In Praise of the Prius

Although this is not a green building related article, I must comment on our purchase of a 2008 Toyota Prius this past November.
We bought this car sight unseen. No dealers in Ontario had cars to test drive last fall and the rental companies had sold off their rentals. So with a little trepidation we ordered a Prius - ultimately from Japan.

Eight weeks after our order we picked up a bright red Prius. After a short familiarization lesson we were off. It was weird to not hear the engine at stops and to start off in silence. We were visually glued to the information screen which produces efficiency and performance information. We have found that it is easy to drive, very comfortable to ride and has much more sitting and storage room that initially appears. And of course – the fuel consumption is great. We did a highway trip recently and found that we were averaging 5.1 L / 100 Km – just under the highway rating. It takes about $30 for a fill and that goes about 500 km. for average driving. The Prius is not cheap to buy, but we are saving on gas cost and greatly reducing green house gas production.