Prius!

Yesterday at about 11:30 AM, I left Prestige Toyota of Kingston with my brand new Prius. And then at about 2:00 PM, I was parked in their service garage with a check engine light and a rough-running gas engine. Needless to say, my enthusiasm was somewhat lessened at this point. Had an amusing conversation with the guy that checked the car in, though:

Him: Hi, can I get your last name, please?
Me: Gagnon
Him: Okay and how many miles on your Prius?
Me: Fifty-two point five.
Him: Really?
Me: Yea.
Him: That's crazy.
Me: Yea.


Fortunately everything after that was good news. They got it on the lift right away and within maybe 15 minutes the Service Manager was out to deliver the verdict. This was another sort of amusing conversation:

Him: Okay don't worry you're gonna smile.
Me: I hope so. What's up?
Him: You've got an O2 sensor that's not sending any data. I ordered a part and it should be in by Tuesday.
Me: I thought you said I was going to smile.

He was right though, because the rest of the news was that the car was fine to drive if I didn't mind it not running perfectly. Apparently my gas mileage will suffer a little (down to 40 the horror!) but it's not damaging to the car. That was a big relief. Now I won't gush about the features because everyone can look those up on the Toyota site if they really care but I'll just say that the smart key thing is really cool. Getting in your car, driving somewhere, and then locking it when you get there without ever touching a key is totally awesome.