As you maybe know I am driving a Toyota Prius from 2007, which is quite seldom in Germany. Germans prefer old looking (always the same) but powerful cars and give a sh...t about fuel consumption. They say. Well, some of us live like this, yes. But we can learn and in the last years reasonable, economically cars are getting more on our streets.
I am very engaged in eco cars such as hybrids and pure electric cars. I run a forum for them for five years now (same emount of time I have my Prius), I did have a blog for this, and I write reviews of these cars. Yesterday I bought a new one...
It's a Lexus CT 200h Luxury Line with leather, LED headlamps, Mark Levinson 7.1 Premium Surround, Navigation, and other nice stuff. I will get a set with winter tires on 16 inch and new summer tires on 17 inch wheels. The car is from 2013 and was used by Lexus in Brussels. Second owner was the female boss from the dealer I bought it. It has some scratches, but they will be fixed for me. I am sooo happy I must share this, knowing that a Lexus is well known in the states (here in Germany nobody knows what this is). :D
Hi jorin and congrats for your choice.
I am also a fan of Japanese cars. I love the Lexus brand and I am agree that in Europe is not a popular brand. Too bad because Lexus, the luxury brand Toyota is one of the most reliable in the world.
I drive a Toyota celica with some modifications and guess what we also bought a car yesterday. As some of you know I became father a few moths ago so a bigger car was needed. The budget was low so we choosed a station wagon car (kombi in Germany), a Skoda Octavia. It was a good occasion
Congrats again for your choice and don't forget to offer us a drink :)
Congratulations too! :) We think about an Octavia for my girlfriend in two or three years. :D
I can offer some pictures when I have it here and some drinks via air mail. ;)
I love the Celica. Which one is it?
The octavia I bought is for my wife, we changed her seat ibiza because was too small.
My celica is from 2002, T23 model. You can browse this topic for some pictures http://www.sharkracingclub.it/index.php?topic=60.0
P. S. As you can see I lost some images on imageshack, so my advice for everybody: do not use it ;)
Nice choice! :D
Lexus are indeed great cars.
Since a couple of years I drive an hybrid Auris and it's wonderful! (And brings back the fuel expenses to the level of... years and years ago, before the euro in fact. I don't remember last time I spent 50 euro to do 600+ km.)
Wow, Toyota Celica was the car of my dreams (when I was playing NFS Underground 2 :D). I've a German car as well - Opel Vectra 1.9 CDTI. Love the engine in this car, but half of the car got replaced (not very reliable).
Congratulations and take some pictures.
I also played NFS 2, but rx7 was my favourite :)
If I'm not wrong the cdti engine is from Fiat
I think you're right, a Fiat one.
Now here they are. One of them shows my previous Toyota Prius 2 next to my new Lexus CT 200h.
Very, very nice car!
It is! And it is so much fun to drive! Very sporty even with only 205/50 R17, allows high speed in curves, and gets a boost from the electric motor. It's limited in max speed, and it is not a race car, but it is so much fun to push it into the curves. ;D
And I do love the dahsboard. :)
lol :D
Just like a new version of CR-V, HR-V.
Ehm... Nope. If you mean the Honda, that's kind of a SUV. The Lexus is not. It is a compact car just as a Volkswagen Golf, but with a much nicer back. ;)
HR-V is a car to me while CR-V is not though they are both categorized as SUV. The latest BR-V is coming soon with the same designed as HR-V but smaller and this one is definitely a car. Sorry to compare it with Honda, but I am a Honda fan who own two CR-Vs. ;)
No problem. I like Honda too, but the Honda Civic for example is much to unefficient in city traffic (more then 9 liters per 100 kilometers, while the Lexus needs only around 5 liters) and it seems Honda pulls back from the german car market: the Accord is not available any more, and with hybrids the Jazz Hybrid is not sold any more, the CR-Z too. :(
Agreed to that fact. Honda consumed too much in city traffic especially for auto transmission even with constant maintenance for it. Germany's cars are the best so far but very expensive in our country due to insane tax policy for cars. Sighed... I hope I can get a hold to a Lexus too.
In Germany they are expensive too. The maintenance of these cars is much more expensive then the maintenance of an asian car for example. And they are not as reliable as they should be. Especially Volkswagen has a lot of problems with their transmissions and motors.
I don't know why Volkswagen is soo popular here. Must be the propaganda and because germans always buy things they had bought before. It's tradition. ;)
VW cars are popular and known as relible cars since the 4th generation of Golf. That car was and maybe is the most reliable car that VW made. Same for the Passat made in 2003. Now things have changed.
There are 4-5 years since Lexus are the most reliable in the stats made in USA, but this year Honda is the brand with less problems on their cars.
You'd love my RX-8 231 haha :D
Congrats @jorin
I really do! Has a great design, but a thirsty engine. ;) Wankelmotor, like our old NSU Ro 80. Needs a lot of RPM, right?
Thanks! :)
That's a very nice car, congrats ;)
Yeah, red-lines at 10,000. Gets through about 12 litres per 100 km of premium fuel though.
Had to cancel the contract and return the car to the dealer after 9 months. The car had a big crash in the back. The hatchback was from another car and not the original one. Some parts under the rear bumper were deformed. I was not informed about this state the car was in, I bought it as "crash free". I could have lived with it, if not some issues appeared:
- The car made a strange noise when driving it between 70 and 100 km/h and holding the gas. I am experienced with Toyota's and Lexus' hybrid power train and never drove a car with such a behaviour.
- Parts of the body rubbed against each other so the paint was weakened at these spots.
So in March I bought a new Toyota Prius instead and I am very happy with it!
Oh, and I am a married husband now! :D
That new Prius looks pretty nice!
Much better than the previous ones! :D
Life can hit hard at times. :P
Thats a very nice looking Prius you got your wife O:-)
Congrats on both :)
Doesn't she look pretty in her white wedding dress? lol
Congrats on the new "boss"! lol. May you have many happy years together.
Interesting you can return the car after that period. How long do you have to do that?
Thanks and sorry, don't understand your question. :-[
Otherwise said: may you live in interesting times. (cit.) xD
Did they refund you or replace the car?
You mentioned canceling the contract on the car. So you can take it back to them? Sorry, I'm probably not explaining it very well.
Yes, the car did go back to the dealer and I got my money back. I had to pay a bit for using the car though.
In germany when you are not informed about a crash a car had and/or the dealer doesn't inform you about the crash, you have a year to inform the dealer about this situation and to make a deal. It can be a repair or a cancellation of the contract. In my case the car can't be repaired without to much costs and I had bad feelings about the noises. So he took the car back and I got my money back.
This cases can be very bad for the dealer: Imagine the image he gets in public if anyone knows he is selling cars as "crash free" when they are not. So he will do mostly anything to satisfy the buyer and NOT to go to court.
Then I bought the Prius from another dealer. ;)
Congratulations! Love that new prius too. Is it brand new?
Glad you solved it in the best way ;) Sometimes forums can be very useful, I also had some problems when I bought my skoda, then I mentioned my skoda forum and the seller became very very interested to solve quickly the problem. Too bad I cannot speak in public about the problems I had, I signed a document fot that :(
The Prius is a nice car, probably not a car for me and my tastes, but the fuel consumption and the reliability of Toyota brand makes envy every driver. I still drive a toyota celica t23, and in almost 250.000 km I can say it's the most reliable car I had, almost zero problems but a lot of maintenance ;)
Agreed. Properly maintained car is the most reliable one. ;)
Yeah. Costs me more then the (used bought) Lexus, but after this experience I wanted a car without worries. O:-)
That's a plus! I am kind of a VIP for Toyota in Cologne, that helps too. ;)
I totally understand! ;) Love it or hate it. I had a Prius second generation for 5 years, my Dad drove a Prius third gen as his last car (sadly not longer than 9 months). So this is the third Prius I am in contact with and yes, I love the Priusses for many reasons.