shoot, you can still hop off an AC Transit bus in Berkeley and still get dirty looks from the hippies on Telegraph.

Glad to hear the Civic is working out for you, Glen. My mom thinks she can get a used HSD Prius, i told her good luck as they are selling above FMV if she can find one. She drives 60-70 miles a day in a 15mpg Nissan Quest, it's on par with a friggin Hummer H2...

 

Hey Navi,
well the prices out here are outrageous. You might be able to get better pricing outside of the metro Bay Area. A friend of mine got a better deal on his Prius out in San Ramon.

All I know is I saw a used 2004 Civic Hybrid selling at my dealer for $22k.

I should go back and see if it sold yet.

 

There's no denying the price difference will buy a lot of gas, but if we are going to set aside other benefits to ecology and the community like cleaner emissions, fuel conservation, not to mention increased family time and quality of life. If all you are looking at is operating expenses for the ownership period of the car, then to be fair you'll need to factor in getting some of that money back due to the higher re-sale value.

I don't think anyone can say with any certainty how much resale value will be. Depending on how gas prices and other world events affect our economy, the re-sale value could be drastically affected.

My local dealer is selling a used 2004 Civic hybrid for 22k. Pretty crazy, but that's what supply and demand will do right now in my area.

 

Curious, you northern Cali folks with the sticker, does that mean you get to go across the bridge without paying hence driving through the carpool tool booth?

 

You would think , but no. We get the single driver car pool priviledge, but we still have to pay when we cross the bridges.

So they make us apply for the fastrak since the car pool lanes are also fasttrak, so it allows us to use the lanes, but I guess they didn't want us to go free.

Stupid part is we don't use the bridges for our commute, so it's just another thing we have to stick in the car.

I hate all the stickers, now we have to have the transponder on the glass too !

 

But whoa whoa wait so your forced to pay for the fastrack if you want the sticker and how much is that? So basically your paying for the sticker...?

 

I was considering a Prius but opted for The Rav4L because I needed 4 wheel drive for the winter. The Prius is a very economical vehicle that will save $$ in the long run, and now you get a tax break on your income tax for having a hybrid vehicle. It is a good buy.

 

So you have to display the fasttrack transponder? Is that how CHP determines if you are OK? Is the sticker on the transponder? I only pull it out when I cross the bridge.

 

yeah i would only pull out the fast track when i am across the bridge. otherwise i would just have those stickers on the rear bumpers. there is no way and no reason for the chp to use the fast track device on your front winshield to determine whether you are eligible coz'

1) it's too hard for them to see the front of the car
2) tons of other cars have the fasttrck device
3) what if i am from socal? they don't require fast track

that's also why if i get the prius, i will register it in LA (all my other cars are registered up here). paying 8 bucks for the carpool stickers is a brilliant idea. but paying so much extra for fast track which i never use is completely stupid

 

This is all very interesting, the one thing I want to know is who designed these stickers, they have to be the ugliest things, they could at the least be conservative diamonds that are more permit like and not so fun stick'em looking.

 

it is not really, while parts of the engine shut off while coasting, 20hp electric engine cant move it... There is better explanation somewhere...

 

well, imho they want something distinctive enough so chp can spot easy. so it has to be "sharp" in terms of color and shape. i guess they succeeded...

 

I don't see why they just don't issue liscense plates with car pool allocation just like they do handicap. This would be way more logical and they would be easier to identify a certain style of plate. I'll bet you anything the DMV didn't want to lose $$ on people who wanted to pay for custom plates but now needed hybrid plates too.

There's not much stopping people from putting these sticker on other vehicles if they manage to get them. I actually see a lot of hybrids without the stickers. I suppose there are many who do not need the car pool lane. So if people ask buddies with hybrids to get the stickers for them, then just pay to get them for their SUV, they might get away with it.

I haven't seen these stickers close up to know if they have serial numbers on them. If not, then there would be no traceabiility as to who originally ordered the stickers.

I'm going to cut out a piece of xpel to place the sticker on top of it. This way i could remove them easier for whatever reason. . Who know's, one day there might actually be someone at the DMV smart enough to change to special plates instead of stickers.

 

you have asked all the questions i had before glen. what is keeping people from doing a fake stickers, i have asked myself that question a lot of times. to be honest, if i drive a prius i can probably get a fake one pretty easy. but then agian for 8 bucks i won't take that risk.

i don't understand why they don't do it together with the licence plate too, it would be a lot more logical and also more secured too. but hey, we are dealing with dmv here, i hate to say but i have never liked that place to begin with, a lot of times they do things that don't make sense...

about putting the stickers on other cars. right now there are only a few different cars that can have the stickers. i would think chp would be smart enough to tell. i don't think a h2 can get away with it

 

My mom was at Honda of Oakland looking at the Accord Hybrid and the Civic Hybrid, i think Oakland wanted $19K for the Civic, and $33K for the Accord. I saw a 2003 Prius selling in Walnut Creek a month or two ago for $22K. Jeez, these things are like iPods, in HIGH demand...