As some of you may know, Tom wasn't the only Nissan Leaf owner on staff. Only difference was my leaf was a little newer, and I was still making payments on it. After doing some math, and realizing I had driven the thing less than 1000 miles in the last 12 months—coupled witht the fact that Carvana was offering me an increasingly obscene sum of money for it—I recided to turn th eequity in the Leaf into an entire car.
Once the Leaf returned to the mothership, I'd have around $5000 to shop with, and that's not a ton in these days of hyperinflated used car prices. I wanted something reliable and efficient, preferably with a hybrid drivetrain. While I loved the Leaf, the range anxiety made it unusable for my wife as a backup car if she ever needed to borrow it to go to work. Her commute pretty much maxed out the range, and having a car you can only go directly to and from your job in is kind of a pain.
CR-Zs are still too expensive, and actually not particularly fuel-efficient by modern standards, although they are super cool. Insights are hard to find and harder to find parts for. So I finally narrowed the search to the 2nd generation Prius, which is one of the world's most prolific and reliable hybrids, and also has a considerable knowledge base for DIY repairs. Prices also seemed to be right in my wheelhouse.
As I found when I began to actually look at cars, though, people are literally awful at selling used cars. The first car I looked at was an embarassment. "I painted the roof myself after a junkie boiunced off it. I think I did a pretty good job!" Uh, sir, I have some news for you. Three days later I got a vaguely accusatory text from Mr. Rembrandt there that his catalytic converter had been stolen.
Finally I was able to make a deal on a car—although not take delivery immediately, even though I came to the arranged meeting with cash and a trailer. The next day, the text i was expecting with final meeting arrangements ws instead a text that they had changed their mind on selling.
Ultimately I found a car in Jacksonville—after having the "I hate to be a dick, but are you willing and able to part with this car tonight if we come to an agreement on price?" conversation. Nice guy, understood my frustration, and also looked like a young Glenn Danzig, so he had all that going for him. The car was well-prepped by independent used car standards, which is to say it had actually been vacuumed and emptied of garbage. Still, a good polish and headlight resto would have cost less than $10 in materials and probably added $400 to the selling price. 136,000 miles, new Contis, some recent records indicating some common issues being taken care of at dealer service facilities, and a good report from the Dr. Prius app (worth every penny of the $30 they charge for it) on the battery test. $5000 and I was on my way.
I've since given it a proper polishing and interior cleaning (you should have seen the cabin air filter. It looked like that filter that all dealerships keep around to scare old ladies into buyng a new cabin filter), cleaned the headlights, and I have a full slate of fluids ready to go in one evening this week. Also having to add an aftermarket aux input setup since the 2005 didn't come standard with any inuts for external devices.
I had forgotten how brilliantly simple these things were. As soulless driving pods go, the Gen2 feels more basic, but also more rugged than its more modern relatives. But it also has a real user-friendly, indestructible feel about it that I appreciate a lot. It's simple, eats miles on the highway, efficient and cheap to fix if my quick run through common wear items on Rock Auto is any indication.
Also, I towed it home with my Tundra, nicely bracketing Toyota's most and least efficient vehicles in one handy photo frame.
Oh, and in addition to have no car payments to look forward to, insurance on the Prius is UNDER HALF of what the Leaf was. I'll probably use all that extra money to LS swap it.
