Great Car my first 250 miles averaged 56 mpg. The car is quiet well made and is rated high by the experts. If you buy used hold out for Navigation and other upper end accessories, package #6, it is worth the extra investment. Computer in car is really cool. You feel like your in a car of the future. Great car for the environment.

Buy used (at about 20K miles and 2yrs old) and should be able to get a car in like new condition for about 65% of orginal MSRP(plus options). Mine was way under the loan value of the car. Great Buy.

I love the miles per gallon, the ease of driving, the interior, the sound system, the space--just about everything about this car. The only problem I've had is not a problem with the vehicle, but with my understanding of the warning lights. When the low-fuel indicator started flashing, I thought I could go about 50 more miles before I had to refuel. NOT!! I ended up stranded on the side of the road. My fault! My advice is to re-fuel before the low-fuel indicator begins to flash. I bought the car because I have a 90-mile commute 5 days a week. The cost of gas was killing me! Now, we are averaging 50 miles per gallon.

Gulf States Toyota dealers told me MSRP was the only way i could buy a Prius, I accepted that, BUT; when i asked for a touring model with pkg #2 and carpets they said to get a touring model i had to purchase pkg #5 or #6 {3500 or 4200 more}. I perused EBAY and found just exactly the car i wanted even the color my wife wanted. Precision Toyota of Tucson Arizona were wonderful people to deal with and even paid for something that was erronously put in the add. To sum it up , igot the car i wanted, paid to ship it to Houston and still bought it for less than it would have cost me in Texas. For Toyota see Bobby G. or Tony
Parker at PRECISION TOYOTA OF TUCON ARIZONA.

We bought a 2005 Prius from Vk Exports through Ebay a few weeks ago.
The seller Mr. Vadim Kuleshov was especially kind to us.
The car is in like new condition -- it looks very good--and runs very well.
We believe we got a very good deal.
We would recommend Vk exports.

Terry Helseth

Bottom line.....I love the car, but I had some problems.

After picking the car up in Sacramento, I found out the hard way that the small 12v battery (not the high voltage Hybrid Battery) was dead and didn't hold a charge. It was the weekend and I couldn't get another one. It was such a small battery that a motorcycle battery with some jumper cables worked well enough (battery in trunk) to drive it back to Los Angeles were I could fix it. I fixed the battery at a cost of $135.

I was also noticing a very small amount of coolant on the ground under the car when I parked it at night. I figured it was probably some overflow and let it go on for 2 weeks. It ended up being a small hole in the coolant hose that connects to the inverter coolant pump. Easy fix, cost about $40 for the hose and special Toyota coolant.

Those were the only mechanical repairs I had to make. Not too big of a deal.

The only other concern is that the paint job on the repaired panels could have been much better. The painter could have done a better job matching the texture. Toyota has a smooth finish from the factory and the repair is more orange peel finish. You can only tell when you're up close. I'm not going to pick it apart because it is a great car. It has low mileage and runs great. I saved thousands of dollars buying it from Gene.

I am 5' 18" I have back problems!! I have plenty of head room!! The seats in the Prius as hard on my back after about an hour of driving. But I did buy the Prius for my wife, she is fine in it. You have drive like you have an egg glued to the gas pedal to get GREAT mileage, otherwise if you drive it normal you get GOOD mileage. The a/c works off a electric motor not the gas engine, so you are very comfortable at a red light and only using battery power. I wish there was a way to charge to batteries from the house current!!!! That way the gas engine would not start as soon as we leave the drive driveway. This car will almost pay for self in 8 years maybe sooner if gas prices get any higher!! We will put about 20,000 miles a year on it! Runs very smooth, and is center of attention at the auto parts store, people stop and ask questions, we get the thumbs-up all the time. The first tank of gas we got 40 mpgs, second 45 mpgs only had the prius 3 weeks 300 to 350 miles to the tank way better than the Dodge Caravan 4 cyl. at 17-19 mpgs. Very glad we bought it!!

This is my first experience with a Toyota, or any kind of foreign car. I've had it only one month, but it seems to work very well. At over 80,000 miles, the inside and outside still look great, and it runs very well. No strange noises or other problems.

One of the most significant reasons people consider a Prius is because of the gas mileage. Currently I am getting an average of about 45 mpg. A nice feature of this car is that you can see at any time both the current and average mpg. At slow speeds (<30 mph) its efficiency is quite low (but not necessarily lower than other cars'), anywhere from 5-20 mpg, depending on speed, whether going uphill or down, etc. At high speeds, such as on highways, I can expect 45-50 mpg. Going down hill you can get even higher. Descending a long, steep hill in TN recently, I was getting a sustained average of over 75 mpg for 15 miles.

The keyless entry works well. A person could get spoiled. I find myself wishing the front door of my house worked that way.

The bluetooth option is very handy, and works great with my cell phone. Unfortunately my cell phone cannot export its address book to the car, so that makes entering numbers much more tedious.

The GPS navigation unit works well, although in my 2005 model the data is a little outdated.

Frustrations:

A friend has the 2006 model, and it has a built-in camera, that shows what is behind you when you're backing up. I expected this in my car, but it was not there. Also in 2006, the computer display changed from analog to LCD; the LCD is sharper and presumably more energy efficient, but the analog one is very readable. The power windows seem a little over-powered; I worry that something is going to break if I hold the window control in the "up" position a moment too long. The lack of key-based ignition worried me; all you have is a big ol' round start button. Apparently the key needs to be present for it to work, but I wonder about the security of it. The navigation system is not too hard to use, but I was extremely frustrated with it until I learned how to pick what region of the US I am in. I did not realize that it cannot find addresses outside the current selected region, even if it is displaying the area on screen. (In other words, you may be looking at your city on the GPS map, but unless you've chosen your state's region on another screen, you won't be able to find any addresses that you search for. This is kind of aggravating, especially if like me you live where you are frequently crossing between regions.) Towards the end of my first long trip (500+ miles), a light came on that said "MAINT REQD" (Maintenance Required). Unfortunately I had taken the manual out to study it at home, and it was late at night on a Sunday, and I was 180 miles from home. I didn't know what to think, but there was nothing to do but plod on. Later I learned that this is Prius-speak for "Time to change your oil." Evidently this happens every several thousand miles, and once you change the oil you do a fancy little maneuver to reset it. But for the uninitiated it can be a little unsettling.

When you back up in this car, it does a little beep-beep-beep, like heavy equipment and big trucks do. It doesn't bother me, but it might some people.

After I won the e-bay bid I sent the deposit via paypal same day. I contacted the buyer and paid off his loan with Toytoa Leasing. I send the full amount of the purchase agreement to Toyota and they forwarded the left over funds to the seller. Once Toyota made the transaction two weeks later I received the pink slip and the buyer recevied the balance of the funds. I took a plane from Los Angeles, Ca. to pick up the car in San Francisco, Ca. Lots of work and well worth the effort. You have to trust and ejoy doing this stuff.
Great car, was as discribed. PERFECT CONDITION.

Ringer111

I think it's a babe magnet because chicks like new cars, this one is forever new like the New Beetle that Toyota just perfects but does not change. The design grows on you as you roll... it does, and the car makes an eco-statement by its uniqueness. Hopefully the girl you want to attract places the environment of planet earth at a high priority. Remember: if everyone drove your car the US could import zero oil and the air in LA would be again breathable like the 1930s.

Now the facts: interior design and appointment is very good, most cupholder (places) - 8 - of any car. I'm over 6 feet tall and feel comfortable in the driving position because there is no giant console in the middle to push back on my right calf. The engine system has good pickup and fantastic economy. Toyota engineers are geniuses.

I have wanted the Prius since 2005, but my husband had doubts about it's size. We live in a winter snow state, and concerns about winter storm driving is always in our minds.

We test drove the Prius on a day when 10 inches of snow had fallen and remained on the roads. The Prius had no problems dealing with traction or slippy areas.

Also, my husband thought it was too small. How can a car get that great of milage ... not be small was the assumption. He was surprised his tall statue fit so well. He even left the drivers seat all the way back and still fits well in the rear seat. Entry / eqress was fine. I will note that when the seats are fully positioned forward, my seat belt hangs on seat and does not fully retract away.

We know that winter driving (pushing cold air) and wet roads effect milage; but were surprised to see a car you could really tell the difference. We only average 48 mpg on the winter tanks. We are driving 80+ miles a day, ~20 city / ~60 highway / 10 in 55mpg zones.
Our tank average is well running mid 50's now.

We don't speed, we don't rush lights, we don't jack rabbit start, we don't rev engine at lights (hello, why burn electric when no noise), we hydro-glide as much as possible. We take a 40 mph road over a 55 mph road because we can get 65mpg on that route versus 52mpg.

I did the "BUSINESS CASE" - SUV versus Prius. At $3.35 gallons the gas into the SUV cost what the gas into the Prius plus car payment is. So, any price $3.36 or more ... we spend less money a month!

We still need the big truck with turbo deisel ... As a side note, we went through what we spent in gas last 12 months. We did not understand why a couple of months were out of the norm low. Then we realized, we were RVing. We spent less on fuel on vacation then we did driving to work. A lot less, paid for the camp sites a couple of days.

So, the Prius will pull your light kayak trailer, and get you to work. But, every vehicle has a place in the garage.