We went shopping for a Scion xB and ended up with a 2010 Prius! BW warning!

[Grateful11]

I'm not sure what happened but we bought a Prius yesterday. We were
wanting to downside from 4 vehicles by trading in a Honda CR-V and the
pickup truck I got from my Dad's estate. We liked the CR-V but I hate to
admit it but we had a ton of negative equity in the CR-V from trading in a
'02 POS Ford Explorer in on it. So by trading the '07 CR-V and the '03
Chevy PU we wiped out our negative equity and then some and got our
payment down by almost $200/month. I'm getting a little too far into
our personal life here.

Anyway we test drove the only Scion xB they had, due to Cash For
Clunkers their inventory is very low on all small and med size cars.
They normally have over a 100 Camry's in stock they now have 15.
They took in 380 "CFC's". The xB just didn't really do it for us, the one
we wanted was nearly $21K and there was a nice looking 2010 Prius
sitting there that was $24K and we told the salesman we wanted to
drive it, after a few minutes we were like this is it! It's a 2010 Prius
Series III, which is far from loaded but did have a JBL stereo with XM
satellite and Bluetooth for hand-free phone use. We're amazed a how
well it rides and how quiet it is. We didn't get the first one we test drove
which was black we ended up a Blizzard White. This thing is packed with a
ton technology I just hope it's as reliable as most Toyota's. Also the
xB was rated at like 28mpg and the Prius is rated at like 50mpg. I
normally research something like this to death but we just picked it
out and that was that.

Bad picture, it was foggy and drizzly and I didn't want to back it out.

[mikebw]

There is nothing like a good impulse buy!

[Jimmypoo]

I'm envious...

and it goes with my MacBook too.

[Don Kiyoti]

Hybrid Leader!

[mattkime]

[Mac1337]

Enjoy!

[Robert M]

Grateful,

Congrats! I know what you mean when you say, " I normally research something like this to death but we just picked it out and that was that." I evaluated cars for nearly a year before I bought an '09 Mazda CX-7 Grand Touring in Black Cherry Mica with a Sand interior and the Tech package. It hadn't even been in the running so I hadn't checked out the '09 models. So, after ruling out vehicle after vehicle, I visited a Mazda dealership to check out the Mazda Tribute which is a sibling of the Ford Escape. I was about to take it for a test drive when I sat in the CX-7 and said, "Yeah. This is the car I want!"

I scheduled a test drive of a CX-7 for later that evening and bought one right after the test drive. Prior to the actual purchase, I had my brother buy a car report from Consumer Reports to help ensure I got a good deal on it. This is not to say I bought the CX-7 totally blind. I actually knew a bit about the CX-7 since I've always liked them and had done some homework on the '07 and '08 models. I'd never actually drove one or been in one until that test drive, though. Then again, all the research in the world wouldn't have mattered since I knew the car was the right one for me the moment I sat in it.

For what it's worth, while the Scion Xb wasn't on my "shopping" list, I did check one out when I was at a Toyota dealership. There is no way I'd buy one. It felt cheap and aspects of the design of the car are moronic, i.e. speedometer in the center of the dash.

Robert

[AlphaDog]

People owe themselves an impulse buy!! You'll enjoy it a whole lot, and I'm sure it will be very reliable. And it's so much more fun this way than all that dull research; you can do that for the next car, just like you probably did for the last.

My husband's all time favorite car was a Toyota Celica. We went to the dealer to buy a conservative little Corolla, but there was this bright red Celica in the showroom, with a white interior and real wire wheels. He bought it and happily drove it for about 12 years without one second of regret.

Happy Prius Day!!

[AllGold]

Congrats and enjoy!

As far as reliability, it's too early to tell on long-term reliability but the previous generation (2004-9) was one of the most reliable cars on the market. I can't imagine the 2010 not being reliable.

[steve...]

I'm getting that "new car smell" just from the photo!