I got a new Prius

I would go the other way....

It seems those that buy 4 wheel drive don't know how to drive even 2 wheel drive.

Get the 2 wheel drive and learn to drive. You will pass all those fools in the ditch with 4 wheel drive vehicles...I do...

I also had a 1968 Datsun 510 4-door (my second car after the Gremlin) that I inherited from my sister when it kept on catching fire too much. Once in a while the electrical harness near the wipers would catch and I (at about 22 years old) would just beat it out with a rag and keep going. It would not start in the rain, but once it was going it would not stop running either. It also had what we called the mystery shift. One of the tines at the bottom of the shifter lever broke off so it would flop around. I had to remember what gear I was in because I could not tell from the stick's position. It worked OK, I just had to use a little artsiness in shifting. That thing got us around to alot of places on nice days... Tomes

Once you get used to it you (or me rather) do not look at it but to glance at it strategically, much like the speedometer. I actually leave it on a different screen (like the radio screen) now unless the passenger wants to play the game, seeing what effect what I do has. Tomes

No disagreement there, and thanks for clearing that up. Tomes

Life is tranquil inside a Prius. Why ruin it?

No room in the engine bay. Hell, BMWs have batteries in the trunk, and if you remember the beetle, it was under the rear seat.

Where's the fun in that?

My 1990 Nissan 240SX had the speed displayed just to the left of the top of the steering wheel. It had a 'projestor' built in to the top of the dash, and a reflective 'screen' embedded in the windshield. Made it easy to see when you had some fool in a mustang thinking he could outrun you...

Not around here. The place I live is like Granola...what isn't fruits and nuts is flakes. Remember my discussion about Wind Farms, and the people who cry and complain about "alternative sources of energy"...until a company came in and said the best place for a Wind Farm was in Granolaville. All of a sudden, it was a terrible idea; there was lobbying and protests...these are the kinds that drive the things at 30 MPH in a 50...

You had an '84 Liftback? Kinda like:

or

The second link is captioned "Hachiroku's '85 Corolla". I wonder how they knew?

or was it

This was actually a '79 but the 80-83's were similar. Like:

If you had one in the first links, that is considered a "Hachiroku" because the body model was AE86, Hachiroku meaning "8-6" in Japanese.

Although the model is an AE86, what is considered a 'real' Hachiroku is the model with the 4A-GE engine, which is most easily differentiated because it had fuel injection rather than a carbeurator and only came with a 5 speed trans. On the outside it had this sort of garish sticker that said across the bottoms of the doors "GT-S Twin Cam 16". For years I wanted to take that sticker off and give it the "Laser" treatment, which was black along the bottom 1/3 of the car and a wide black stripe about 2" above that. Now that I am 'restoring' it, on of the things I am looking for is someone that can make a copy of that sticker for the driver's door. I want to keep it as stock as I can.

I was afraid someone was going to say "Honeybee"...

Yeah...I remember the rubber mats. Easy to clean when one of your buddies got sick...

Same with my '74 Corolla...no carpet.

Once labeled a "poor man's BMW"

They were pretty neat right from the factory, but there were a lot of racing parts for them, so you could modify them pretty easily and cheaply.

I had a friend who loved these things. He replaced the US carb with the Japanese draft version, bumped the suspension ever so little, and put wider tires on it. WOW! I had a roomate that had a '74 BMW 2002 and Doug had the '72 510; I drove both of them. there's one corner I could barely handle at 45 in either of the Corollas I had back then...I took it at 75 in both the BMW and the 510!

All in all, doug paid a LOT less for the 510 even after adding the goodies than my roomate's mom paid for the BMW (she didn't like it...she gave it to him and bought a Spitfire!)

...and IF you had an overweight friend....and the battery case top was missing....and the friend sat in the back seat of the car....and the metal springs from the seat came in contact with the battery posts.....

Well you get the drift....

That's because you KNOW you have to take it easy, and the others think their Tony the Ironman (know who he is? Toyota factory sponsored off-road/baja racer...) and wind up getting into a situation 10-wheel drive wouldn't get them out of.

I used to just putter past them in my Tercel AWD Wagon...of course, the cops were already there.

You've never driven the GSP either.

If you leave that much room between you and the car in front of you, someone will pull in to fill it. If you leave the 6.5 carlengths you're SUPPOSED to for 65 MPH, SEVEN cars will pull in to fill it. There is NO WAY you can leave a safe distance between you and the driver in front on the GSP or the New Jersy Turnpike, unless you just pull over and wait until the road is empty...

and that NEVER happens...

Same goes for:

rt 95 rt 495 rt 128 rt 84 rt 86 rt 91

shall I go on?

I keep a digital voice recorder with me. Plate, vehicle, where, time of day. Then the information is off to the Registry. I like to bag drivers who flick lit cigarettes out their window. Elmo should be happy it keeps my mind off the graphic video display;)

Ah, so that's where that comes from.

Anyway...

Mine was a 4 - or 5, depending how you look at it - door; my Duster had been a 2-door coupe & I swore never again (2 doors). And it had an integrated spoiler on the hatch. Looking in Wikipedia, it appears to have been the AE82: USA (1984-1987) US-market chassis:

AE82 - FWD sedan, 2-door/4-door, hatchback(Std, LE, LE Ltd) 3-door (FX/FX16)

This house was built in '20. It has most of its original features, incl. the ceiling light fixtures. At first I wanted to rip them out - thought they were ugly - a little too much - & replace them with more traditional early American or Colonial (it's a Colonial revival house) fixtures. But was later glad I didn't - keeps the integrity of the house intact. (The glass doorknobs were never in question.)

Cathy

OTOH, consider that pedestrians can't hear the Prius when in EV mode, so a mild horn might be best for that situation. Several weeks ago, a pedestrian actually **ran into** my Prius! She wasn't looking where she was going and cut across the road while I was almost stopped.

My advice would be to read this short manual instead of the crappy one that Toyota supplies. It'll save you lots of time.

It's more fun getting > 50 MPG than it is getting from one place to another as fast as possible.

Tomes, don't forget your federal tax credit, $1600 or something, unfortunately not applicable until next April.