlier one. It got mod-merged. All for the best!

 

2014 Mustang GT Premium. 14-16 mpg. 420 hp. Definitely fun but very expensive.

Savings in the Prius are significant!

Prior to the mustang I had a 2010 Mazdaspeed 3. Also very fun. Modded the heck out of it.

G

 

The Prius replaced a 2002 Buick Rendezvous with leather, third row seat, etc. that hasn't had air conditioning or heat for 5 years. Engine was great and it served us well driving L.A. to Florida and North Carolina multiple times but we finally recovered enough financially to replace it. Getting older, we just don't need the size of the Buick or the ability to seat 7 anymore.

We by chance found the 2003 Echo last month so we pick that up too and gave the Rendezvous to our son and his family to use as their second car. Everyone in the family comes out ahead.

 

My previous vehicle, was a 1998 Mazda MX-3 1.6i DOHC 109bhp engined coupe whose hidden party trick was "passive 4 wheel steer" that for some reason, Mazda kept awfully quiet about.

It looked sleek, cute, and a bit more expensive than it actually was. It handled quite nicely, though it's approximately 28 - 32mpg (city driving) was absolutely of no concern when I purchased it 2nd hand in November 2004 with 31,000 miles on the clock. Fuel was......cheap back then.
And the high insurance level was still affordable, until 3 years ago, when the UK Insurance companies were given Carte Blanche to mercilessly (and of course cynically) financially gouge the UK motorist for every penny they had.

Externally, it was ace. Internally, it was "meh!".

However, after 8.5 years of zoom zooming around sitting in a near Formula 1 position, seemingly scant inches above the Tarmac (hey, it felt that way), I finally decided to part exchange it for "The Spaceship".

It had 75,000+ miles on it, when we parted ways. It had been pretty flawless, well taken care of, and had a "non contact" engine that was good for 200,000 miles - yes, it was built with a conscience back in the day, and was one of the last MX-3s off the assembly line.

It looked like a SITH flying saucer on the outside. (See photo attached).
Internally, it was absolutely unremarkable. Boring, even. But it drove and handled extremely well, and went round acute corners at speed like it was on rails. Yes, the rear wheels turned ever so slightly to accommodate this capability. Watched a YouTube video to confirm it really DID do this. Why did Mazda keep quiet about this innovation?

Do I miss it? No, not really, but we did have a great time together. Eventually though, getting 180 miles out of 45 litres of 98 octane fuel in winter, started to look ridiculously expensive - and I wasn't even thrashing the car - normally never did. Summer, it was up to 270 miles per tank (normally 240 miles city), though I did get 300+ just a week before I waved goodbye to it.

Y'see, I'd taken to hypermiling in the Mazda, having read about it on PC. I was already adjusting to flying a Prius before I'd actually bought one!

When the cost of insurance sky-rocketed, despite 15 years no claims....it was sayonara.

My Prius, a.k.a. "The Spaceship", was not only cheaper to insure, it's saving me about £200 a month in fuel bills, and has very comfortable leather armchairs. It was also so quiet, I stopped listening to music for months, cherishing the "sound of (relative) silence" instead, while commuting everyday.
The MX-3 had a boom box taking up 75% of the boot space. Sci-fi themes on a boom box sound great on the road.....but....I don't miss that either.

Guess I....er.....finally grew up!!

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