Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Baby's Got a New Pair of Shoes...

Or, maybe she's got a brand new car!

I made the decision that I needed to make my commute better by getting a better commuting car, so I decided to get a hybrid. On Saturday, the DH and I went over to Toyota of Lake City and test drove the hybrid Camry and Prius. The Camry was posh and absolutely wonderful, but the MPG on the sticker was only 30 compared to the Prius' 60. I just had to go with the Prius.

It's a very wierd experience driving this car. First of all, you don't use the key at all. You get close to the car with the "key" and it unlocks. When you get in the car, you press a power button to turn it on. It turns on the electric engine, which is silent, so the only way you can tell is that the dash lights up.

To turn it off, you press the power button again. On Sunday, I couldn't lock the doors and realized it was because I hadn't turned the car off. I didn't hear anything and forgot to hit the power button. It will definitely take some getting used to.

I'm happy to say that the guage told me I got 41.5 MPG on my commute home from work yesterday. That felt good. Now I have to figure out how to hook up my iPod and bluetooth wireless for my cell phone and I'll be good to go.

7 comments:

Megan said...

Ohhhhh,
very cool, can't wait to see it in person.

An Ordinary Mom said...

My BIL has one and it was fun to drive. I really like how you don't need the key to start it up, very fancy. Can't wait to see it!

jason said...

Too Cool! Me wants a new car now.

Do you remember when the Vega had a push-button start? It was so ahead of it's time (or maybe the ignition switch had broken and the button was a hack).

LizzyP said...

Oh, I would love to replace our little Corolla with a hybrid. I'm getting more and more concerned about our dependence on fossil fuels--it's just about the only thing causing me stress these days. I can breathe a little easier knowing that one less person is adding to the chaos. Thanks, Noelle, for making my day!

Half a Dozen said...

So cool! When The Doc's car dies, I think we will go this way, as his car is driven purely for work.

annzy said...

oh no now you are going to love your commute and stop calling me to pass the time ~

Lucy van Pelt said...

No matter how much better I feel about the commute, I will still need to pass the time with phone calls. Plus, the car has this really cool BlueTooth capability that gives me hands free cell phone capability. I set it up this morning and it's really cool!