Boy! Am I glad I bought a Toyota Prius? You bet. Let me admit though, first when I was thinking of buying this car, I had my doubts. Though the technology was on the road a decade earlier,for me at least, it was not a proven technology. What if it fails midway? What if the battery fails to start the car? What would be the cost of replacing the Lithium Ion Battery pack? Will it be prohibitive? Can I get my local mechanic to do even routine maintenance on this? And so on.
It has been two years since I bought this car as a used vehicle with 79000 clicks posted on the odometer. Believe me, to this day, I never had any problems with this car. Apart from the routine oil changes,not one part needed replacement, save for 4 tires and the air filter that needed replacement anyway. Every time I made a visit to my mechanic, I had to deny my mechanic a chance to charge me for additional parts and service. And that would have happened if I had a car with traditional power train.
It is not just the reliability part that makes me happy. Here are three other reasons that make this a good buy.
1. It needs no emission test in the entirety of its life. With new standards of emission test in Ontario(beginning 2013) and new methods of testing, I was told any car, over 3 years old that need emission test, may have difficulty passing the test. If it doesn’t pass the test it is not road worthy until you fix it i.e. you can’t drive it legally on the road.
2. Its fuel consumption is very low compared to another car of similar output but with conventional drive train. One study puts the fuel bills over the life of the conventional car is about 70% of the cost of the car itself, which simply goes to fill the pocket of oil companies.
3. The tax incentive that you are offered at the time of buying makes the overall bill a little lighter.
Does it make sense to drive around in your gas-guzzling SUVs just to keep up your macho image?
Enriching the oil companies or paying for unnecessary tests and related repair costs hardly makes economic sense. Does it?
Think about it, in this kind of economy, would it not be wise to put money in your pockets and save it for the rainy day?
The other day while I was waiting for my signal, a guy pulled beside me in the next lane and asked me to lower the window. I complied immediately, worrying that I did something wrong. It turned out that it was only to compliment me that he pulled beside me. He said that I must be an intelligent and that I drive a nice car. I thanked him for his compliment and thought as to how savvy I was. Only when I watched him drive away, did I notice that the signal has changed to green.
It won’t be fair if I don’t add that he was also driving a Toyota Prius. That explains it, you say.