Me and My Prius

A friend told me her parents were thinking of buying a Prius and asked me to write her and tell her what I thought about mine. After I got started, I sort of thought everyone might want to know…
I bought the Prius in March of 06 and it was love at first sight. The relationship continues to work well and I can’t say we’ve ever even had the hint of an argument. When I approach it always makes that little beep-beep sound and immediately opens the door for me, just me, and I feel very special every time. Gas mileage hovers around 48 mpg, better actually when I’m taking a long trip and regardless of what they say, it’s worse when I’m in the city. Of course, no one who actually knows me has ever accused me of having too much patience, and I do tend to take off a bit fast at stoplights on occasion. I’m sure a bit more of a conservative driver could easily keep the mpg at 50. When my daughter borrows my car the mileage goes down, so I have to assume she is more like me than I am, or maybe my car is just pouting that we’re not together.

It takes a while to get over the “gee wiz” factor of the Prius, but I soon became very spoiled. I hate having to drive any other car. The no key thing is so space age that sometimes I get into my husband’s car and start punching the dashboard before I realize I have to actually get the key out of my pocketbook. The back up camera is useful, but you will have a hard time not looking over your shoulder. That’s probably just as well because you can only see directly behind you on the screen. If a car is coming at a right angle to you it won’t appear in the camera until the second before you hit it. BTW, I have only one tiny scratch on my baby, made during my daughter’s watch in DC (shakes fist at sky).

She’s not the only one who occasionally makes mistakes, and together we, well, let’s say we have adventures. Like recently when we went camping and I forgot to fill up the gas tank. We’re driving down I-64 and I notice that the car is getting really good gas mileage, 100 miles to the gallon in fact. That’s weird I thought. Suddenly a warning light I never saw before appeared on the dashboard and I pulled over immediately. We got the owner’s manual out trying to decipher the message from among the seemingly endless group of urgent warnings and finally my girl asked, “Mom, did you fill the car up with gas?” Oh, bad word. My husband drove it last and I have never known him not to fill the tank. After all it’s only an 11 gallon tank and that will take us over 500 miles. I drive by a lot of gas stations, laughing.

The only thing I had trouble getting used to initially was the visibility. It’s a little different and took some adjustment, but now I have absolutely no problems. The sound system is wonderful and I love all the neat little features like the fold down seats in the back, the twin glove compartments, and the ability to plug my ipod directly into the radio. What’s next for me is a new Prius. I found out that mine is worth more now than when I bought it, and the 50,000 mostly highway miles I put on it make no difference. I can get a brand new one for the same price as I can get for my current one. I know, I’m fickle and the poor car is going to wonder what it did wrong. Even though I know that all relationships have to come to an end I hate to think about the day when I have to tell my car, “It’s nothing you did, honestly. It’s not you, it’s me.”