New/Used Prius

[Imported]

The IV has a fake leather. Why they did aftermarket I don't know.

 

[TangoJuliet]

The IV has a fake leather. Why they did aftermarket I don't know.

My only guess could be that maybe the original leather got damaged and they put that on instead. It looks brand new.

I have the carfax and its clean - plus Toyota couldn't sell it as CPO if it wasn't.

 

[NutBucket]

Fake leather sucks so I can understand why someone would want to put on the real stuff. That BWM "leatherette" is terrible. I'd rather have cloth.

 

[SearchMaster]

It's also possible that the original buyer negotiated the leather installation as part of the original purchase. We considered that on my wife's original Odyssey but ended up getting a good deal on the EX-L that included leather.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Update: I bought it!

On the test commute today it saved me 20 minutes each way. Averaged almost 52 MPG

 

[HitAnyKey]

Update: I bought it!
On the test commute today it saved me 20 minutes each way. Averaged almost 52 MPG

:thumbsup: Congrats. You made the right choice.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

70 miles round trip is reasonable, 3 hours a day isn't. I'd quit and help my wife's business, move it or move the kid. There has to be a breaking point no? What if it were 5 hours a day? 15 hours a week commuting, almost a full day you lose each week driving.

Gosh, 3 hours/day spent commuting. I can barely imagine that. Of course, when you get to work some of your energy and focus will have already been spent from having driven 1.5 hours. If you spend 9 hours/day at work with a 3 hour commute, then 12 hours of your day is gone, and if you include 1 hour of getting ready to go to work from when you wake up to before you walk out the door, 13 hours of your day is essentially spent, leaving little time to do much when you do finally return home. Day-in and day-out, what kind of a life is that?

I'm glad I just have a 1.5 mile commute with two stop signs and one traffic light that takes about 8-10 minutes door-to-door. I guess it's one of the perks you might be able to enjoy if you live in a smaller town with a metro area population of under 250,000.

It must suck to have to deal with a "two body" problem -- two married people, two separate careers with appropriate jobs in different locales.

 

[TangoJuliet]

It must suck

The commute is only 51 miles each way but in NYC traffic it could take up to 1.5 hours. Yesterday I left my house at 5:30 with the Prius and got there at 6:40 which isn't too bad considering I was in that first wave of the morning commute.

Today I had a non hybrid/clean pass car and left at 5:15 and got there at 6:25. Had I driven the Prius with the clean pass I would have been able to do it in a hour flat.

The ride home today is going to suck. I already plan that it's going to take me upwards of 1.5 to get home leaving at 3:30. When I get into the normal schedule my shifts will be 630-230 which avoids a lot of the traffic. What the clean pass i don't have to be stressed out trying to get onto the road ASAP. If I get held over or something I'll be ok.

I think I got a good price on the car and the gas savings are an added bonus especially if the prices ever go back to $4+

 

[halik]

Oooh those seat covers are nice! I guess you can load up on books on tape or something.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I'm glad I just have a 1.5 mile commute with two stop signs and one traffic light that takes about 8-10 minutes door-to-door. I guess it's one of the perks you might be able to enjoy if you live in a smaller town with a metro area population of under 250,000.

Not necessarily, same thing here for me in Dallas (from Preston/Alpha to Belt Line/Midway).
Also grats OP! Those seats look nice!

 

[Anubis]

Gosh, 3 hours/day spent commuting. I can barely imagine that. Of course, when you get to work some of your energy and focus will have already been spent from having driven 1.5 hours. If you spend 9 hours/day at work with a 3 hour commute, then 12 hours of your day is gone, and if you include 1 hour of getting ready to go to work from when you wake up to before you walk out the door, 13 hours of your day is essentially spent, leaving little time to do much when you do finally return home. Day-in and day-out, what kind of a life is that?

I'm glad I just have a 1.5 mile commute with two stop signs and one traffic light that takes about 8-10 minutes door-to-door. I guess it's one of the perks you might be able to enjoy if you live in a smaller town with a metro area population of under 250,000.

your definition of small is wrong, small is living in a town of 6k with a metro population of 6k like I do

grats to the Op on his purchase

 

[NutBucket]

You have to have the right attitude towards commuting. Traffic isn't going away so I just relax and unwind after a day of work. I come home tired but at least not stressed out.

 

[TangoJuliet]

You have to have the right attitude towards commuting. Traffic isn't going away so I just relax and unwind after a day of work. I come home tired but at least not stressed out.

yeah I was kind of just resigned to the fact that its inevitable. So today I drove a non hybrid/clean pass home. Left at 2:45 and got home at 4:45....not fun

 

[Eug]

Get the least expensive Prius you can enjoy. There is no reason to get a low miles Prius especially after what you're about to do to your car. The only thing to be on the lookout for is your seat may get worn but with the price difference between the vehicles, $250 or so for a new seat cushion isn't a big deal.

I know I'm late to the pricing party, but I pretty much did the opposite.

I just picked up my new/used Canadian Prius Plug-in with Technology Package, which is similar to the US Plug-in with Advanced Package. It had a little over 29000 km (18000 miles) on it and was a 2012. After much, much haggling, I got it for CAD$29000 (US$23000) plus tax. It was a dealer company car. I believe they probably used it to ferry customers back and forth.

The thing looks absolutely brand new. I'm impressed. The interior is spotless and in fact, even the engine was spotless. They must have spent a fair amount of time scrubbing that clean. Came with both the summer and winter floor mats, and also two fobs. How many fobs do they usually come with? Cuz I was expecting just one.

The fake leather looks really decent actually, and I'm not even a big fan of real leather, much less fake leather.

This thing feels like a luxury car... well... except for the acceleration. But I'm used to that, as I've owned both the 2001 Prius and the 2004 Prius. The fit and finish is excellent. However, that's because of the package, which is above the US Prius Five IIRC. I looked at a 2012 Prius v Base model, and it looked horrible, with the interior trim comparable to a cheap low end minivan of the 1990s.

BTW, licence plates here are normally blue on white but these plug-ins and EVs get green on white licence plates. For the time being we also get HOV lane use on some of the big highways, but they're terminating that in the summer I believe. Not even EVs will get to use the HOV lanes either when they terminate this. The regular Prius never was eligible for the HOV lanes here, even when it first came out AFAIK.

 

[tortillasoup]

Yeah the Plug-in Prius is pretty swanky, I rented one from a Toyota Dealership for free for two days. One issue I had was that I didn't like the sweeping console around the driver, giving it a cockpit feeling. Driver seat felt too cramped for me so I preferred the '04-'09 Model.

 

[Eug]

Yeah the Plug-in Prius is pretty swanky, I rented one from a Toyota Dealership for free for two days. One issue I had was that I didn't like the sweeping console around the driver, giving it a cockpit feeling. Driver seat felt too cramped for me so I preferred the '04-'09 Model.

Just to clear for the others, the cockpit design is the same for the 2010-2015 regular Prius as well.

I had the 2004 Canadian "B" Package which was their top package at the time and while it was decent, it was not up to the same level of trim by a long shot. That said, it was nice, and much less expensive, and I do see where you're coming from with regards to the cockpit. It is not necessary, just a design choice.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

The new Prius that is coming out (this year I think) is getting an expected 10% increase in fuel economy.

Also, for some reason, Priuses hold their value very well. Just buy new.

 

[Eug]

The new Prius that is coming out (this year I think) is getting an expected 10% increase in fuel economy.

Also, for some reason, Priuses hold their value very well. Just buy new.

Priuses hold their value well presumably because of their excellent service record, in combination with their excellent fuel economy. (I suspect part of that is that the drivers are very gentle with them, as they're the opposite of sports cars.)

However, this time around, if I bought my Plug-in new, it would have cost 1/3rd more. Actually, almost 50% more, but I would have gotten some of that back with the government incentive, so it works out to 1/3rd more. 29000 km / 18000 miles on mine since November 2012. The full out-the-door all-in price including fees, freight, and taxes for mine for a 2015 is about CAD$48500 / US$38000 (ouch) minus the CAD$5000 government rebate.

Now, this is an unusual case since the plug-ins are rare here and it's a more expensive cars, but judging by what I've seen with the used market on the regular Priuses, although they do hold their value well overall in comparison to other cars, it seems the rules of used cars still apply here. They lose much more of their value in the first couple of years.

Best bang for the buck IMO is in the 2 to 4 year-old range, which makes sense since that's when all those leased cars get returned.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I recently went from 4 mile one way commute to 35 mile one way and intersecting through downtown, it sucks, but audio books make it very manageable.