Everyone knows I like to be environmentally conscious and give the oil industry as little money as possible. (I’ve blogged about my keen interest in the Nissan Leaf. I suspect that, as soon as I can test drive a Leaf, the Prius (Watts) will be replaced with one. In the meantime… )
Since resale values for Japanese autos are at perhaps an all-time high because of the economy and production issues for new cars, Rojo* could be traded for almost what was paid for it. I’ve never seen anything like it! (The gap will probably never be that small again.)
I wanted to replace Rojo with a four wheel drive hybrid. And, since I have now lamented the loss of heated seats for the past 2+ years, a new RX 450h would have to have them! (Probably since it never freezes, no one ever believes me when I say that the Pacific coast gets really cold!)
Meet, the fully equipped, Monica!
* Rojo was so-named because he was vivid, bright red. Monica (properly pronounced Moh-nee’- kuh) was so-named because she was purchased in Santa Monica.
I read your Blog post about the man and his runaway Prius. I agree with you; it’s a rather fishy story. I thought it was odd that all of these recalls with Toyota in 2009 came just as our govt. was buying GM and Chrysler. I love my 2006 Prius.
Yeah, my gut tells me these stories were all part of the typical dishonest, misleading strategies that got the US auto industry in the mess it’s in to begin with. They needed the money so badly they cooked up these hoax. Several months back the results of the investigation by the FTA and Toyota made a tiny squeak in the local (not national) news: the “black box” in the Prius (I didn’t know they all have one) said the car never did what he said it did. The car was not a run-away at all. He pled out, got a slap on the wrist, and it all went away. Just makes me furious.