September 4th, 2009
Page 115
Gas prices around here have been hovering in the low to mid 90’s for a long time now, despite the recession and the dropping oil prices… blah. Anyone have an opinion on the Prius or the Insight? I’ve been looking into hybrids (though my lease isn’t up until next June) and would love an actual owner’s feedback.
Today’s vote incentive is a little bit of promo art I did recently: Death!!!
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September 4th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Evil…(Sniff)…Don’t Go…TANKED! SAVE THE DAY, GOSH DANG IT!!
September 4th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
As far as Insight vs Prius goes, my husband and i just bought an Insight. Both are fine cars. We went with the Insight because we have another Honda and like the local dealership’s repair service. We also got a very sketchy feeling from the local Toyota dealership. The biggest difference that i’ve been able to determine (aside from the differences in the hybrid drive technology between the two companies) is that there’s more room for the driver in the Insight, an important consideration for me, since i’m way over 6′ tall. The mister drives the Insight (50 miles round trip commute each day), and got 48 mpg on the last tank of gas.
Either way, i don’t think you can go wrong.
September 4th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
OMG, Evil is goning to the forest O_o
Will he come back?
What will he kill while he’s there?
Should we fear for the other animals?
Will i ever stop asking questions?
I do love bear nuts… one of my Fave web comics EVA!
September 4th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
my guess he runs into sloth, who has had some kind of make over, the rest of the bears party that Evil is gone but soon miss him
Evil either has a breakdown from being alone or terrorizes people and is shipped back to the zoo
September 4th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
I can almost hear Evil saying: This is why I hate kids.
September 4th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Hey…outta curiosity, I preordered the comic before the due date in July. Did anyone get their’s yet? I’m still waiting.
September 4th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
DUDE!! Thats so awesome, down here we got like 2 bucks a gallon, it sucks!!
Oh..and Evil will find a way back, he’s awesome like that.
How’s Sam doing?…..I’m sorry If I don’t use the right name, I kinda forget these things
September 4th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
meh, he’ll be back. They always come back…
September 4th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
A forest. A Gas station. And a bear that is fascinated with fire…?
…proceed… *wrings hands and chuckles evilly*
September 4th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
this is prolly not the best idea to do to evil lol, camp grounds have children to lol
September 4th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Noooooo not Evil,now who will torment Nerd and the other bears daily for our amusement….
On second thought,watching what havoc he unleashes on the wildlife in that campground should be quite the show!
September 4th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
It’s his own fault. Still, everyone will miss him sooner or later. Anyway, Alison, I came up with ideas for six more characters, if you want to know about them.
September 4th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Good Evil is now at a nature Reserve *NOW BURN EVERYTHING, BURN IT TO THE GROUND!!*
September 4th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
“you can hear a prius as it drives past. it goes “iiiiiiiiiiiiii’m gay”
September 4th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
If you’re trying to save money, I’d recommend againt a prius; while you might see gas milage as good as 50/gallon, you end up paying for it in the price of the vehicle and in maintainance later on. I’d say you should go for a single tech vehicle… for comparison, I have a non-hybrid Civic and my mom has a Prius, she gets about 45 MPG and I get about 34 MPG, but I have a lower total cost of ownership because I spent about 8,000 less than her when I bought it, and in the two years I’ve owned it I’ve put $3,200 worth of gas in over about 36,000 miles. Comparing my gas milage to hers, that would save maybe 750 a year, so it would take 10 years to make up the price of purchase in saved gas… and ten years is about when you have to look in to replacing the main battery, which isn’t cheap.
You’ll run into those problems in price regardless of the hybrid you look at because they all use pretty much the same hybrid system.
Now, I realize that you’re probably going to lease since you’re leasing your current car, but the dealership that leases the car to you will factor that in to their price.
Off tangent from that, I think the way that the controls for the gear select and engine start in the prius are stupid, but that’s just me personal opinion. I think it’s silly that everyone things the prius is a “green” car, since for all the pollution and fuel it saves with its regenerative breaking, it causes just as much with the production and disposal of its hybrid system (the batteries particularly) At least 100% battery powered cars have the benefit that the electricity is being produced at a centralized location that makes it easier to reduce or sequester polution.
Also, poor evil, getting what is coming to him.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:16 am
Silly Evil…did you really think Prozac and Death were hassling you just for the fun of it? You know, they might have had a point. :P
September 5th, 2009 at 12:18 am
Finally.
September 5th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Now the little blonde kid is SMART. SHE probably wouldn’t have been stupid enough to stuff her filthy face with a cupcake that was sitting out in the open.
September 5th, 2009 at 3:04 am
The Prius gets amazing gas mileage. I, myself have a 2005 Civic Hybrid(650Miles on one tank)…didn’t really like the styling of the Prius too much…haha. Toyota or Honda, either way you’ll be getting a good import. Both the Insight and Prius though are not very roomy at all.
September 5th, 2009 at 3:12 am
and in reply to what reese says. my maintenance is the same as any other car. There’s no special crap they do just because it’s a hybrid. The braking system to build up energy towards the other battery the hybrid have is just like an assist system to help the car not work as much.
Honda and Toyota are amazing in quality and you’ll have a car that will last a long time and warranty that will last long as well. My 05 has never had any problems ever and I already have well over 60k on it. I honestly just like the fact that I can drive through the panhandle of Texas down to the gulf and still have a bit under half a tank of gas when I get there.
September 5th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Aw Evil. The zoo will become so tame without you. XD; Which may be a good thing for the Giraffe brothers. x3;;
But knowing evil he’ll probably steal a car or something when he’s released owo!
September 5th, 2009 at 5:12 am
I’ve been rocking a 2000 Jetta TDI for about 2 months now. I spend the same on fuel per gallon, but I jumped from maybe 12 MPG to 40. Yes, forty. A diesel isn’t a newfangled thing and it can be fixed relatively easy, whereas if your hybrid breaks, you might as well start selling kidneys.
And I’m hearing “waaaa waaaa, it’s so expensive.” I got my 2000 for $5,500 off Craigslist. Hot HOT little investment.
September 5th, 2009 at 11:39 am
If you want an SUV look into a Ford Escape (which also comes in a hybrid.) If you can do a family sedan the new Ford Fusion hybrid is fairly sweet. The Focus ZTW my girlfriend drives is a useful all around 4cyl station wagon and gets well over 30MPG. Chevrolet… you got a bad model in the Cobalt (aka Pontiac G5,) last I checked it was being discontinued. The Volt and Converj should be awesome, but right now I’m not sure if they have much by way of family cars I’d suggest. The Monte Carlo 4 door was great, but they dropped the line, and the Impala just has a bad connotation with me.
September 5th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Omg I was about to comment with the EXACT same words as the first comment!
Noooo! Not Evil!!! D:
Who will fill our hearts with evil guilty pleasures =[
September 5th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
NOT EVIL ANYONE BUT EVIL!!!!! D:>>>>
September 5th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Oh no! Evil’s being shipped away.
September 5th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Lech seems irritated about it.
September 5th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Rachael, I’m going off what my mom said about her Prius. Maybe it’s because she takes it tot he toyota dealer for maintainance. The point about the battery needing replacing after about 10 years of average use would still be valid.
September 5th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Ah, I asked my mom for more specifics and it turns out it was expensive in general, not compared to maintaining other cars, so sorry about that.
Outside of normal maintainance, that I know of, she’s had a problem with a headlight fail and with the car battery draining (not the main battery, there’s also a regular car battery in addition to the one that runs the electric motor) and it took three or four visits to their mechanics before they finally found the real problem and fixed what was causing the battery drain.
She did mention, though, that replacing the headlight was more expensive than one might expect, and that the mechanics at the dealership had mentioned to her that Toyota doesn’t elt their mechanics know anything more about the Prius than they absolutely have to for making repairs. She didn’t know if the latter was true or if the mechanics were just making things up to cover ofr having to service it 3 times for the same problem, though… and her car is a first generation Prius, so that might have contributed to the problems.
September 5th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Oh! Those poor campers! Run away! Run away!
I have an 06 Scion xA that averages 33-35 miles per gallon in city or 80 miles per hour. I call it my micro van. It’s a 4-door but it may be a bit small for getting a car seat in and out. The bigger xB might be a possibility.
Personally, I’ll stick with a small gas engine for quick starting/warming up and longevity. When they get to the point where batteries last more than a few years then maybe…/me would LOVE a Tesla Roadster…$$$!
But when all is said and done, driving style will play a much more important part. My wife gets lousy mileage because she waits too long to coast and accelerates faster than necessary.
September 5th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Maybe the other bears will miss him SOO much, they’ll make a search party at night and go get him. Then they see like, a forest fire, “O_O”
Lmao.
September 5th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Lol at how Lech doesn’t seem to care, Gay bear’s excited, and Nerd Bear seems happy with Evil waiting. I just know they’re gonna miss him.
You can’t just NOT miss Evil. x]
September 5th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
oh wow, typo. I meane leaving not waiting. It’s too late at night, LOL.
September 6th, 2009 at 1:01 am
FUCK!
September 6th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
well i’m getting a 02 VW golf TDI (turbo Diesel) diesel engins have come a long way and the TDI gets good gas mileage and still has a bit of power in it too. thay get around mid 40 to 50 in mileage on the highway and country roads depending on how you drive (and how well its been maintained). as long as you do regular oil changes and take care of the car it should run for a good 300K at least, you will have to replace the timing belt though every 80K to 100K. i would not have one for the city though just because mileage drops when you do alot of idling.
so if you are a city driver i would say get a hybrid (you probably are close to a place that can fix them too), but if you do alot of highway and country driving you might look into a TDI.
note: the automatic transmissions for the 01-03 TDI (01M trany) aren’t the best and have been know to fail so if you look at those models you probably should look for a manual.
with cold weather though it might have a harder time starting because unlike gas engines it doesn’t use spark plugs, instead i uses pressure to get the fuel ignited (i believe). that is harder to do if you are in a colder environment. i do know that you can add a engine heater that you can plug in during the night though but not sure how effective this is.
i think thought that cheezedog had it write to suggest a Subaru for winter weather thay don’t get the best mileage but i’m used to 33 mpg with my old 94 sentra so most cars now a days don’t look all that efficient. the thing though it does have is AWD and that is use full and makes handling of the ar really good. i would have gone with a Subaru if i had not gone with the TDI.
in the end though you have to decide what car you want that suites your environment, your driving style and you.
September 6th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I think Evil’l set the forest on fire, and then get saved lke Smokey, and come back to the zoo. But I’d love to see Evil when I’m camping, I’d give him a taste of his own medicine by giving him a laxative laced piece of food >:)
September 6th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
A bit off the beaten path for this discussion, but if as you said you’re looking for something somewhat roomy that baby vomit will be easy to clean off of, have you looked into the newer FJ Cruisers? Entirely hose-washable interiors. As for the hybrids, frankly, not worth it in my opinion, unless you’re getting lots of government credit for it. On their own merit, frankly, they’re just not advanced enough yet to make a significant dent, not to mention the down-the-road costs associated with them.
September 6th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
0.91 for gas??! Which state was this supposed to be again?
September 9th, 2009 at 1:47 am
@Reese,
the very very first 1st-gen Prii had some problems, and I’m not sure why they did… my 1st gen was 2002, and is slightly different from the very very first ones from 2001. The 2000/2001 Prius had issues with electrical in the steering column, the tires seemed to blow out for a lot of people, problems with the little (lead-acid) battery, etc. Whatever was causing these various problems never appeared in the 2002-2003 Prius.
Our Toyota dealership was pretty good. It IS a good idea to look at who you’re going to be taking your car to, and if you buy New you’ll be going to the dealership, not the local guy. I happened to have an excellent Toyota dealership nearby (not the one I bought the car from) and what they did was they had 3 guys who had extensive Prius training (and a test)– this could only be given to master mechanics who’d already done their electrical. They knew quite a bit about the Prius, so I’d stay clear of any dealership who either a: only had one “Prius guy” and b: didn’t let them know much about the Prius. Neither helps a customer.
Someone said the little battery is only good for 3000 miles. I sold my lovely Prius to my neighbours when I moved, it’s a 2002 with (by now) 90k miles on it, and that little battery is still going (though it’s lasted longer than the general lifetime for that kind of battery, which just like any other lead-acid is a few years generally). It’s only different from the battery in other cars in that it’s smaller (cube-shaped) and instead of 200amp-hours or 400 amp-hours it’s 35-40. So don’t just throw any charger on it (I drained my battery twice with the back door being closed but just open enough to have the little “door open” light on for 3-4 days lawlz).
Re the expensive hybrid battery: Honda and Toyota know nobody wants to buy a car where they’d have to pay through the nose for a battery. That’s why the batteries come with warrenties, and why, as I expected, those warrenties can be renewed. After the end of the battery’s lifetime, the battery gets recycled. There is a LOT of nasty pollution created when the nickel and other metals are mined to make these batteries. Like all batteries, these can be (have to be) recycled. Some people won’t buy a hybrid because they don’t want to encourage more mining, though it is the same battery we use for rechargeable batteries (laptops etc have moved on to lithium ion which are also nasty eco-wise).
Kessog ++ Tesla Roadster!! The reason I got a Prius was because it was the closest I could reasonably get to an electric car (did not want to build my own, bleh).
Ah, re do baby strollers fit in the back: I wanted to know similar information before I bought my Prius. I strongly advise you to take the car you’re interested in from the dealer for a day (or two). Then do a “typical” day. See how the car works in your life. If I couldn’t fit my large trash containers or the dog stuff in the trunk, I wouldn’t have bought it, and you only find this out by using the car for a day. A good dealership lets you do this, and usually you pay some small (very small) amount for “insurance” (likely not crash insurance as they have that already).
And again I’ll recommend cars.com (or just Tom and Ray’s show Car Talk, luvvit) to get an idea which cars are fairly maintenance-free and which are known to have a lot of issues.
April 13th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Wow! I go to the sandbanks every summer!
September 16th, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Hey, If ya need a place to stay, Evil, just know that there is always a room for ya here.
I also live in Canada, but I live in Whitehorse, Yukon. All of our gas is truked up here, so we have to pay extra at the pumps to pay for the truks gas as well, so we pay about 50-60 cents more than anyone south of sixty.
Thats sixty degrees latitude, for anyone who doesn’t know.
October 6th, 2010 at 1:13 am
the best show car that i know are those expensive Bentleys and Audis-:`
October 11th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
Weird how Lech just looks really bored. Possibly ’cause he relies on Evil to cause trouble with any bear other than Gay.
October 20th, 2010 at 3:17 am
Porsche 911 is the best show car that i know, it is pretty expensive too,’`
November 9th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
show cars that sport a big engine is the thing that i like, i love those show cars with V8 or V12 engines ::
December 5th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
w00! Now get rid of Lech!
July 6th, 2012 at 11:44 am
Touch screens in cars are overrated.