Jason's Retro Space

My first car was a 2000 Honda Civic EX coupe in metallic green. It was purchased new as a lease deal in my senior year of high school. It was sort of sporty with a CD player and a sunroof, although it was an automatic. And I have to confess, every car I’ve ever owned has been an automatic, though I feel I have the ability to drive a manual car. That Honda lasted me through college and then some as I struggled to figure out my life. Thankfully it was an economical car that got 30 mpg no matter how you drove. I remember the air conditioning blowing up in the middle of a hot summer in the late 2000s. This is in California for reference. The car didn’t have enough value to warrant replacing the air conditioning unit. I didn’t even have to take it to a mechanic to figure that out. So it drove for a little while after until I got into an accident, thankfully only at 25 to 30 mph which totalled the car and probably also the roughly same age Toyota Corolla which hit me.

My next car which I gladly selected was a used 2010 Kia Forte with only about 30,000 miles on it. It served me well for a few years, but didn’t feel as sporty as the Civic. It was more practical with 4 doors instead of the 2 on the Civic. It had about 140 hp which felt slightly more than the previous 127 of my previous car, but it didn’t steer quite as well and didn’t have that signature VTEC growl at high rpms. I held it for a few years, but my eyes wandered and I wanted a slightly better car, yet still a KIA. So I purchased a 2015 Kia Optima in about 2017 with only 11,000 miles. It was quite a powerful car, but also larger as in the size of a family sedan. I had a fun time going full throttle with 200 horsepower. It was quite a good car and the power was surprising from a 4 cylinder. There was a problem though, as the KIA engines were known to have major engine failures at random times, which could actually set the car on fire.

After risking my life for a few years driving a car that could potentially engulf me in flames at any moment, I decided to trade in the car for something slightly larger. A 2021 Honda CRV which I purchased new as a lease deal. It only had a 1.5 liter 4 cylinder engine, which is surprisingly small for the size of the car. It was turbocharged, however, which made this my first ever turbocharged car. It was fun once the turbo spooled up, but was a little sluggish off the line. It was also very economical, getting better gas mileage than my first car, as long as it was driven responsibly.

So now we finally get to present day. I have traded in the Honda CRV for wait for it … a Toyota Prius! Okay, it’s not known to be a sporty car, but it does rival my first ever car and can actually be more powerful. The exact car is as pictured for this article, the 2019 Prius Prime. Why is it important to distinguish it as a Prime, rather than a standard Prius? Because it has a larger lithium ion battery pack that allows driving in full EV mode, or to give more power in the traditional Hybrid mode. My first ever experience with a Prius came probably around 2001 or so, which I can hardly remember. It was the first generation and had a cool display that showed the power transfer from engine to battery, to electric motor and so on. I remember it being very slow though and probably the furthest thing from a performance car you could think of. So this is probably why it took me so long to adopt the hybrid life. The reputation of a hybrid to me was a slow economy car that cost quite a bit more than something much more appealing. Well now I have come around, and so have the hybrid cars. They are much more sporty than they were in their first few generations. Most people think of them as taxi cabs and for hippies that don’t have anywhere to be in a particular hurry. That perception is now gone, but the adoption has slowed down.

I may be very late to the party, but at least I’m here now. I can’t wait to be part of the hybrid club and be initiated. Something is quite exciting about hitting the gas pedal and hearing that electric motor spool up and thrust you forward instead of hearing the noisy combustion engine get you up to speed. So now I may be in trouble if I get too enthralled with the electric only power, since I just now purchased the hybrid. I have had my eyes on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 ever since they hit the streets. There’s something about the look that is retro-futuristic which tickles my brain in the right way. The ideal time to buy one has passed since the California rebate on electric cars has passed since last September. At least for now I can enjoy my new Prius and enjoy that pure electric power for short periods of time. The positive thing is the car doesn’t even need to be plugged in to build up the juice for pure EV driving, as long as you don’t mind burning some gas in charge mode which is best done while driving on the highway. You still get roughly the same gas mileage as a regular economy car such as a standard Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla while highway driving in charge mode.

I will provide updates in the future, once I do some more driving in my new to me Prius Prime.