Tokyo Jim’s 生活

After driving my Mazda RX-7 for over 15 years, I have dumped it in favor of a new Toyota Prius. I have felt quite guilty for many years for having driven a car that got such bad gas mileage, and I am atoning for my sin with the Prius, a hybrid Electric/Gasoline powered vehicle.

Besides the super-low emissions and hybrid powertrain, the coolest feature of my new car is the GPS/DVD navigation system. After playing with a friend’s such system for so long, I just had to spend the extra money and get it.

I just have to be careful that driving such a fun car doesn’t make me drive more, thus cancelling any positive effects. I still promise to take public transportation whenever possible.

For the people on the Toyota Prius group on Yahoo, I have put up some scans of the Japanese Toyota Prius brochure and the Japanese Accessories catalog for the car. (Higher quality JPEGs are here.) They sure offer many more options back in the car’s homeland, and next time I’m there I think I’ll pick up a few.

I should also mention the great woman who sold me the car. Dianne and her crew were so nice and accommodating, not to mention selling me the car for over $1800 cheaper than any dealer here in San Diego. I never even had to go to the dealership. They drove the car and met me at the Irvine train station, while I came up on Amtrak. I gave them the money; they gave me the car; and we were both happy.