I seem to notice more new cars driving about. Has anyone been able to take advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program??

For the first time the other day I saw a hybrid Camry.

On the way into work today, I saw one of the new electric cars going through the Caldecott tunnel.

The American car with the most traction, imo, in Northern California is the Ford Fusion. After that, Honda and Toyota are still dominating, unless it's a truck, and then there's a 50-50 chance it will be a Ford.

What new cars are you seeing on the road?

we just got a cash for clunkers new car. had a 10 yr old caravan that was on borrowed time. One day last week Tom heard on the news that Chrysler was stopping their matching rebate that day. So he went up to our local dealer, found 1 that qualified, and signed on the dotted line. He wound up paying 2000.00 less for the new car, than we paid 10 years ago for the old one. go figure. I still think the whole program is not what it's advertised to be. I mean, the new car only gets an addl 2 miles per gallon! Big whoop.
AND.... they're gonna MURDER my old car! They have to by law, put something in the engine that will cause it to seize, then they'll crush it like a bug!
oh c'mon now SOMEBODY could have made good use of it. :huh:

Just think of it as 'car euthanasia', not murder, Chloe. LoL!

My brother and his wife have a new hyrid Camry. They love it. I swear, you cannot hear the engine at all, even when standing right next to it.

Well, I have a little more to learn, but I thought that the minimum gas mileage for any "new" car had to be 17 mpg.

Thx, for the info on the Camry hybrid Momster. I had one as a loaner while my Honda was in the shop. Boy, was that a mistake!!

Anyway, today I saw a new Saturn sedan, couldn't see the make, and in my underground parking garage at work someone is driving a new SUV Toyota Murano.

i tried to think of it as "car"thanasia but it didnt work. Its murder, plain and simple!!!
AND premeditated!!!

and Skates, the new car does get at least 17mpg, but thats still only 2 more than my late car got.

Chloe, my dad is looking at trading in his Lexus that he's had forever.

I can't bear the idea of it getting demolished. My BIL offered to buy it from him over the weekend. They are such good cars, even with over 100k miles.

Here's a neat link to see if your car even qualifies for the "Cars for Clunkers" program:

http://www.myride.com/content/CashForClunkers/index.cfm


New cars I spotted today:

A Mazda MX-5, two-door white convertible

....and a Toyota sedan of some sort. It's all over the map.

Thanks for the link Sk8888. I didn't hear of it... of course I'm not thinking of getting a new car until this one falls apart literally. Besides, my old reliable Honda Odyssey (one of the firsts) doesn't qualify :(. Says it gets 20mpg.

I know!!! Darn, fuel-efficient Honda's!!!

More new cars:

One Toyota hybrid Prius
One Toyota Matrix

One Acura SUV
One Mazda SUV (GX9??)

One Lexus GS300 series four-door sedan

I just bought a 2008 Toyota Yaris! It's not new, but it's not very common here, I think. I've been searching long and hard on the road and so far in two weeks I have only seen two. I actually had never even heard of it before, but maybe that's me! It's one of the top cars in Japan because of its incredible gas mileage, sub compact size, and engine realiability. I love it.

Sadly, my 1996 Saturn SL2 did not qualify as a Clunker because the gas mileage was too high.

My Saturn is going to be another victim of car euthanasia! They said, and I quote, "We have no use for it." It could be in pieces even as we speak! :(

Congrats on the new car Wee!!!

I can't believe they didn't want your Saturn.


The Yaris is a cute little car. I saw it and the Honda Fit and Matrix a bunch over the weekend.

What color did you get?

Oh, and is the price of gas going up AGAIN???

^^^ I was behind a Yaris on my way to work this morning. They sort of remind me of the SMART cars a little bit.

I saw one today also! I guess I've just never noticed them before. Mine is "Flint Mica," which is another way to say it is charcoal gray with sparklies all over it. They are so roomy that my 6-foot-5-inch husband can sit in one without his head touching, plus the backseats can sit two adults comfortably. It also has a really roomy trunk. Its turn radius is one foot shorter than a Mini Cooper, although it's a bit larger than a Mini Cooper.

The Yaris hatchbacks really do kind of resemble the Smart Cars. Mine is the sedan. I considered the hatchback, but I am used to a four-door car and I wanted to stay with that.

Yes, gas is up again. I had to fill up last week in Morgan Hill and it was $3.05 for unleaded!

The headroom for your DH is a must!! Impressive, for such a compact design.

The color sounds really neat!

Say hi to DH for me....and go Giants!! (had to say it.)

This was one I had never seen before until this morning, a Mercury Mariner SUV Hybrid.

Looked more like the traditional, roomy SUV's that are sort of gas guzzlers.

Oh, and my dad bought a Camry in a Cars for Clunker deal. He traded in a Jeep Commanche truck that was over 20 years old. The weird thing is, had it been a four-cylinder, it wouldn't have qualified as a "clunker." Thank goodness it was a six cylinder.

Nissan Cube is cute, cute cute.

You can buy at Nissan Versa for $5,500 after Cash for Clunker rebate. Amazing prices!

This is a little off topic, but I thought it was funny: I was watching Top Gear, the great car show on BBC America. They were talking about how all these celebrities are buying the Prius so they can be seen as environmentally responsible, yet many of them have other cars. Apparently Prince Charles publicly said he bought a Prius, he was being responsible, yada yada, but he has seven Range Rovers! My friend calls the Prius a "Pious."

Since they are made by Toyota, they also come in the color of my car. One of my neighbors has one in the same color as my car, Flint Mica.

I have to say I like the new body shape better than the older ones, and I'm seeing the newer ones EVERYWHERE. A friend of mine who knows a lot about cars strongly recommends not buying one because he says you are going to have to recycle the battery after about five years. Has anyone else heard of this? (No offense to any Prius owners!)

^^ Yes, I have heard about the battery "life" situation.

You definitely have to know that going in. That's why I think it's actually better to buy a new hybrid, than a used one, unless you can find one that hasn't been driven that much.

The batteries are a huge part of the hybrid, and not like the conventional car batteries we've come to know, so replacement is in the thousands of dollars, so I'm told.

Also read that Honda discontinued offering the hybrid version of the Accord. I think the car was too heavy and wasn't competing well with others in the category.

I'm looking at the Insight right now.

Has anyone else heard that the money in the "Cars for Clunkers" program is supposed to be reported as income?

My dad said he knew that when he got his new Camry, but I hadn't heard that before.

I missed out on Cash for Clunkers but just got a new Prius- mainly for the gas mileage. The battery is guaranteed for 7 years or 100,000 miles. The engine is guaranteed for as long as I own the car. I absolutely LOVE it! It is a quiet and smooth ride with enough power when I need it, I am getting 50 to 52 mpg. Gotta love that!