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I read what John said, and I feel the same way. Plus, the batteries use lots of nickel and lead. These metals are not exactly enviromentally awesome with thier production waste. I dare say it's more harmful to build and drive a Prius than a Hummer when you get down to the whole cycle of it. :p
I know people that owned a super uber badass hybrid, That was so cheap and got such great mileage. Then it cost them thousands and alot of time. Then they got a good car that hasn't had a problem since other than rising diesel prices(see: price gouging). I wont agree that this over complicated but well marketed car is the answer, When the answer is and has been here for a while(see:diesel). Electric car's have a long way to go before they are gonna save the world, Sorry.
Diesel is $4.60 a gallon. That's an extra at least 5 dollars a tank. Incentives, at least in MN have expired for most hybrids out there. Also, the diesels that do achieve low emissions have expensive exhaust systems with extra filtering. That's why the TDI hybrid got canned. It was going to be too expensive to make.
Edit: I have never had a tank lower than 50 mpg in the prius. I just read that article (about the 520d) and you would have to try pretty hard to get the dismal average they got (40 mpg). Also, a sample size of one car means nothing. Also you wouldn't offset the price difference of the 520d (~$42,000) and the prius (~22,000) over 200,000 miles on the prius (assuming 50 mpg). (200,000 mi/ 50 mpg)= 4,000 gallons x $4 dollars/gallons= $16,000.
the 520d is a completely different class of car, of course its going to cost more.
we might as well compare a $30000 polo TDi vs a $44000 prius then, and the polo gets better economy (3.8L/100km vs 4.4L/100km) and pays less for the fuel ($1.50/L vs $2.00). Unfortunately RUC has recently gone up so the 2 vehicles actually cost pretty much the same for a given distance.
even a golf TDi is $4000 cheaper. Obviously theres a huge difference in economy depending on the use and how its driven but the majority of tests don't have the Prius as the most efficient vehicle.
Those prices an NZD, I don't know about prices in the states, which may be different due to import taxes etc but in NZ i don't understand why people waste their money on one
It's consistently been one of consumer report's most reliable cars. Where'd you hear that?
Look into the lawsuit Suzuki filed against CR based on lies spread about the Suzuki Samurai and it's 'roll happiness' if you want to see how much faith one should put in CR.
That isn't to say that I hate the Prius, and I really have no idea what their reliability is like. The SouthPark smug episode unfortunately isn't too unrealistic a representation of some owners, which is REALLY frustrating, because the Prius alone isn't doing anything to save the world. HOWEVER, I think we should appreciate them for the fact that they will help with the development of better hybrids in the future.
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