Hey, Prius owners....

[KillerTomato]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your Prius?

I have been told that there's one coming in next month with my name on it....but I'm a little apprehensive about the color. I won't say which it is, but I'm curious to know what colors all of you have, and what your thoughts are on them.

Oh, and if you don't have a Prius, and feel like piping in, take a look at Toyota's website, and the Prius colors available, and give me your impressions.

[TheConfessor]

It depends on where you live. If you live in the South, you'll get better gas mileage in a white Prius, because you won't need to use as much air conditioning. If you live in the North, you'll get better gas mileage in a black Prius because you won't need to use as much heating.

How many Prii are owned by BBs?

[Bob78164]

Mine is Salsa Pearl Red. I seem to have stabilized in the 46-48 mpg range, though I can still exceed 50 with a lot of highway driving. --Bob

[trevor_macfee]

Mine is silver - not our choice, but what was available when we decided to buy one and found one.

Our first choice (I use "our" loosely - actually my wife's first choice) was Green Pine Mica.

(The "Mine" in the first sentence is also used quite loosely as I only get to drive it sometimes on the weekend and some evenings.)

[ksbirchtree]

How about powder blue? Comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham does a hilarious bit about driving a powder blue Prius.

[marrymeflyfree]

I seem to have stabilized in the 46-48 mpg range, though I can still exceed 50 with a lot of highway driving. --Bob

Am I remembering right that the hybrids do best with city driving? Something about stepping on the brake to charge the battery or something, right? So if one does, say, 90%+ of their driving on the highway, is it still worth it to get one?

[Bob78164]

I seem to have stabilized in the 46-48 mpg range, though I can still exceed 50 with a lot of highway driving. --Bob

Am I remembering right that the hybrids do best with city driving? Something about stepping on the brake to charge the battery or something, right? So if one does, say, 90%+ of their driving on the highway, is it still worth it to get one?

That has not been my experience. I get better mileage on the highway -- with that percentage, I'd expect to exceed 50 mpg. Even when I do mostly city driving, though, I easily exceed 45 mpg. It's nice being able to go three weeks or so between ten-gallon fill-ups. --Bob

[smilergrogan]

I have a blue one., similar to the color of the "post a reply" bar above. Well, I call it blue - Toyota calls it "seaside pearl", which to me doesn't make sense - sure, the sea is blue, but the seaside is kind of sandy colored, isn't it? I think they have some new colors now - I saw a dark blue one recently which wasn't available when I got mine; otherwise I would have bought that one.

My mileage experience matches Bob's experience almost exactly, and contradicts the Bob who is never wrong's earlier assertion. I have driven it on two long highway trips and averaged 47 mpg on each (both in summer). Around town I average about 46 mpg overall, around 50 in summer and 40 in winter. I would get better mileage if I had to drive farther per commute (all city), since I get no better than 30 mpg for the first mile or so, and then well over 50 (in summer) for the remainder, which is usually about three additional miles for me.

Also, I got a letter from the dealership last week offering "crazy high prices" for used Priuses (Prii sounds snooty to me), up to 110% of purchase price. I haven't checked into the significance of the "up to" part, but evidently there is quite a demand for used ones currently.

[SportsFan68]

I have a blue one., similar to the color of the "post a reply" bar above. Well, I call it blue - Toyota calls it "seaside pearl", which to me doesn't make sense - sure, the sea is blue, but the seaside is kind of sandy colored, isn't it? I think they have some new colors now - I saw a dark blue one recently which wasn't available when I got mine; otherwise I would have bought that one.

My mileage experience matches Bob's experience almost exactly, and contradicts the Bob who is never wrong's earlier assertion. I have driven it on two long highway trips and averaged 47 mpg on each (both in summer). Around town I average about 46 mpg overall, around 50 in summer and 40 in winter. I would get better mileage if I had to drive farther per commute (all city), since I get no better than 30 mpg for the first mile or so, and then well over 50 (in summer) for the remainder, which is usually about three additional miles for me.

Also, I got a letter from the dealership last week offering "crazy high prices" for used Priuses (Prii sounds snooty to me), up to 110% of purchase price. I haven't checked into the significance of the "up to" part, but evidently there is quite a demand for used ones currently.

There was a time when my ex could easily have sold our diesel Rabbit for 100% of what we paid for it. Same thing with the Priuses, I think.

[ulysses5019]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your Prius?

I have been told that there's one coming in next month with my name on it....but I'm a little apprehensive about the color. I won't say which it is, but I'm curious to know what colors all of you have, and what your thoughts are on them.

Oh, and if you don't have a Prius, and feel like piping in, take a look at Toyota's website, and the Prius colors available, and give me your impressions.

Just get the color that matches your computer.

[Here's Fanny!]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your Prius?

I have been told that there's one coming in next month with my name on it....but I'm a little apprehensive about the color. I won't say which it is, but I'm curious to know what colors all of you have, and what your thoughts are on them.

Oh, and if you don't have a Prius, and feel like piping in, take a look at Toyota's website, and the Prius colors available, and give me your impressions.

Just get the color that matches your computer.

Automobiles, like gloves, should always be either black or white.

[littlebeast13]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your Prius?

I have been told that there's one coming in next month with my name on it....but I'm a little apprehensive about the color. I won't say which it is, but I'm curious to know what colors all of you have, and what your thoughts are on them.

Oh, and if you don't have a Prius, and feel like piping in, take a look at Toyota's website, and the Prius colors available, and give me your impressions.

Just get the color that matches your computer.

Automobiles, like gloves, should always be either black or white.

Wow! A rare case of me and Fanny disagreeing on something!

There's a reason we have a world of color.....

lb13

[Here's Fanny!]

Automobiles, like gloves, should always be either black or white.

Wow! A rare case of me and Fanny disagreeing on something!

There's a reason we have a world of color.....

lb13

Actually, I was just quoting a movie. My current vehicle is Tattooed Whore Red.

[littlebeast13]

Automobiles, like gloves, should always be either black or white.

Wow! A rare case of me and Fanny disagreeing on something!

There's a reason we have a world of color.....

lb13

Actually, I was just quoting a movie. My current vehicle is Tattooed Whore Red.

Well no wonder I didn't get it. Must not be one of the handful of movies I've seen in my life....

I wanted a red car.... then wound up buying the only blue one on the lot. Go figure....

lb13

[danielh41]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your Prius?

I have been told that there's one coming in next month with my name on it....but I'm a little apprehensive about the color. I won't say which it is, but I'm curious to know what colors all of you have, and what your thoughts are on them.

Oh, and if you don't have a Prius, and feel like piping in, take a look at Toyota's website, and the Prius colors available, and give me your impressions.

I've had mine for two weeks now (after a two and a half month wait). They called me a couple of weeks before it came in to tell me that it was on the way. They said it was beige. It is actually the Driftwood Pearl. I had told them that I was flexible on the color but to just make sure that it had "Package 2." I did specify that I didn't want white (my previous car was white) or black (my wife's Toyota Echo is black). I'm quite happy with the color I got and with the car in general. I'm averaging 50 miles per gallon...

[tlynn78]

Is it Pree-us or Pry-us?

I don't hate any of the colors, but I'd prefer the gray or the Tattooed Whore Red.

t.

[andrewjackson]

I like the Magnetic Gray or Driftwood Pearl.

[Jeemie]

It depends on where you live. If you live in the South, you'll get better gas mileage in a white Prius, because you won't need to use as much air conditioning. If you live in the North, you'll get better gas mileage in a black Prius because you won't need to use as much heating.

How many Prii are owned by BBs?

What if you get one of the newer models where the air conditioner/blower are going to be run with solar power?

PS Has anyone done tests to see if fuel consumption is dependent upon color and location?

[KillerTomato]

Thanks, all, for your input and comments. FWIW, I'm not doing this (solely) for the gas mileage....I think it makes a statement (right or wrong, but impressions matter in my business), and the fact that I'll save on gas money is a bonus. I've never been happy with the mileage I get on my Civic. It's fine on the highway (I'll get over 35 regularly there), but 95% of my driving is in the city, and I've averaged about 22 MPG since I got the car. Given the length of my commute, the 48 or so I'll get with the Prius will be nice.

The car that's coming in for me is the same color as Smiler's, "Seaside Pearl". I really liked the darker blue one, but I understand they're really tough to come by. When I looked at the Toyota website at the color, the first thing I thought was...

"Boy, that's not very masculine."

OK, those weren't the words I used, but this is a family bored! But I seemed to remember that the colors that show up on screen aren't very realistic. I was hoping to find a comparable color on someone's lot (preferably on a Prius)....but no such luck. And I had to at least tell them I was interested by today.

Luckily, I had to drive down to Clarksburg, WV this morning for work. And I went to my local Starbucks for some coffee, and what should be parked in the lot? A Seaside Pearl Prius! Turns out, the car isn't as powder-puff-blue as I dreaded. It's actually quite nice; not as nice as the darker blue, but I liked it, at least enough to call my salesguy to tell him I was OK with it.

Of course, I can still change my mind when I see it up close and personal....but I feel much better today than I did when I first heard which color the car was!

[elwoodblues]

Toyota also makes a Camry hybrid. Does anyone know how it compares to the Prius?

[Ritterskoop]

I like the red or either of the blues.

[earendel]

Just out of curiosity, what color is your Prius?

I have been told that there's one coming in next month with my name on it....but I'm a little apprehensive about the color. I won't say which it is, but I'm curious to know what colors all of you have, and what your thoughts are on them.

Oh, and if you don't have a Prius, and feel like piping in, take a look at Toyota's website, and the Prius colors available, and give me your impressions.

Ours is silver - but not because that was our first choice. When we signed up for our Prius (in February 2004) we requested a red one. The waiting list was 6 months long at that time and we were prepared to wait. But we were advised that people ahead of us on the list might decide to opt out, and if so we would be given the opportunity to take the car they passed on. We got a call in June offering us a black one, but we couldn't work things out. Two weeks later, in early July, we were offered the silver one. elwing wasn't particularly thrilled about the color - she doesn't like silver cars because in fog or rainy weather they are difficult to see - but our car was on its last legs and we didn't want to wait until August or September.

[Ritterskoop]

You don't have to wash a silver car as often as most colors.