Friday, February 10, 2017

Cost Versus Benefits - My New Prius

When I purchased my first Prius in 2012 I was rather apprehensive if it was the right decision, depending on so much electronics technology to keep the car functioning was somewhat scary. People that have never owned a Prius may bash it but the people that have them seem to think it is one of the best vehicles they have ever owned. In the past I had driven mainly American vehicles but the first new vehicle I had purchased, an American minivan turned out to be a huge disappointment. Now you are not going to pull a horse trailer with a Prius or jump start your neighbors car but I think the positives outweigh the negatives.
2017 Prius

After driving the Prius for 5 years and 46,000 miles with no problems I was extremely pleased. The gas mileage varied with 53.5 mpg average being the best it did by the end of one summer, winter mileage is still good but down several mpg from summer. I did all the suggested maintenance but did not have a single issue with the car. Failure of the hybrid batteries was a concern although there is a really long warranty. I had been told that the trade-in value of my Prius would be good, so when the new generation Prius came out, I thought after it had been out a year I would look into trading mine for the new technology.
Better Visibility Out Side Window

Now there are people that really do not like the looks of the new Prius, or previous versions either. The new body style has a slightly lower coefficient of drag than the previous generation which was already low.   The new version has been improved in many ways such as the rear suspension, even better gas mileage, more power, more comfortable seats, more cargo room, and lots of electronic wizardry. It has radar cruise control to keep an even gap with the car ahead and another feature to turn it back if it should start driving off the edge of the road. The Bluetooth interface connects to a smartphone so it can even read an incoming email to you in a female voice. More usable to me is how it connects with Google Maps.
New Dash Better in Bright Sun

Two tiny objections I had with my previous Prius I think have been remedied. The new color dash screen appears easily visible in bright sunlight. Vision out the rear of the car appears to be better also and it came with a backup camera standard. Even in my short test drive with my salesperson from Dahl Toyota, Ken Koeller I could tell the ride and handling in the new model was better.

 If pressed for the biggest reason I wanted to purchase a Prius I would have to say I like things that are efficient. How a car can average 50 mpg and not be kiddie car size is through some very clever engineering. In previous blog posts on my 2011 Prius I explained some of the engineering.

 I am so excited the number of views to this blog is less than a thousand away from the 200,000 view mark.

Bill Kuhl

Previous Prius Posts

http://www.dahltoyota.com/   - Dahl Toyota Winona


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