Prius Shopping
Well, back to writing after a very long haitus. My wife and I test drove the 2009 Prius on Sunday. Beyond the obvious gas milage and inherent "greenness" of the car it has some cool gimmicks. My favorite is the video screen rear camera view when you are backing up (that alone would save me dings and dongs backing up. My favorite target is ornamental rocks). It also has a lot of room for a car that is basically a compact.On the down side, it has the pickup of a moped going uphill and heavily scanted on trunk space.
The real pratical issue is, at least right now, how does it make sense? I own free and clear two cars myself, a 2001 mini van and daddy's toy, a 2001 z-3 roadster. Being a homeowner with a family of four and sometimes six there is no way we will get rid of the van. Much as I conceptually hate the mini van, nothing else is quite as usefull for moving around, say, a squad of girl scouts or a load of home improvment stuff from The Home Depot. The roadster is non negotiable, waited too long to have that baby and I plan to be buried in it like a modern day viking. With both paid off and with gas prices moderate, there is no way that it makes economic sense for me to buy another car for another decade.
So much for me. It is my wife that wants it, but in her case, she has a five minute commute to work and daycare. She drives a BMW sedan and has no interest in the mini van (unless, of course, she needs something moved, like a new dining room table from the store to our house.) Doing the math, she fills up about once a month, so she is not getting killed on gas, and the deal to offload the current car and get the new one will cost her more than she could save in the next four years.
I suppose if it were a hypercool ride, you could make the case just on "wanting" one. But, beyond the hybrid engine and that backup camera, it is pretty unimpressive.
So she is thinking about it.
Now, I will admit, one of these days the van will see it's last, and I will need a new people and stuff mover, and gas is not going down anytime soon. So check back in a decade and I am sure you will hear a great story about the new and wonderfull Hybrid (or might we be so lucky, plug electric) mini van that is mean, green and a load moving machine.
posted by Maurice_Basilius @ 8:37 AM
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