Hi,

I live in NW PA and have had my 2004 Prius for about a month now. It took me less than a week to get it. I almost got one 3 years ago, but couldn't justify the extra cost when a new Prizm was supposed to get about the same mpg. Except that my new Prizm got worse mileage than my 9 yr old Prizm and it ate at me for 3 yrs that I should have gotten the Prius.

PA has a grant program for hybrid cars ($400 this year?), but you can't buy the car until you send in the grant application. They didn't open the latest grant round until the end of July and it took me a few weeks to get my application in. I was still hesitant about spending the money when I had a Prizm with only 37,000 miles on it. I mailed the application in on a Tuesday, waited until the saleslady I had talked with several months ago got back from vacation on Thursday and filled out the paperwork. She called on Monday to say that she had a car for me. I got the message on Tuesday, had my Prizm cleaned on Thursday and took it to Toyota get appraised. Picked up my new Prius on Friday. One week after I had gotten on the list.

I had fully expected to wait 4-5 months, but this one came in and the person who'd ordered it decided to wait for a 2005. No one ahead of me on the list wanted a black car, so it came to me. After owning it for almost 3 weeks I understand. Black seems to attract suicidal bugs that glow like a spotlight is shining on them.

Going by the Consumption readings, I seemed to be getting around 45 mpg and doing the math figured I should get gas by 500 miles. The tank was full when I picked it up and the first bar didn't come off of the gas gauge until I had 200 miles on it. I thought it was slow because it was new. There were 3 bars left when I got gas on Monday at 495 miles. But, doing the math I figured that had to be wrong. However, the fact that it only took 7.78 gallons (and I topped it off because it didn't think it could possibly be full yet) at 495 miles means that it did indeed have almost 1/3 of a tank remaining. I got over 63 mpg!

Sorry to be so long winded, but I think it is great to find a site with people who understand what I'm talking about and can answer my questions. Now can someone please tell me how to keep a black car clean?