Or not necessarily in Seattle...
Kinda an off-topic post in a way, but I'm sure I can tie it back into
Olympus as we're talking about Zuiko-haulers.
For the first time in about 20 years we are Jeepless. Not a single,
solitary bit of Jeep in our household. We've had a Cherokee Sport and
three Grand Cherokees through that time. Really loved having them and
they served their purpose.
But, don't cry for me, Argentina.
I'm now quite satisfied with the BMW X5 and we traded in the last
remaining Jeep on another Prius. It's wierd, because people who buy
Jeeps tend to keep buying Jeeps and people who buy Prius keep buying
Prius. It's a mindset.
My wife picked up a 2012 Prius with the "Five" trim level. In
otherwords, totally loaded. She's been looking for a newer one to
upgrade from her 2009, which now goes to the girls for a college
vehicle and has been patiently seeking for just the right one for
about six months now. She's scoured about a five state area for the
right one to pop up at the right price. One finally did, and only 30
miles away. The dealership even made the mistake of thinking it was a
"Four" and had it priced accordingly. LOL. Mileage was within her
40-60k miles range. The only options this didn't have were the HUD,
Auto-Park, Lane Assist and Radar Cruise Control. It helps that it was
also at a dealership that didn't normally sell Toyotas new or used. It
had just come in on a trade in on a hybrid Chevy. So, they didn't put
a "proud" price on it. She done well, really well. She negotiated the
price without a trade in and then we also ended up trading in the Jeep
when they gave us a more than fair price on it.
So, what is it about Prius that make them great Zuikohaulers?
EXCELLENT gas mileage, outstanding features, extremely reliable and
very well built. What is there not to like? Handling and ride is a
little weird. Ground clearance is a bit trippy. Even roadkill
squirrels need to be avoided.
The NiMH battery packs have been almost completely problem-free and
are lasting the life of the cars. Another neat factor is that the
brakes last the life of the car too because the regenerative braking
saves the pads for most people. The Prius is the unique Hybrid car in
that it is the one that doesn't have issues with the batteries and the
entire hybrid-drive mechanism is dynamic in the push-pull
mode-switching. Nearly all other systems implement an engage/disengage
structure of the various drive components, but the Prius uses a fully
engaged system that doesn't mode-switch per-say, but functions more
like a rubber-band. LOL, now that's a visual.
Anyway, highly recommended. Enough so that we're now a wo Prius family.
The BMW X5 ain't going away, though. :)
AG (green) Schnozz
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|