http://www.toyota.com/prius/

Have you seen one in real life? Their larger than they might appear to be in pictures.

 

Prius is also a hatch, can haul a hell of a lot more than any Buick car being sold today. Ah, I wish Roadmasters where still being made...

 

Again, I used my example of getting the common 33mpg with the LeSabre.

You seem to having a hard time dealing with a comparison of opinion values. If you feel that spending thousands more for a little more mileage that you may never make up, while having nothing in terms of comfort (in comparison to a Buick), that's your choice.

Check out majorities though. I have gone on many message boards to research this, but it comes down to that they just aren't getting the claimed mileage. This also comes from people who own them.

Perhaps if you sold automobiles you would better understand what selling points to use. Power, that really isn't a big issue. But getting 33mpg in a loaded full size car is.

And finally, this was a post about values. What you get for the money. LeSabre: big loaded car with mileage, and in the real world, far less expensive (thousands). Take your pick. I'll chose the Buick LeSabre.

 

OK so what it comes down to you is needing a fullsize sedan with decent highway milage...

A majority of people drive in the city most of the time, where the Prius eats up the LeSabre...unless they need that extra cubic foot or so of space in the backseat, good luck finding another selling point for these people. They'll probably break even for the extra few thousand bucks in the first 3 years, depending on how much they drive. One good Prius owners will notice off the bat, they'll never have to sacrifice driving because of gas prices...which I saw myself doing when gas prices just hit $2.40 over here. I miss having to go to the gas station only once a month in the Insight (With only a 9 gallon tank )

 

Maybe if gas prices make you sacrifice driving to save money, you shouldn't be making payments on a NEW car in the first place. Recognize the limitations of your budget and buy a good used car, save buttloads vs. the prius and then you don't have to change your lifestyle because gas goes up a quarter or two per gallon.

 

Now your bringing a whole new element into it....

Why not buy a used Prius?

Like I said...Toyota is doing a great thing by bringing hybrids into the market now...after they have saturated, the budget minded consumer will be able to get the best of both worlds.

And honestly....this is America.... More people than not are living beyond what their income suggests.

 

Sad but true.

 

I'm probably beating a dead horse here but I felt oddly compelled to post this here, and this is the only thread that seemed to make sense for it...

http://greenhybrid.com/discuss/index.php?showtopic=797

I'm not really posting this to make more of a point one way or the other. Its just simply amazing how much fuel economy some of these guys are getting. 90+ MPG for the top Insight over his last 100+ tanks!! Of course he's done 2 mods to help that out also...The Prius at the bottom of the list is averaging 56 MPG.

 

And then there are those who don't...

http://hybridbuzz.blogspot.com/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/...in620265.shtml

http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0...=wn_16techhead

And then the whole "value" may be lost too...

http://www.detnews.com/2004/money/0401/31/b03-44631.htm

People will get the claimed (maybe more) and people will get less (or a lot less). Still can't say that I would spend the money for one.

 

The only real worthwhile links there are the www.wired.com one and tax break one gives some facts. The other two are just about the same guy that bought a lemon...c'mon...

You can get a used Insight for like...$5K now. Why do people consider these things so expensive when a lot of these other gas guzzler cars which cost more in MSRP and gas are considered "affordable" like the GTO for instance, than a $25K MSRP Toyota Prius?? You people will never make sense to me.

And I noticed how you say "(maybe more)" and "(or a lot less)" being biased in favor of the "lot less" side. Really...90 MPG is A LOT more than the 65 MPG EPA figure. And I will bet a fortune cookie that there is not an Insight trolling around with 25 MPG less than 65 MPG that has more than 2K miles on the car.

Also, for you guys that try bashing hybrids because they don't meet their EPA MPG #'s. Show me one other non hybrid stock car that gets 20+% better than its EPA rating. Even 15%. A lot of hybrid owners never see the EPA ratingbecause they simpley don't know how to drive a hybrid. They know how to drive a regular car. Yea, you can drive a hybrid like a regular car, but it doesn't help MPG figures any. Theres a few things you have to do differently to see those EPA #'s. Once more and more owners figure that out, your gunna see that myth about hybrids being unable to match EPA #'s quickly vanish. If anything, it applies to non-hybrid cars more than to hybrids.

Anyway, like I said, this wasn't meant to back me up or shut me up. Just pretty incredible stats to look at.

 

Well, on this board, as you've likely found already, are performance fans in every sense of the word. Performance people don't get the green people and vice versa. Being on the sales end, I'm forced to look both ways for in the best interest of the customer. And believe me, it can get tough!

True. I did say that, but only because of there being a greater response of underwhelmed customers getting less than the advertised fuel economy than ones getting the astonomical numbers on the link you posted. If they truely are getting those numbers, that really is fantastic and I sure hope some of this technology trickles down to the performance lineup, so long as it doesn't dilute the perfomance and the potential to make more.