Ok so it isn't a baby and doesn't compare to one, but interestingly, I ordered it on the Annunciation, it was first promised on Christmas exactly nine months later, and it was delivered on the Feast of Holy Innocents.
It's my new Toyota Prius hybrid gas-electric car. I love it. It's beautiful!
The Prius has both an electric motor and a gas engine. You don't plug it in; it powers the motor from a battery which is recharged by the gas engine. When you "start" the car, it doesn't really do anything; the engine does not start. The engine is only used when it needs more power than the electric motor can provide (about 42 mph or more or going up hills). The engine cuts off at stoplights and when you're idle.
Great things about having a Prius:
I can back into my garage and have the door on the right side. (Because it is running on the motor at this point, I don't have to worry about filling the garage with carbon monoxide.)
I can turn the car on and move it without opening the garage door.
When I forget something after I've started the car to leave, I don't
have to turn it off or move it. (My old car generated a cloud of noxious fumes when I did this.)
I can sniff deeply the exhaust fumes when it is idle.
No more futzing with keys to start the car or get in (cool "smart entry and start" feature; you get a wireless key fob which you can keep in your pocket, and the doors will magically unlock before you and you can start the car without removing them from your pocket).
The current wait for these things is around 18 months. MSRP is around $21k; I paid around $23k with all my options.
It had 5 miles on it when I got it. Current MPG is 40 (it's got a cool readout that tells you what your running MPG is), but there is a 1000 mi break-in period, it's lower in the cold, and the tires needed to be pumped up.
I actually think God decided to bless me for choosing this car over a more powerful car, because I definitely wanted a powerful car and could have afforded one. (This is not a tremendously powerful car; it seemed to do as well as my ten-year-old Toyota but nominally it has less horsepower.) I think God honored the fact that I choose fuel efficiency over power. I'm going to trust in him that he'll take care of all of my merges for me (which is why I wanted the power in the first place). I think he'll do that.
