Lisa and I just got a 2004 Toyota Prius. So, it is a couple of years old but in good condition and has low milage. I thought I’d keep a “diary” of sorts here on what we think and how this experience goes.

We both really like the display. It is definitely fun to play with. Maybe a little too fun, especially when you are watching it as you drive down the road. But, presumably, some of that novelty will wear off and it won’t be as distracting.

We already had a crisis moment with the car. Lisa tried to start it and it wouldn’t go into drive or reverse. It would only go into neutral. We had no idea what was wrong except for some service light was on and the manual said take it to the dealer. This was before we had a real chance to drive it! (Due to some snafus and incompetence at the local DMV (or MVD as they are called in New Mexico).) It turns out that there is an easy fix, as I found out at this Wiki site. It seems this is a well known problem, even a recalled problem. So, it looks like we’ll need to go to the dealer anyways. At least it was simple to fix, but it is frustrating that before you even get to drive the car, you run into a problem like that.

Overall, we’ve enjoyed it so far. The only other odd thing we found is that, when planning a mock trip to Idaho, it picked a route that is significantly longer than the one we often do. And we couldn’t get it to pick the one we prefer (through Utah), the one that MapQuest picks as the shortest path. So, we aren’t sure why that is. But, that is a minor thing.

More news as we get it.