Looking For a Low Mileage Used Prius?

Hundreds of 5-year-old municipal vehicles found in Miami that were never used

Have you ever bought a brand new cars only to forget where you put it? How about 300 of them? Probably not – unless you're Miami-Dade County, which was recently reunited with 298 vehicles it bought brand new between 2006 and 2007.

No, but I lost a $20 bill in a jacket pocket once, and found it a year later!  Boy, was I ever excited!

The county "discovered" this fleet of no-mileage vehicles after reading about them in a Spanish-language newspaper there (see the source for more images). Most of the misplaced motorcade is made up of Toyota Prius hybrids whose warranties either expired with very few miles on the odo or will very soon.

I wonder how the batteries on the Priuses (Prii? - what the hell is the plural of Prius anyway?) tolerate not being charged for 5-6 years.  I know my Mom's went dead sitting in an airport for a week (only the 12 V starting battery. It's a big deal when a Prius nickel metal hydride main batteries go dead.

... The county, as you probably guessed, is looking into how it lost so many cars. The leading theory is that they might be part of Carlos Alvarez's time as mayor. He was the mayor during the period the Toyotas were purchased, but a 2011 recall election successfully removed him from office. Apparently the voters "felt, among other reasons, that he had been behind multiple acts of misappropriation of funds."

As Glen Reynolds (The Instapundit) says:

But remember — if you complain about government or taxes, it’s because you hate teh children.

You can't necessarily assume that all governments are as screwed up as Miami-Dade (apologies to Horatio Cane), but you may safely assume they are not likely to spend your money as carefully as you will.