New Car Excitement

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about helping my dad find a new car to purchase. Funnily enough he has yet to purchase a new car, but I ended up getting a new car of my own.

I had been planning on getting a new car next year, but it just happened that I got into a small accident and rather than waiting for my car to get fixed I traded it in an got myself a Certified 2009 Toyota Prius for a great price.

I was envious of hybrid/electric car owners for quite awhile as I had been driving a SUV for several years that got 20 mpg if I was lucky. I wasn't aware that it was possible to get a good used hybrid for under $20,000, but after doing a little research I found several and ended up purchasing one of them!

The cool thing about the Prius is that it has a real time MPG display so I can drive as optimally as possible to get the highest MPG and it has changed the way that I drive completely.

It has really opened up my eyes on how I and most people seem to drive. Most people tend to accelerate as quickly as possible just so that they can stop and wait when they get behind a slower person or stopped at a stop light, and this is a completely unnecessary waste of gasoline.

Now when I drive I use the cruise control a lot and coast on surface streets when I can. I am getting 50 MPG with the Prius and estimate that I will be saving $2000+ dollars in gasoline a year!

One thing that I found odd while I was researching vehicles is that the Prius is pretty much the only "true" hybrid vehicle of it's kind. There are the Honda Civic Hybrid and Nissan Altima Hybrid, but those cars get almost the same MPG as their original counterparts. So if you are looking into purchasing a hybrid you should make sure you are getting the real deal or just buy the standard car model and save yourself $5,000.

As far as the Prius goes though, I don't have a single bad thing to say about the car and definitely give it a thumbs up to anyone interested in saving money and staying "green." Whether you want one or not though, you should re-evaluate the way you drive as you can save a good amount of gas by making a few simple adjustments to your daily commute.