At the moment, that red Prius is my car, and I get to help give one away very much like it.
It’s part of the Prius Challenge, a promotion from the Valley Toyota Dealers to showcase the new models of the Prius. They selected nine bloggers and gave each of us a car to drive around from now to the end of September. They also managed to take the single goofiest picture of my hair ever for the group shot, and that’s saying something if you’ve ever seen my hair.
I’ve seen promotions like this in Phoenix before as part of the national Ford Fiesta promotion, but this is the first time I’ve seen it done just by local dealers. It’s been interesting watching it come together, and I have no idea how I made the cut. They even gave me the only red car in the mix, now dubbed the “Cherry Bomb”. Everyone else got white or silver.
Since I’m here, I plan on having some fun. I’ll be talking about the usual stuff like gas mileage, how it handles, and so on, but I also want to do some odd stuff. They gave us a GoPro camera and I’ve already annoyed the hell out of my wife recording with it. (Side note: Dogs do NOT like having a camera attached to them)
They nixed a few of my ideas already, like seeing how fast their Theft Recovery System can find the car if I let it get stolen, but I’m sure I can come up with ideas with less of a cash impact. I haven’t had a new car in nine years, so I’m having fun just seeing how things have changed in that time for new cars. I’m already planning some tours around Arizona, including Phoenix-area tours to educate a fellow teammate on better coffee options than Starbucks. Also a northern Arizona tour, and a trip out to Globe, and maybe some of the state’s bizarre Roadside Attractions.
The coolest part is that at the end of the Prius Challenge they’ll be giving away a Prius c to someone to keep. I really, really want this to be someone I know.
How to win a new Prius c
You can enter at PriusChallengeAZ.com (which redirects to their Facebook app). You can enter up to 14 times, if you submit pictures of yourself with a Prius or at a dealership.
I’ll be all over the place in this car, and not only want to help people get their Prius pictures in, but hope to help submit the most unusual Prius pictures they get. So if you see me somewhere, let’s get jiggy with my Prius!
How to play along
I made a background page with a little more information and links to the rest of the team. You can also read all of my Prius Challenge blog posts, and follow the hashtag #PriusChallengeAZ to see what everyone else is up to.
If you have ideas of something I should do, questions you want me to ask my Toyota overlords, or places I should drive this car let me know!