ok, so the 3rd time is a charm??

last year I bought a 2000 Prelude, it wasnt as practical as I thought or as fun as I remembered so I sold it in March.

In January I bought a 2001 Pontiac Grand Am 4dr GT1, which was has been much better as a DD since I made the 4runner a weekend toy.

My wife has been driving a 2007 4runner v8 which is great, but not great on gas mileage.

well, we decided that since I work at night and she works in the day, that we could share a commuter car and then both keep the 4runners for weekend and snow duty.

we wanted a commuter car that would get way better gas mileage and was under 10k so we bought a 2004 Prius... Yes Thai, Im part of the club now! (but I still own 2- 4runners! ;-)... )

From Cars

From Cars

so, it doesnt have Nav and it just has a stock stereo, who can point me at some tricks to upgrading the sound system and any other cool mods.

Which Prius boards would you recommend?

Help a new Prius owner out!

Hahaha...sooner or later, everyone will see my genius!

The good news is that your Toyota Prius optional JBL system sucked...so, you're not missing much.

Priuschat is the biggest Prius forum.

Now, your 2nd gen Prius is slow and somewhat noisy...so, keep that in mind. But, once you learn the way to drive it, then it is rewarding...it is not 0-60 times anymore, but how far you can drive per tank of gas.

Here is a video of the 3rd gen Prius...but should apply to your gen: Prius 2010 MAX MPG Secrets - YouTube

My DD was a 2008 Prius until I was given a company car to drive to and from work. My wife and I bought the prius for her brand new at the end of 2007 and still own it. We have put about 66k miles on it, one of the best and most reliable vehicles I've ever owned.

Priuschat is the best forum, lots of knowledgable people on there. Also plenty of subforums on there to help you with everything from maintenance to stereo upgrades to ways to improve gas mileage.

Like previously mentioned, once you learn to drive it properly, it's fun to see how high you can get the mpg or how far you can go on a single tank of gas.

Don't worry...soon, you will own Subarus....

i dont mean to piss in your cheerios, but $10k would have bought a LOT of gas for the 4runners...

and, you wouldnt have had to drive a prius...

ah, well, I said it cost less than 10k... I didn't say how much it cost.

LOL, you havent gone thru my build thread have you? My 4runner maybe gets 16mpg. I have 33's a roof rack, a tire on top, 300lbs of storage box and gear and run 5.29 gearing. My 4runner is no longer a DD. My rpms are about 3400 at 70mph. check out the build thread in my sig.

thats why I have a DD, my previous DD is a 2001 Grand Am GT, which gets about 20-22mpg if I dont go crazy on the gas.

My wifes 4runner is a 2007 V8 that was averaging 18-20mpg on her drive to work.

So by getting rid of the 2001 Grand Am and paying just a bit more for the prius, both my wife and I almost both TRIPLE our gas mileage to work. I work nights, she works days so we both get to use it as a commuter.

Together we are averaging about 53mpg, Im getting about 56mpg to my work and home. That means I can go to work and home and she can go to work and home and we still havent used a gallon of gas. We did the math and we will save on average over TWICE as much money on gas than our Prius payment is.

Its all math and money and because we are both able to drive it to work, it nearly triples BOTH of our gas mileage.

And its actually not bad to drive either! I actually dont mind it much!

Im gonna put a "stealth" deck in it and one of these bad boys Kenwood KSC-SW1 Subwoofer @
with a huge amp I have laying around.

I love the fact I can get in and start the car with the key in my pocket.

My wife is loving the drive.

And Im super competitive with others and myself so Im always trying to get better gas mileage on my next drive than I got on the one before.

Rating:

Duhockey gives the prius a 5 thumbs up!

PS. oh, with the money we save I can pay off my wifes 4runner faster, Once my wifes 4runner is paid off Im buying one of the following as an onroad toy: Scion FRS, Dodge Charger RT, Hyundai Genesis, Lexus IS350, havent decided yet.

Come on, you can say it...Thai is not half crazy afterall!! Glad that you're enjoying the Prius...wait until you see the low maintenance that comes with owning it...no starter to replace, no brakes to change (until very high mileage), etc.. Just change tires and oil. That's it.

True story. At 66k miles I have only had to do oil and air filter changes. I'm on my second set of tires.

Make sure you stick with LRR tires. I didn't think it would make a difference but we used to consistently get 50+ mpg until I had some regular tires put on (oem size) and struggle to get over 46 mpg.

the one thing we have been worried about is hearing peoples batteries havent lasted til 300k like they were supposed to. Is that expensive to replace?

what psi do you run in your tires? I hear some (crazy) people say they are running 55psi in their tires... but they say they are getting like 60-70mpg with the pulse and glide in town??

Remember, I have the 3rd gen Prius. I use OEM pressures...I don't like to go against the Toyota engineers.

New batteries supposedly cost $2000-3000...and cost is declining. But you can get one from junkyard for $200-300.

Read my Prius thread for more info. If every 200,000 miles you spend $2000 (worst case scenario) is it really that bad??!!