Big news story today on "Global Television". Lots of coverage of a new Prius owner, forced into an economical intelligently designed car by the cost of fuel. You guys in the US have it good - it's $1.28-$1.35 per litre in Canada - that's $4.85-$5.11 per gallon US. The dollars are about even now. Oh, and those prices will be out of date in a week - it's rising about 4.5 cents per week lately. I laugh when I go in to pay the nice gas cashier lady, which confuses her totally. They also showed one of the Chev "hybrids" and the Camry hybrid, but the emphasis was on the Prius. They did a quick time to recover the "$7000 extra cost of a hybrid", which was a little bogus, but I'll cut them the slack they need as they are news bozos. The Prius won out in this category, of course, coming in at 7 years. I suspect it's closer to $3000 and 3 years or less, unless fuel prices are "frozen" at current levels. Which ain't going to happen on -THIS- planet! Oh, and I shocked a friend last night when I folded the rear seats down and stowed the cargo cover under the floor in its' resting place on the storage bin. He thought I'd need a mini-van to take home the air conditioner I purchased (a 12,000 BTU portable). It fit in the back, of course, and I could have put in two more if I wanted to! The longer I own this car, the happier I get!
did Canada give you incentives to get a new ac? I got a bigger one last year Much better for energy use and the US gave me over $3500 in tax incentives for doing it! Now my cooling costs are lower every month
Initial cost may seem high to acquire a Prius. But either way the Prius is still a winning buy beause if you plan to drive it to the ground you'll save on gas in long term. And it's still a hot commodity to maintain a high resale (or residual) value if you plan to trade it in short term.
The way things are going, I would not be surprised to find a period of time that you will be able to buy a used Prius, drive it for a few months, and sell it at a profit.
Hi Dave, Was this on their 5:30 or 6PM news? I'll watch the 11PM news and see if they repeat it. Thanks, Gabe
I think that time period is right now! I bought my 2008 Prius in February for $150 over invoice. It's only got 3500 miles on it now, so I'm sure I could sell it for around the MSRP for a new 2008 (of course I'm not going to do that, though).
It was the 17:30 news. No, we don't get incentives for home A/C. It's rare to find it in private homes. In fact, we only need it about 30 days a year (number IS growing however each year). This may be different back in Ontario and Quebec. Until a few years ago I didn't need A/C at all. Last year I had to move into the basement for a month. But we all know "global warming" is a Liberal myth! Another car show tomorrow. I guess I'll sell another bunch of Prius for Toyota.
So is this how you pimp your ride in Canada ? Not happy with the in-built bog-standard climate control David ?
