All of the money saved on gas will help buy new batteries at a later date.

(link...)

The batteries have a 10 year/80,000 mile warranty. I'm not too worried about it.

"hybrid hate"

Perhaps if you put a recording of a Dodge Hemi pickup on your iPod and played it in your Prius at some ridiculous volume level as you drive these people would consider it a bit more manly.

Of course a big honkin' subwoofer is a power hog.

Wearybottom Associates

"recording of a Dodge Hemi pickup"

Heh. I have actually considered a big honkin' JC Whitney air horn. The one that's in it is pretty wimpy.

And Prius's (Prii?) are apparently more invisible than motorcycles, judging from how people pull out in front of you or merge lanes on you.

Or maybe it's just open hostility.

Does this mean I have $700 to spend?!?!

Unless the dog is small or the kids are very tolerant I'd say not. You might consider an Escape or I hear the Vue is coming out with a plug-in hybrid.

How often do you tote the dog? It might be worth it to rent a mini van for occasional road trips.

____________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

Indya: How big is your dog?

Prius luggage capacity (5 passenger, back seats folded up): 14.4 cubic feet.

Ford Escape Hybrid luggage capacity (5 passenger, back seats folded up): 27.8 cubic feet.

Both have considerably more capacity with the back seats folded down, but that doesn't sound relevant in your case.

That said, it's amazing how much junk you can pile in to a Prius. Wish I had taken a photo, but we crammed two roller valet suitcases, a small overnight bag, two computer bags, two camera bags, a large lens case, two tripods, a canvas boat bag, a bunch of other miscellaneous junk like coats and a cooler and whatnot, pupster's duffel bag (which is about the same size as one of the suitcases), and her crate, with room left over for her to have her own space in front of the crate. This was with the back seats folded down, though.

I'd take my four bags, two kids, one dog, and one husband down to the Toyota dealer and the Ford dealer and try them both out. They won't mind. Good luck finding an Escape hybrid, though. If you spot one, let me know.

Well, at least that means things are less polluted in some small section of NYC. However, I like the size of the Escape, and my niece has the traditionally-fueled one and really likes it. I was really hoping they might catch on with some folks.

Any chance of Ford upping the production?

pgs

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Our dog is a lab mix, and about 65 pounds, so not exactly a lap dog. We only rarely have all 4 people and the dog and luggage in the car, so maybe we should get a car for the most common uses and deal with long trips another way. We're considering a Prius, and also the Mazda 5, the "urban minivan", which is small, but can carry 6 people, which is nice if you want to bring kids and their friends anywhere in one vehicle. It's not a hybrid, but if we use one traditional somewhat fuel efficient car instead of 2 vehicles, that's got to be better.

Thanks for the info.

My beef with the Escape (besides being a Ford and not being generally available--heh) is that it lacks electronic stability control to compensate to some extent for its SUV-high center of gravity. The Prius needs it less, but is available with it as an option.

I remember reading some blowhard columnist in a car rag accusing the Prius of being something like a "rolling toxic waste dump." This comes from the type of morons who opposed removing lead from gasoline and generally oppose designating any substance as toxic--including cadmium used in NiCad batteries (the predecessor to the battery type used in the Prius). Just give 'em their V8 guzzlers with 4 bbl carbs and they're fat, dumb, and happy. Oh, and we have to support their wars to fuel their cars and pickups.

Today comedian Rush Limbaugh was blaming the American auto companies' woes on--surprise!--CAFE standards. If only GM and Ford could make more 15 MPG vehicles, they'd be crushing the Japanese!

I wonder if he will continue making that argument with a straight face as gasoline marches toward $4/gallon this spring.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.