With buying a house and RV, and selling the truck and 5th wheel, Tom and I needed a new get-around vehicle.  After years of driving the diesel-guzzling truck we wanted something gas efficient.  So we decided on a Toyota Prius.

Toyota makes very dependable, energy efficient vehicles.  You could argue they make the best cars available, and their dealerships don’t haggle much about price.  Usually the sticker price is what you will pay for the car.  Tom and I appreciate this because we don’t like to haggle.  Just tell us how much it costs and we will decide whether or not we want to buy it.

We did most of our car shopping online.  In fact, most dealerships right now will bring a car to you for a test drive.  I’m not sure what happens when you decide to buy a car this way – do you still have to go in to the dealership or are they able to do all the paperwork online?  After looking at many, many Prius’s online, we found just the right one at Toyota Direct, a short distance from our house. I called and scheduled a test drive.

We went to the dealership and the car was ready to drive.  After five minutes, I knew I loved it.  Tom, the battery engineer, also loved the display and the easy ways to get the best possible mileage from driving.  We went back into the dealership and told the salesman we would take it at the sticker price, no trade-in, no financing.  We thought the deal would be quick and easy.

Two hours later we were still waiting for the paperwork to be completed and we were not happy.  We didn’t intend to stay in the dealership for two hours, but the one time we decided to wait outside, the paperwork guy took someone else ahead of us.  Our salesman ignored us and went on to other customers.

Finally it was our turn with the paperwork guy who couldn’t seem to get the paperwork correct.  I guess that is why he was so slow at getting to us.  It took three tries for him to print the title information correctly.  We were glad to finally get out of the building.

Our Toyota Prius was delivered on a Thursday.  The salesman delivered it and would have just handed over the keys and left, but his ride got lost.  So, he ended up showing us how to interface our phones with the media display.  We found out later, when we got the customer survey, that he was supposed to go over a whole list of information with us.

We are very much enjoying driving the Toyota Prius.  Right now our average miles per gallon is 63.7.  It already has close to 600 miles, with the running around we’ve been doing.  The car has a remarkable amount of storage space.  Yesterday we fit a recliner in it to bring home!  I also love the color – sea foam pearl.  We plan to get many years of good driving out of this vehicle.