Blog de Humpty : prius

Life takes Visa, don't screw it up

Humpty — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:46:00 GMT

Thanks to the months-long drought we've been under here in the South I haven't been able to wash and wax my sweet baby. Today, out of desperation, I took her to a full service car wash, figured she could use the pampering; and wax. (And I didn't want to do the windows. :P)

You know the Visa commercials where they have people breakdancing through the checkout line and swiping their cards all without skipping a beat. And then some dude comes up and whips out his checkbook and screws the assembly line up. That was me today as soon as they saw my Prius! The first guy who works on your car hopped in and was like, "Oooh shit, what the fuck is this!" I had to give a quick lesson on how to insert the key, how to turn it on, and how to change gears. The checkout guy actually came over to help out the other guy. Haha. I was a bit worried because I saw this red exclamation point pop up on the information display, and I've never seen that before!

They managed to get it through the car wash and the guy who drives it off hopped in and was like, "Oooh shit, what in the shy!" He motioned to me asking if the car was mine and I nodded and came over. I had to drive the car to its final destination because he didn't know how to drive my car. :) I was kind of surprised that the final two guys managed to turn the car off without my help. They must carry Visa. :P (knuck-knuck)

Prius Mileage

Humpty — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 02:35:00 GMT

Green Hybrid has a database of mileage information for many hybrid cars, thought it'd be neat to share mine. The image is dynamic and will update itself whenever I add info to their database, in short it's current info on my Prius' mileage.

Prius to the Max! (i.e. I ran out of gas)

Humpty — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 23:03:00 GMT

It finally happened, I ran out of gas! Luckily being in a hybrid car I had enough energy left in the battery to get me to the gas station.

I've noticed that the out of gas indicator comes on about a gallon before it should. Like in my other car -- my 2000 Deep Amethyst Dodge Neon that I miss :( -- the indicator would come on when I had about half a gallon left, but in my Prius it comes on when I only have a gallon left. Because of this I've gotten used to ignoring the indicator and driving as if I had another gallon of gas left. The indicator came on Saturday at around 290 miles driven since my last fill-up. Today, as I was leaving home from lunch returning to work, I was completely out of gas at around 325 on the trip meter. Yikes!

When I noticed the big red exclamation point on the dashboard I was like "Ah shit, this ain't good". It happened just as I got on the road leading to my complex too. There's a gas station on my way to work, about a mile or so from where I live, so I figured I could try to push it, especially since I had 6 of 8 bars left on the battery meter display. My first obstacle was a red light. This was an obstacle because I was going around 40 mph when I ran out of gas and I didn't want to have to stop since I would have to use energy to speed back up. So I looked as best I could to see if there was a car coming and since there wasn't I just turned right onto the next road without stopping. I did slow down but I just didn't stop.

Next up, traveling a mile or so with no gas! As luck would have it most of my trip on the next road was flat terrain or downhill so I coasted and drove slow as much as possible. There was one hill I had to get over and by then I only had one bar of energy left, yikes! Luckily I had enough to get over it and from there it was just coasting downhill to the gas station. Whew....

I actually think I had a tiny amount of gas left in my car though because I pulled into the gas station the wrong way, the gas cap facing away from the pump -- a habit since my last car had the gas cap on the right side of the car rather than the left. But when I powered the car back up to move it I noticed that it was drawing some gas from the engine. Hmm. Anyway, when it was all said and done I put 11.914 gallons of gas in my Prius. So I can definitely confirm that the gas bladder in the Prius can hold 11.9 gallons as the manual says, even though it warns you about low gas when you've only used up 9.

Moral of the story? He who drive without gas in a Prius, only have one or two miles before kablooey! This experience definitely gives new meaning to the phrase "driving on fumes".

Prius Pictures

Humpty — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 02:24:00 GMT

Okay, time for some Prius pictures, I know you've been waiting for them.

This is a side shot. Barcelona Red is the official name of the color.

Front

Back

Inside. This is the dark gray interior I waited for; I like it.

The Power button that you use to start the car, no cranking it up! The key slot is to the left of the gear selector, but it's too dark to see well in the picture.

The dashboard. Everything up there is digital. Looks Star Trekkie, no?

The main LCD touchscreen shows various things. This is the view displaying your mileage -- and my hands holding the camera.

Pressing the Energy button displayed in the previous picture shows this screen. While driving, this screen displays how the energy is being directed throughout the car, it's nifty.

The engine compartment.

The trunk. That's the trunk mat I got curled up in the back -- see how excited I am to use it...

The trunk holds many secrets. The left side comes up and can hold things.

And hey, the entire trunk floor can come up and you get another trunk!

I own a Prius!

Humpty — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 23:12:00 GMT

As of January 25 I've been an owner of a Prius! It's a nice one too, Barcelona Red and dark grey interior fabric; nice. I was going to get Driftwood Pearl (beige) and Bisque (beige) interior, but after seeing another car with a red exterior and black interior I just had to switch. The move cost me since the dealer had put a rush on the other one -- apparently -- so I had to pay $500 more to get the red! Sucks. But, oh well, I'll have the car for a long time and be happy with the color so that's why I agreed to pay the surcharge. I really got everything I wanted in this car, nothing that I'll wish I would've gotten. The red color; check. MP3 playback ability; check. Navigation system; check. Sure it's going to cost me a lot but I wanted what I wanted. Plus 2006 Priuses get a $3000 tax credit so that'll help out with the cost too.

I'll post pictures later, but so far I like it. The acceleration from stopping could be vastly improved but that's my only gripe.

I'm getting a Prius!

Humpty — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 06:10:00 GMT

I've decided to get a Prius rather than keep my Dodge Neon. I spent all of last week deciding what to do: keep the car or get a new one.

There were a lot of good arguments for each choice. In keeping the car I determined that I could've gotten it fixed for $1800 rather than the $3600 the insurance company would've had to pay. I got a low price like this by agreeing to pay in cash only, hence a side job done by a guy in the shop rather than the official per hour charge. If I did that I would have about $2000 or so left in cash, plus a car title that would be re-branded to indicate it was totaled thereby reducing its resell value. For a car this old, 6 1/2 years, I'm not expecting that much anyway, but having a branded title really reduces how much you can expect to get. To help offset lowered resell value though is the fact that I would have two grand in the bank, lower car insurance versus a new car, and cheaper property tax. And when I say cheaper property tax I'm talking about $484 back in 2000 versus $84 last year; big difference. I like my Neon too, it still runs great, another selling point.

But, the swaying factor for me was that I've been wanting a Prius ever since Toyota redesigned the 2003 models. That's two years I've been lusting after this car! I decided to take a test drive in one by going to a dealership last Thursday and I was sold.

The inside of them is amazing, it truly reminds me of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, no joke. Since it uses a continuously variable transmission there's no need for discreet gears anymore thus no gear selector! There's a lever next to the steering wheel that you use to indicate what to do with the car: drive, reverse, neutral, or brake, but that's more of an indicator of what you want to do rather than some physical mechanism changing. The parking brake is where the clutch would be on a conventional transmission car so the center of the car is a lot cleaner and less cluttered. The dashboard is totally digital, no analog dials for anything. The fuel gauge, the speedometer, everything up there is digital. And speaking of digital there's even an LCD screen in the middle of the car to the right of dashboard! Again, all digital. Climate control, stereo, outside temperature, you name it, it's there. About the only manual controls on the car are the CD controls. There's even a start button on the car, no cranking it up! This is truly one high tech car. And oh yeah, it gets great gas mileage too, somewhere around 60 MPG in the city according to the sticker.

Driving it is so weird. When I got in I noticed myself reaching down to change the gear from park to reverse only to realize it wasn't there. I had to get used to reaching up near the steering wheel to do that. Some cars are like that anyway so that's not too high tech, but it's just different from most modern cars. Also, depending on the options you get, the car has a back up camera that shows you what's behind you on the LCD screen. That is so cool, seriously! Driving it is different too. The car is quiet, real quiet. At low speeds, apparently up to 35 MPH, the car doesn't use the gasoline engine but uses the electric motor to power the car. That means there is hardly any noise at all, mainly just noise from the wind. It's so weird because I'm used to being able to hear and feel how fast a car is going, but that breaks down in this car.

There are two things I didn't quite like but I think I'll get used to. First, the car cuts off the gas engine when it's stopped. It makes sense, you save gas that way since you don't waste it with an idling engine. The problem comes in when you accelerate and the car has to "come on" again. Rather than mashing on the gas pedal to go fast like I always do, you have to be patient and wait for the car to build up speed on its own. It's not too slow, but I'm used to faster. Merging on the highway is no problem, about the only one is that it's hard to tell by hearing and feeling alone how fast the car is moving. I easily got up to 70 MPH without noticing because I was expecting to feel the transmission shift gears, which of course never happened. Second, looking out the rear view mirror is a pain. Not the mirror per se, but the hatchback design limits viewing a little. It's not too bad, but it's definitely something that will take some time to get used to. And maybe that's just car design and other hatchback designs have this issue.

All and all I really enjoyed driving the car. I was grinning from ear to ear after I was done -- I'm sure the dealer knew I was sold. Luckily for me I'm getting the car now rather than later. Thanks to good ole George Bush's energy bill new hybrids bought this year get somewhere around $3000 in tax savings! Even luckier for me is that the dealer apparently forgot to write on the sticker a markup on the car to profit from this tax credit. So to get my business he agreed to sell me the car at MSRP if I bought it right then and there, no dealer markup, just a $500 deposit for it. That's not really bargaining, I know, paying at MSRP, but this car has such a long waiting list of people waiting to buy it dealers openly advertise their markup and people still buy it! Back when I first looked at this car two years ago there was a waiting list of at least 30 some people to get the car so I definitely believe the dealer on his truthfulness of the markup. So getting a Prius at MSRP is a steal, whereas for other cars that would mean you're being robbed.

I'm going to adjust my tax withholdings on my paycheck to take advantage of the tax credit, which I learned can zero your tax liability but not generate a refund for you. I'm getting about $5000 from Geico for them totaling my car and keeping it. Really they valued the car at $6000 which is a lot higher than Kelley's Blue Book valued my car at, but my deductible reduced the amount I got to $5000. I couldn't even trade my car in for that amount, nowhere near. So it would seem getting the Prius at this time is probably the best time to get it: I'm getting more money for my car, I can take full advantage of the tax credit hybrids get, and I even lucked out and actually got one period, for MSRP too. I'm definitely excited to get my hands on this car. I've waited two years for it and now, it seems, the wait is finally over!