A new Metrosexual...on crack?

Think GM woulda learned its lesson after they flopped on those $60,000 piece of crap el camino concept car/truck w/e, you would been better off spending $30,000 on a Taco and another $30,000 making it the best damn thing on the road since the countach!

 

I like the interior....

 

yuppietruck....

why they even make them with 4wd is beyond reason, the people who buy 'em won't even drive on the shoulder.

 

I'm definately gonna go against the grain here and say I love the thing. I wouldn't consider it a truck though, and I certainly think it would be a waste if it had 4WD. I think it would look pretty good with a tonneau on it.

 

Are you kidding me!? I sit here confused...now wondering how I'm gonna work this out in my mind. The Ridgeline is the epitome of Metrosexual...but this...thing...truly derserves its own name/category.

It's not metrosexual really...it's just too gay for words. But we must find something that accurately describes it or I don't think I'll sleep tonight.

The "Brokeback pickup" is perhaps fitting?

 

Can't say I'm nuts about the looks of the Denali, a cross between a Magnum and a Ridgeline, neither of which ever appealed to me. But I can't agree that "hybrid" equals GAY. Too bad for GM and all of us that they didn't get with it and develop hybrid technology a decade ago instead of waiting until the shit had already hit the proverbial fan like they did. Besides, building big gas-guzzling trucks that get 21mpg highway instead of 15, while it may be a step in the right direction, is too little too late. GM is in deep shit.

If you think hybrids suck, or are GAY, next time you visit your friendly Toyota dealership, perhaps when having your Taco serviced one of these days, test-drive a Prius and see what you think. They are actually amazing cars. I know, I own one. I decided that the best of both worlds was to have a Taco and a Prius and couldn't be happier with my choices. And no, I'm not gay.

 

I don't think hybrids are gay. I just think some of them are pointless. How many actually get amazing mpg? How many have batteries that are difficult to dispose of, or use more resources to make than a gas car?

And I can't help but thinking about people with Prius's saying the get around 40mpg, and I get the same with my Corolla. My Corolla is a 1.8L, all gas car, and it cost half as much as a Prius! So why would I spend twice as much on a hybrid that doesn't get much more mpg (if any) and has batteris that cost a small fortune to replace.

I'd be curious what you're getting for mpg with your Prius. Now, if hybrids were getting 60-80mpg (at least) I'd be willing to pay a little more for the vehicle.

 

My current tank shows 49.6 mpg over the past 325 miles. And that's an average, city and highway. It does better as weather warms up. I find low 50s no problem in warmer weather, and tend to get low 40s in the winter here in frigid Montana. Not wanting to bash your Corolla, but I suspect that you might get close to 40mpg on the highway in warm weather, but I'll bet your mileage around town, or in the winter, is considerably less. And I also doubt that you can get a new car of any type for "half as much as a Prius." The Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris, for example, run in the neighborhood of $15K whereas my Prius (Package 2) was $23K, but the Prius is a far nicer, bigger, safer, and more comfortable car than either the Fit or Yaris, so the comparison is not a valid one although it's the one I see made most frequently by the folks who claim that the Prius isn't worth the extra money. Seriously, though, don't take my word for it, go test drive one sometime. Have you ever ridden in one, or even really taken a good hard look?

Not being defensive, but definitely trying to get real here rather than dealing in hyperbole.

 

The car was used so it was $9,000. But still, 15k vs 23k like you said is an $8k difference. How long does it take for the Prius to save enough gas money to pay back $8k?

My Corolla has been getting 37mpg with winter gas and studded tires. The 40 was on highways at 65-75mph. I haven't had a chance to measure it recently without the studded tires and winter gas mix. It dropped to around 25mpg last winter, but came back up after I cleaned it out with some seafoam and had the cat replaced. Will see how it does this summer.

You're getting better mpg that most I've heard of. Seems like most get around 40, maybe a few more. I haven't heard of anyone until now getting almost 50 in a prius. And that's why I never really looked at them. More money for not much better mpg. Getting it to save money on gas doesn't make sense to me if it doesn't save enough to overcome the higher price tag.

 

I forgot to address the dreaded battery issue. The Prius has two, a standard 12-volt like most cars/pickups and similar in replacement cost, and then the big expensive one. There are only two or three documented examples of Toyota having to replace a "big" battery since the Prius went into production ('97 in Japan, '01 in the US) other than instances where it was damaged in an accident, so as a result of battery failure due to use or simple passage of time. By the way, Toyota warranties them for 8 years/100K miles.

True, if you do have the misfortune of having to replace one after the warranty has expired it ain't cheap, roughly $2800 is the current tab for doing so. But how much does a transmission in a conventional car cost to replace? The Prius doesn't have a transmission.

What I'm trying to say here is that the big battery bugaboo isn't really the boogeyman that many seem to think. One guy had an '01 Prius with over 349K miles on the odo, and it finally died......due to being T-boned in an intersection! The car was still going strong, and on the original big battery, when that occurred.

 

For example, look at the Toyota Highlander gas vs hybrid.
http://www.toyota.com/highlander/specs.html

The difference in 4wd versions ranges from $5,000 (base models) to $11,000(sport/limited models) more for the hybrid version. The hybrid gets 27/25 mpg city/highway while the gas versions get 17/23. So it gets 10 more in city driving and only 2 more on the highway. Not sure what the combined or actual mpg would work out to be, but I don't see a big difference for the price differences. I'm also wondering how long the batteries last, and how much they cost to replace. If you have to, say, drop $3,000 in 3 years for a new battery then that has to be figured into the cost of the vehicle as well.

 

Ok, that's good to know. Nice big warranty on the battery! Insurance should cover accidents too, so you wouldn't have to plan on paying for that soon then. Still, at $2800 for a battery I'd have to budget out a couple months' pay to afford to replace it! Not that I would run out of warranty soon. lol By that time it should be paid off and looking for a different vehicle anyway since other things will start to fail as well.

 

Take a look at priuschat.com sometime, you'll see a number of guys who get in the 60s, and 50s is quite common-place. A lot depends on how you drive them, of course, weather and road conditions, etc., and the guys who are getting 55+ mpg tend to be hypermiling fanatics, but the car is an interesting gadget to be sure and demonstrates a lot of possibilities.

As I said, comparing a Yaris/Fit to a Prius is a lot like comparing a base model Taco to a better-equipped Tundra, and then trying to say that one is just as good as the other but a lot less money. Apple, meet orange.

Having said all of that, I agree with you that it would not be worthwhile for you to trade your Corolla in on a Prius. But I do encourage you to take a look at them sometime.

 

Yeah, the Corolla is 10yrs old and needs to be traded. We need something that can seat at least 6. I'm thinking Rav4 since it's relatively cheap for an SUV with 4WD/AWD, and I can get a 3rd row seat. But I'm also looking at the Highlander since they have the hybrid option now. I'm just trying to decide if it's worth the extra cash up front. The prices range from around $28.7k for a base model gasser to $39.9.k for the limited hybrid. Getting any sort of ethanol/flex fuel vehicle is almost pointless here since there are no ethanol stations. So I'm keeping an eye on the gas/electric ones. Thought about getting one and turning it into a plug in since I've heard rumors about bumping them up to 100mpg by doing that.

 

How much does the Rav4 cost? I have a good friend who has an HH and likes it, his mileage is decent but not great, high 20s which isn't bad for that type of vehicle, but as you say, whether it justifies the added cost is a definite question.

The Prius seats 5 if the three in the back seat don't mind a bit of "cheek to cheek". It is very comfortable for 4, however. I'm 6'2" and am comfortable in the back seat even if the folks in front have theirs pushed all the way back. But the Prius is not 4WD, and I can say from personal experience that while it motors down icy/snowpacked roads quite well, very well actually, if you get bogged down in more than 4" of snow and have to stop, you won't be going anywhere again without a push due to the odd ABS and VSC systems.

 

To hell with hybrids went I want MPGs I just take it a little easier on this

 

I knew I was gonna take hits on that one! I think the Ridgeline looks ten times worse than this though!

 

I kinda like the Prius too..(but don't tell anybody)...and my wife sez I'm not gay!!

 

Haha! Ya know I went to the Honda dealer yesterday because we are looking at new cars for my wife. I was toying with the salesman about the Ridgeline and calling it a metrosexual purse bearing vehicle and telling him to watch out for anyone who asks about one. And he said "Wow, maybe that's why they aren't selling well at all."

I guess a lot of us get it.

We just laughed the whole time while I test drove CR-V's and Fits.