In July of 2004 we took possession of a brand new Toyota Prius. We had researched, shopped and patiently waited for our Prius to be delivered. At the time gas prices were very high and we wanted to be environmentally conscience, so we took the plunge. Immediately the car was fully embraced by our family. In fact, the kids named her, Patty Prius. To this day they can see a Prius, especially a tan one and will shout out, “look, there’s Patty”. But alas, our love affair with Patty Prius was short-lived. So why did we eventually give up Patty? For us, there were 3 main reasons.
1. Your Mileage May Vary
At the time our Prius was advertised to get 60 MPG around town. Despite our best efforts, we never got more than 42 MPG, at least according to the on-board computer. But when I ran the actual numbers myself, we only got about 35 MPG, which is a MAJOR reality gap.
2. One Size Fits One
We’re a family of 4 and while it was actually a very roomy vehicle, it was just too small when we needed to go somewhere together.
3. Battery Burn
Like all batteries, they eventually just give out and need to be replaced. The Prius has a rather large battery so we were concerned about the life of the battery and the cost to replace the battery. Would it last 3 years, 5 years of 10 years and would it cost $2,000 or $10,000 to replace?
In the end, we sold Patty on July 2006 to a college student who needed reliable transportation. We replaced Patty with Ava Avalon. Ava is larger, faster, (I have tickets to prove it) and gets about 32 MPG on the road.
Toyota if you’re listening, we’d love to buy the next generation plug-in Prius that would address all of our concerns, but so would most of the auto-driving public.
It seems to me that if we could put a man on the moon in the 60′s with a pretty cool electric car might I add, we should be able to build a better Patty Prius today.
Patiently waiting .
The Smith Family
Wesley and Kaite's last picture with Patty Prius
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Joel W. Smith. Joel W. Smith said: Why we sold our Toyota Prius. http://is.gd/3zQrm [...]