My cousin (Hi Colin - I bet you'll read this) is lurking here because he is in the market for a new car. He called me about our Prius and I did the sales job both on PC and the car itself. At my advice, he rented one. He had his dad drive it for a day or two. He told me, "The first time Dad came to a red light and the car turned off, he was sold." So it looks like there's going to be another Prius in the family. All right! My other item is not Prius related, but I just have to pass it along. When my wife is driving the Prius, I drive a '01 Corolla. I get about 28-30 mpg during a typical week of commuting - not bad, but definitely not Prius-ish. Over Easter weekend, I had to drive the Corolla on a roughly 1,000 mile round trip. To my astonishment, I got around 44 mpg! I just had to mention it; it shocked the heck out of me. I wasn't even going particularly slow. Maybe I got lucky and caught a tailwind in both directions. (Yeah, I know it would have been a good trip for the Prius. (Circumstances made that impossible.)
That's awesome! Your thread title made me laugh: "Selling My Cousin"...LOL!! :lol: :lol: That's great that you were able to help your cousin out with making a new car buying decision. The Prius pretty much almost sells itself once someone takes it on a test drive anyhow.
44mpg in a Corolla is very possible. It's rated at 41mpg on the highway. Just wait til you compare it to the Yaris. It starts at $11k and gets 40mpg. For those who really want a CHEAP solution, The Yaris and Fit will win over the Prius quite easily. Too bad they don't make a Hybrid Fits and Hybrid Yaris.
The current generation Corolla is rated 41mpg highway (stick) 40mpg highway (auto) - I drive one it's great. Your 2001 Corolla used the prior generation engine, which was less powerful and probably even more fuel efficient, so 44mpg highway is no surprise - especially considering your car is also lighter. Before that generation was a 1.6L engine which was smaller and probably even more fuel efficient.
Actually, that 1.6L wasn't that great. We had both a 1997 Corolla DX with the 1.6 litre engine (3 spd) and a 2000 Corolla LE with the 1.8 litre VVT-i engine (4 spd). We have driven both cars to Kelowna, BC (~400km trip) and the 2000 Corolla could get there on one tank (50 litres) whereas the 97 (also 50 litre tank) had to be refuelled just outside Kelowna at West Bank. Our 02 Camry (4 spd, 2.4 litre ,70 litre tank) is even more efficient (somehow), using half a tank to get to Kelowna.
