This is horsepucky. I've been following the development of the Prius and
other hybrids for several years now and have not heard of a single instance
where batteries have failed prematurely and Consumer Reports has given them
great ratings.
There's already a bunch of hybrid owners doing a class action suit in response to the poor battery life. As for CR, they don't rate battery life.
Even if there were a rare occurrence of such a thing, the
Prius' hybrid-related components, including the battery are covered for 8
years/100,000 miles by a special extended warranty that goes beyond the
basic 3 years/36,000 miles for Toyota vehicles. Honda's is 8 years/80,000
miles. So someone could just get the failed battery replaced if it actually
became a problem.
Minneapolis city cars tend to put on low miles so we need to keep them at least 10 years. The $5,000 computer is only covered for 3 years, and an 8 year old Prius will be worth less than the price of a new battery pack or computer. If the battery dies at 9 years it costs way more than the Prius is worth, and we have a scrap Prius. Also, what happens if the computer on a 5 year old Prius smokes and takes the battery pack with it? We then have a Prius with a resale value of maybe $7,000 that needs $10,000 in parts alone.
What lemon law buybacks? I challenge Dyna to provide real examples that this
is occurring since I would think this would be a pretty major news item if
it were actually true.
There's whole web sites on the subject. BTW, the manufacturer will only replace your battery pack if it's completely dead, and much of the battery problems the hybrids are having is with batteries that hold some charge but not enough to be of much usefulness.
From what I've read, if there even are a lot of
year-old Prii (not Priuses) on dealer lots, it's because people have been
trading in for the new 2004 model that's even better than the initial one.
I noted the multitude of year old Priuses on dealer lots before the 2004 was even announced.
As for Dyna's silly assertion about giveaways, the reality is that sales of
the Prius have been increasing substantially every year and there is
currently a shortage of the 2004 model at the dealerships because there's so
much interest.
In the industry it's pretty much taken for a fact that the Prius is a PR exercise, with Toyota taking a loss on every one sold. As far as a shortage, Toyota dealers have been feeding that lie to customers for years. That's why you could buy a Chevy Prism for a couple thousand dollars less than the near identical Toyota Corolla.
I'm proud that our mayor chose a Prius as his primary vehicle.
If he want's to buy one with his own money that's his business.
It's
certainly more appropriate than the gas-guzzling Lincoln (Continental, if I
recall correctly) that his predecessor used to ride around in.
Ms. Sayles Belton appeared in a basic black Crown Vic Police Interceptor, and the last chief tried to impress us with a Lincoln Navigator.
Or the Navigator that our esteemed governor gets driven around in.
A precedent set by Jesse Ventura... makes me long for the days when mayor Fraser bicycled to work and Governor Perpich drove a standard issue sedan from Central Motor Pool on state business.
My hope is that Minneapolis will continue to add hybrids to its' fleet. They
save a lot of taxpayer dollars on fuel use
To be honest we can't afford them. Toyota will practically give us a Prius provided the mayor will be seen in it, but if you want a hundred or so for plain old city employees I doubt they'd even submit a bid. The Prius with the mandatory option packages and all the dealer markup, etc. goes for at least $24,000. We can buy two comparable cars (Cavalier, Focus, Neon, etc.) for that kind of money! The real world fuel mileage in Minneapolis frigid climate is little better than these conventional cars, about mid 30s for the Prius vs. mid 20s for the conventional cars. Given that most city cars do less than 10,000 miles a year and we buy tax free fuel in bulk so the Prius would only save about $100 a year in fuel, but cost about $1000 a year more in depreciation.
and even more on reducing urban emissions.
Again, the difference is zilch.
Especially the Prius, since it's engine design allows for better gas mileage on city streets than on freeways.
The Prius engine design is pretty ordinary, other than it being to small for the job.
In conclusion, the hybrid car is pretty much a fad that is running it's course. The hybrids get little better mileage than there conventional equivelents and cost twice as much. In fact, the VW diesels get better real world mileage than the hybrids, but at $17,000 aren't cost effective for low mileage applications like Minneapolis'. The costs of diesel cars will drop when Daimler Chrysler and Ford bring their's to market in a couple years. In the meantime a conventional compact car is the best deal for Minneapolis taxpayers.
from Hawthorne, where we know the difference between an engine and a motor. And don't even get us started on 3 phase and inverters...
Dyna Sluyter
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