05-05-2004, 02:16 PM
yeah man, I think the Prius is hot! I can't speak for the Civic much, never driven one, and I like the way the Prius' drive system works better. I'd love to have one for my daily commute. I think it's damn close to my idea of a perfect daily driver. Go test drive one (and the Civic too), I think they're really neat. My dad and I took one out months ago when they were car shopping, flogged it in the mountains for about 2 hours (I had it floored most of the time up, and down you can put it in engine braking mode and get a lot of it back!), felt kind of bad about doubling the miles it had on it, :oops: brought it back, and I think we'd averaged something like high 40's for the trip. 
hock: It was a neat little car to drive. You can totally ignore the hybrid stuff that's going on, mom would never have to know, but for a techie, it's neat trying to figure out what the car's up to, and the center display is cool.
No, it doesn't handle or go like a sports car or anything, but it's enough to dice through traffic and have a little fun, and the brakes are great. The CV trans takes some getting used to, (mostly because it sounds like an clutch that's slipping REALLY bad) but does a really good job of keeping the car in its powerband when accelerating. No waiting for a kickdown, the trans just lets the engine rev higher as you press the gas further. You can see how tucked in the suspension is, with very short arms, and solid beam rear axle, AND a somewhat higher GC than most econoboxes-- it's kind of pathetic at the limit, but still fun and safe, despite its narrow ass tires.
RJ's right though, the gas savings AND the tax credit you get still don't pay for all the Hybrid technowonder, but it does work out to a few thousand a year in savings. Basically, if you're ok with the fact that you're paying 20k for a car that pretty much feels like a well built econobox that would maybe be worth 12k, go for it. Over a few years of ownership, you may have saved 6k depending on how much you drive, and so maybe it's more accurate to say you're paying 14k for a 12k car, which isn't so horrible. I hope to get one someday. :wink:
I'll be interested to see how long the cars last, I'm seeing used 1st gen ones pop up already....
hock: It was a neat little car to drive. You can totally ignore the hybrid stuff that's going on, mom would never have to know, but for a techie, it's neat trying to figure out what the car's up to, and the center display is cool.No, it doesn't handle or go like a sports car or anything, but it's enough to dice through traffic and have a little fun, and the brakes are great. The CV trans takes some getting used to, (mostly because it sounds like an clutch that's slipping REALLY bad) but does a really good job of keeping the car in its powerband when accelerating. No waiting for a kickdown, the trans just lets the engine rev higher as you press the gas further. You can see how tucked in the suspension is, with very short arms, and solid beam rear axle, AND a somewhat higher GC than most econoboxes-- it's kind of pathetic at the limit, but still fun and safe, despite its narrow ass tires.
RJ's right though, the gas savings AND the tax credit you get still don't pay for all the Hybrid technowonder, but it does work out to a few thousand a year in savings. Basically, if you're ok with the fact that you're paying 20k for a car that pretty much feels like a well built econobox that would maybe be worth 12k, go for it. Over a few years of ownership, you may have saved 6k depending on how much you drive, and so maybe it's more accurate to say you're paying 14k for a 12k car, which isn't so horrible. I hope to get one someday. :wink:
I'll be interested to see how long the cars last, I'm seeing used 1st gen ones pop up already....