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• Monday, January 5, 2009 07:04 AM

  Needs are often illusory...

  Well, I guess the author has suffered enough abuse, and I have to believe that the article was written with this heated discussion in mind... here are my 2 cents:

  I bought the first US Prius in 2001, bought a second one in 2006 and my son now drives the first one (with over 100,000 miles on it). That one has bike and ski racks on it, and makes regular trips to the local ski mountains in the Poconos (OK, we don't live near the Rockies!). The cars seat five adults (big adults - my sons and I are over 6' tall, and I have ridden in the back plenty of times), and both have pretty good cargo space as well. If I need to haul a lot of stuff (like SCUBA gear to a local dive site), no problem, the 2006 Prius is a hatchback (and the 2001 has a lot of trunk space).

  VERY reliable cars, despite their rep as being pricey, they are less than the average new car price (the 2009 model is 22K base). I personally like buying used cars, and they seem well made enough to hold value for the second owner.

  I'm trying to think how often people with two little kids would go out to the driveway and say "oh, gee... we just can't do this because the Prius is too small".

  If that happens once a year, rent something, ask the other parents to follow in their car, make two trips, take two cars, borrow your neighbors helicopter, whatever... I don't drive around every day in an eighteen wheel tractor trailer because I might need one to move someday..!

  This is a real issue, and not just an environmental one. If the AVERAGE mileage of a US vehicle was improved by 2.7 MPG, this would eliminate the need for Persian Gulf imports...

  —doctormike Read doctormike's other letters
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