Wednesday, November 17, 2004

to Pri(us) or not to Pri(us)?

That is the question.

So Holly and I are considering retiring our old '94 Ford Ranger and buying a used Toyota Prius [read: hybrid]. We love our pickup, but have a few reasons to make the exchange. Now we need to figure out if this is a good exchange to make or if we should keep the truck or what.

Some pros to ditching the truck and picking up a Prius:
1. The truck is at 188k miles.
2. The brakes seem to be in constant need of fixing. Like every 6 months, a new set of pads and rotors.
3. We kinda feel like we should act on some of the environmental sentiments that we endorse. (The Prius is the cleanest car out there according to the EPA.)
4. Oh yah, and we get about 17-20 mpg with our truck. This Prius gets an average of 39 mpg.
5. It'd be nice to carry more people around. (The Prius holds 5 as opposed to our truck which can squeeze 3.)

Some cons that deter us:
1. We own our truck. To buy a Prius, we will pay a higher price because hybrid technology is still so new. Do we want new monthly payment to make? (Even though gas savings alone will be somewhere between $100-150/month on average.)
2. We don't like to look like 'new car owners', you know? Not our bag.
3. The Prius definitely won't be as big, so it might be hard to carry all my gear around.

So, there are some thoughts. Help us make this decision. Should we buy or not?

1 comment:

Ryan Lee Sharp said...

I do not mean that all new car owners are selfish, greedy, capitalistic, get-all-you-can-while-you-got-it bastards... just most of them. Ha.

I like the word ha. It is short, but says alot.

I like the word alot. But in high school I was taught that it was a lot, which is actually like two words. Bummer.