[quote=treehugger]Hey BG, sold the Prius myself in a matter of days to the first guy to look at. I bought it used for a great deal and sold it for near what I paid, so can’t complain. I don’t drive much so it was nearly 5 years old with less than 44,000 miles.
My new car is LOADED (so was my prius), I have the premium, sport, and comm packages came with NAV (large screen) and even have a subwoofer (I don’t even know what that is). I will admit that so far I think the nearly 5 year old Japanese technology is much more intuitive and advanced than current day state of the art German tech. I have only had the car a few days and am still trying to figure stuff out.
Not sure yet what my personal MPG will be, but the car is rated for up to 32 with the AWD (35 without). The Prius averaged 52 and the previous 4runner averaged 18 (which was painful).[/quote]
That’s GREAT, treehugger! Yeah, it would take me a long time (I’d have to split it up to several sessions) to learn (and retain) all the bells and whistles of a late model vehicle. I watched a fairly long demo on utube of the Toyota “Entune” in-dash system and it seems pretty intuitive but no way would I be that fast in getting it to do what I want it to do. And I still wear an earpiece (bluetooth) to talk on the phone and have been wearing them at home, in public and on the road for the last 10 years or so (I know that bluetooth is in-dash now on most late-model vehicles). Old habits die hard.
That’s great mileage for the little Merc! Yes, buying a 4Runner would still be worth it for me if I “retired” to a small mtn town where I could walk to all or just drive a short distance to the store. Even in South Lake Tahoe (pop 52K), the city bus (every 15 mins) is free for residents and tourists alike (for errands, dining, wine tasting and skiing, etc) and there are many walkable neighborhoods right in town, even walking distance to the lake! All the other benefits of the 4WD 4Runner outweigh its relatively poor gas mileage for people who live in the mtns, IMO.
For others who have a daily commute over ~10 miles one way or have to constantly drive around for errands in stop and go traffic, a vehicle with better gas mileage would be a much better choice.
I’ve only had a home theatre subwoofer … never one in a vehicle. Wouldn’t that cause the stereo system to pound and vibrate in a small vehicle? Is it in the trunk?