Welcome -- and I hope no one was hurt in the accident. What is the "usual" price? It's only been recently that many people quit paying sticker price or higher for the car. Your handle ("organic_smallhome") indicates that you're willing to pay more for something you perceive as "greener" (that's not a slam, BTW; I do that, too). But what are your goals in buying a Prius? Lowest possible tailpipe emissions or carbon footprint? Fuel economy? Something else? Are you planning to drive the car into the ground or hold onto it for several years before trading for the next advance in "green" technology? Fact of the matter is that you can get a better deal than a Prius for a lot less money. If you're after fuel economy and interior room, you could buy one of the larger GM models (Chevy Impala, Buick LaCrosse) and get an honest close-to-30 mpg highway (hybrids are notorious for not hitting their EPA numbers) in a car that's cheap to insure and fix. If you're after pure mileage, you could go for a Honda Civic (which is now the size of the "old" Accord) or Fit, or the Toyota Yaris or Corolla and get 85-90% of the mileage of a Prius without the purchase price and the expensive maintenance. If you're really concerned about the carbon footprint, you'll go for the Civic or Corolla (both manufactured in North America) or -- even better -- a good-quality used version of either. Keep in mind that the Prius contains two drive systems (electrical and gasoline-powered) and lots of complicated electronics to make everything work. To Toyota's credit, it works well and Toyota has effectively mass-marketed a new technology without much of a hitch. (I know, Honda was first with its Insight, but it didn't sell like the Prius has.) However, most aftermarket service facilities and parts vendors don't yet see enough of a market to invest in equipment almost exclusively for the Prius, so you will be back to the dealer (at dealer labor rates) for all but the most routine parts and maintenance. And the battery pack is still a huge question mark -- how long will it last in real life? How much will it cost to replace? What will a Prius be worth without a good battery pack? In addition to the extra money it costs for all the pieces-parts, you're gambling some money on future repairability and resale value. Hope that helps....

joepiccaso53, I think the primary reason is cost, I haven't seen any literature to suggest that aluminum is any more efficient than that of a copper coil: like specifying exactly the difference in efficiency from Coil A that is copper versus Coil B that is aluminum and that is the only difference from one coil to another. I do have literature that says just configuration of the equipment can have a mild impact on efficiency. But only mild meaning like 1% more or less efficient than some other configuration. So not enough to make it ecconomically viable to only do it one specific way. Like vertical only installs vs horizontal only. I have had plans to revisit and remake that video to show further what I believe to be the problem as I have cut the ends of the coils to reveal the tubes that have an uneven surface roughed up if you will with what looks like to be the edge of a file on the inside of the tubes that run thru the evaporator coil. So with all these peaks and valleys inside the tube of the coil the part that seals the tube in a multitude of places is very thin amount of metal. From that perspective it's not hard to imagine where the leaks are forming when the coil indicates leaks inside the fin pack area of the coil and not at the ends of the coil where they are typically chemically sealed in the case of all aluminum coils. This (the roughed up inner tube area) is essentially I believe to create more surface area, causes the refrigerant to tumble thru the coil absorbing more heat from return air blowing across said Evap coil. They were doing this sort of thing with copper coils prior to switching to aluminum. What difference does it make if failure is a given anyway? I mean you can argue copper failed incredibly easy and copper costs more etc. If the coil has a leak it's not going to operate efficiently anyway. Also they used aluminum back in the 80's for evaporator coils I just don't have any video to show that. Often the failure with those was the connection point from aluminum to copper was merely a compression type connection which would fail and no good way to fix it (meaning it wouldn't leak refrigerant) -- refrigerant was much cheaper then like incredibly cheap. The technology to meld the two metals together copper line set to all aluminum coil is leaps and bounds better than the 1980's variety, but the aluminum coils just fail elsewhere. If I had discovered some coil or some method to avoid failure wouldn't that be something to hang your hat on? If you look to that video I posted: I literally show you that aluminum coil failed all along the bottom of that coil. It's an upflow coil. Meaning the condensate waste water it creates is all along the bottom of that coil. Why are these clues important? I believe they show why there is failure and why there will always be failure. That condensate water the coil creates is what is doing it at least in this particular example. Refrigerant leaks can happen due to other reasons besides as I also demonstrated in the video.

Gayle0000 .. that map is beautiful! What a wonderful find for you. Allison0704 .. thank so much for listing those wonderful maps. They make me appreciate the price on this map even more. After swim practice, one of my girlfriends offered for the girls to stay at the pool with her girls ( our girls are best friends ) so I could run back. I picked up the map, the lamps and I also found a painting I liked in the 60% off room. Th guy that owns the place come down to $55 for the map, $50 for the lamps and the painting wasn't supposed to be in the marked down room, but he honored it since someone there had tagged it wrong. So I got the painting for $20! Here's the map .. it has more yellow on it than I remembered, but I still love it. There is also no orange, that's red and it reads red in real life, my camera didn't pick up the accurate color for some reason. Key : Side top : Other side top : Side bottom : The painting, didn't think it was too bad for $20: It's of a cottage .. Close up : The lamps .. I just threw this stuff up here, this is not the final resting spot for the lamps or painting :

I saw this and since it is a very good deal, I thought I would share if anyone is thinking about getting a Kindle Paperwhite. I think all versions are on sale; this one is on sale today for $70.99 and bonus it's waterproof. Mine is several years old, and works fine so I am not in the market but I thought this was a good price and worthy of sharing. I hope someone can take advantage. I suspect links won't work but if you just google Kindle Paperwhite it should work. Waterproof Kindle Paperwhite