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Thinking of leasing a Prius

S

Syringer

Lifer
My Explorer is currently in the shop for the umpteenth time, and possibly for the last time ever. I've had it with the damn thing, and when it runs it's awesome, but that happens rarer than I would want with a car.

As such I'm thinking of trading it in and going on the extreme opposite end now, and going with a Prius. According to toyota.com, I can lease a Toyota for $879 due at signing, and $229/month.

I know leases have really bad reputations, but to me this sounds like a pretty good deal, as the due at signing price+monthly payments are considerably lower than what I'd be paying for if I actually bought a new, or even a used car.

Any thoughts to this?
 
Obligatory "accelerator will stuck and you will fuxxored".

No, but that's quite a big switch to the other side. I've driven an '06 Prius, and it's definately pretty weak in terms of acceleration and handling; the '10 should have fixed some of it.

I've also driven a Fusion Hybrid, Camry Hybrid and Civic Hybrid (company fleet vehicles). The Fusion is much nicer inside and out than the Camry, wheel gives more feedback and it just "feels" better than the Camry. But powerwise, they feel similar, and are a lot better than the Prius; they go when you floor it. In Canada, the Prius starts at $27k and Fusion Hybrid around $29k, not sure how major the difference is in the US (too lazy to check). Also, both the Camry and Toyota interiors look cheap as hell; Prius' digital spedometer looks like it's from the '80s.

I would give the other cars a try (if you're set on gas hybrids), unless Toyota's current downfall is really making the lease THAT much cheaper.
 
Where are you located? $229/month sounds tempting. I just check local deals for my zip, and it came up at $289 month with $1499 due at signing.
 
No problems with Prius. Even with a stuck accelerator pedal, it's unlikely you will accelerate fast enough to get into danger. You could probably take a nap and shift into neutral before it hits 75.
 
MJinZ said:
No problems with Prius. Even with a stuck accelerator pedal, it's unlikely you will accelerate fast enough to get into danger. You could probably take a nap and shift into neutral before it hits 75.
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This, I had a rental prius. I'll take my TDI and sacrifice a few MPG for the added power.
 
Chicago area:

Print Toyota Prius offer
Lease a new 2010 Prius for only $199 a month!
Excludes some models
A special offer from your participating Toyota dealer.

* $199.00 per month for 36 months
* $1599.00 due at signing

Offer Ends 4/5/2010

Not bad for a lease...
 
Rented a prius. Great on gas but I usually like a response from the car I'm driving. Plus it looked pretty god damn cheap on the inside.
 
zoiks said:
Rented a prius. Great on gas but I usually like a response from the car I'm driving. Plus it looked pretty god damn cheap on the inside.
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Honestly... My Civic DX, the cheapest 4 door Civic you can get has a nicer interior than a car that costs 1.5x out the door. And the spedometer in my Civic is gorgeous, very well done while the Prius uses some retro, '80s green colour crap. The Ford Fusion puts them all to shame, except it's analog.

Get to drive one tomorrow morning though🙂.
 
I would absolutely not buy a prius.

Ford Fusion, Subaru Legacy, Mazda 3, Toyota Matrix, Honda CRZ, or hell, the Mini Cooper would all be IMO, better than the Prius ....

Prius is like .... a couch on wheels, accelerates horribly slow, handling is "mushy", it's probably the least exciting car to drive .... EVER!!!
 
When I drove the new Fusion Hybrid, I thought the thing was a boat. Ford did do a pretty good job on it.. but it's weird driving such a huge hybrid vehicle. It sort of defeats the purpose, especially spending so much on it. My neighbor that has one finds gas mileage has been slightly over-rated on the EPA estimates, but that may be to blame on the cold weather here in Michigan as of right now.

I've driven the Prius as a demo car when I worked at a dealership several years back, and it's still my favorite hybrid. You can easily hypermile in it and get over 60mpg with the proper accelerate/coast/glide techniques.

Neither car is going to be amazing if you're looking for some awesome accelerating performance handling car. I don't know where people are even taking that into account because you never mentioned anything about that.
 
There's much better cars you can get for cheaper. The only reason why people get a hybrid is for the green factor, not to save money. Almost no one is going to save money on a hybrid.
 
If you planned to spend say.. $22k on a vehicle, you certainly will save money on gas compared to another $22k vehicle you could have chose. The hybrid 'not saving money' myth is based off of you buying cheap ass $12k econobox that gets 34mpg and saying ..see see see, look how many years you would have to drive to make up the cost.
 
wiretap said:
If you planned to spend say.. $22k on a vehicle, you certainly will save money on gas compared to another $22k vehicle you could have chose. The hybrid 'not saving money' myth is based off of you buying cheap ass $12k econobox that gets 34mpg and saying ..see see see, look how many years you would have to drive to make up the cost.
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It's not like the Prius is a luxury vehicle. The inside isn't even that nice. You can get a similarly equipped and just as nice car for a lot cheaper and save tons of money. 99% of people will never make up the large price difference in a hybrid.
 
I never claimed it to be a luxury vehicle. But yeah, no matter what someone lists, you can always point to something "cheaper and better for the money". For a moderately equipped Prius, after driving one as a demo vehicle, the price is worth it IMO. But as I said, you can list a shitbox Focus and say you'll never make up the price difference compared to a Prius. That's fine. It may not be what someone's looking for.
 
wiretap said:
If you planned to spend say.. $22k on a vehicle, you certainly will save money on gas compared to another $22k vehicle you could have chose. The hybrid 'not saving money' myth is based off of you buying cheap ass $12k econobox that gets 34mpg and saying ..see see see, look how many years you would have to drive to make up the cost.
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Not quite. Look at any car that is available in both a hybrid and non-hybrid. That's precisely the reason hybrid versions of regular cars are generally poor seller - the math does not work. A Civic Hybrid is $24k for 40/45/42 MPG. A Civic EX-L is $22k for 25/36/29 MPG. Go with the combined for simplicity, figure 15000 miles driven/year @ $4.00/gallon just to be generous and forward-thinking. You'd spend $1428 on fuel in the hybrid vs. $2068 in the non-hybrid. $640/year, but you paid $2000 more so you won't see any fuel savings at all for nearly 4 years.

The Prius has no direct comparison -that has always worked in its favor since you can't point out how the hybrid Prius costs so much more than the non-hybrid - but you don't even have to compare it to a "12k econobox." You break even a little sooner with the Prius since you spend around $1200/year using my specs above but you can get a fully-loaded Mazda3 hatchback for less than a base-model Prius. The sedan would be a good $5000 less. Either way you'd get much better handling and performance. You can get a Honda Fit fully loaded for under $20k - 30+ MPG plus more cargo capacity. There are plenty of cars in the $18k - $22k range that get "good enough" fuel economy given the up-front cost saving and are better overall as machines that you use to drive and/or move people/items.

So yeah....you can buy a Prius because it's "green". You can buy a Prius because you just plain like it. You can buy a Prius because you want to buy into the "lifestyle" it represents. You can buy a Prius because you want to support the nascent market for new car tech. There's a lot of great reasons to get one and I've certainly got nothing against the car itself.

But unless you drive a ton you really can't buy it to save money on gas. Not right now at least. The numbers just don't work.

I will say one thing that I would find appealing about leasing a Prius - never having to worry about replacing the batteries in 10 years....
 
This is my take.

Isn't the point of getting a Prius - is so that you can rack up the mileage and pay less in gas? With a lease you will be sorely limited in your mileage.

Also, I was in big favor of leases until fairly recently. I does kind of suck that you are giving away all that money to them, and you could just purchase the car for a few dollars more a month...
 
Just know what you are getting into - you never own the vehicle and you never build up equity. It's a continuous loop of payments. And you have to take very good care of the car...any big scratches/dents/scuffs/tears/ect will cost you in overage fees.

The upshot is that other than gas & tire rotations, and oil changes you really won't have to drop a dime into your vehicle for costs. Well on a 3 year lease you'll probably have a tire change needed. Plus you are in a new car every three years and will be never upside down.

Also know how your state works for sales tax on the vehicle. I've been in three different states and it was handled three different ways.

In Iowa you paid sales tax up front on the "used" part of the lease. If I use "$9000" worth of the car then I paid taxes on $9000 worth of car.

In Nebraska I paid a sales tax on the monthly payment.

In the retarded and greedy state of Illinois I paid sales tax on the ENTIRE purchase price of the vehicle regardless of how long the lease term was. And the real kick to the crotch was if you wanted to buy out the vehicle at the end you paid sales tax AGAIN. Needless to say leases are almost never bought out in IL unless you are in a world of hurt on them.

Leases aren't bad. They just aren't for everyone. And not every lease is created equal. This is a decent deal IMHO vs. what the monthly payments would be. You can't even finance for 5 years @ 0% and be anywhere close to that.
 
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