Let's Talk About The Prius C

We were in the same situation as you. I have a 2011 Liftback and love it. My wife traded her 2012 Ford Focus Titanium in for a 2013 "C" She's had it almost 2 months and loves it.

I'm a hypermiler as well, and as for fuel economy, she's got me beat. The 500 pounds less weight is a plus. However the traction battery is smaller, and will need more frequent charging, but that point is minimal. The EV Mode doesn't work quite as good as the liftback. I use EV when starting off a light to get up to speed, and disable when I hit the limit in my car, but it seems to disengage at a much slower speed on the "C"

Overall, it's a great purchase, and I'd recommend it. Just don't expect it to be exactly the same. Yes it's a Prius, but it'[s not identical. But even with those changes, you can still get more MPG out of the "C"

Good luck with your purchase.

 

Hope you're not tall, cause for me at 6'2", the sit and fit in Prius c was an awful experience. The seat is not bad, but the steering wheel placement is horrible: It doesn't tilt down nearly enough so it ends up pointing sort of at my face. I hate the Yaris and Prius c dr. seating. I like Honda Fit much better.

 

I went through a similar experience as well, I have a 2012 liftback and my girlfriend got a 2013 C. I concur with Fluxuated on everything he said. Although I will add that for me the base model C's seats aren't working, I find them uncomfortable. That being said, mileage is great and in my experience while being a passenger I thought the C's handling was more responsive/nervous. All in all, price wise I think the C is a great addition to a liftback in the driveway!

 

I thought that one is supposed to avoid EV (in a standard Prius) for best mileage. The comments are usually "while it may be counter intuitive, using the battery is less efficient because of the conversion losses involved in charging and discharging the battery". And the car already determines the best use of the battery on accelerating from a stop while it gets the ICE up to speed for running.

When I'm on longer trips and saving EV miles for future use (so I'm in HV mode) I generally give the accelerator a moderate push to get up to speed from a stop and the ICE comes on right away as determined by the computer.

 

My daughter got one about a month ago and loves it. She does mostly city driving, has a short commute to work, and gets great mileage. Her last car was a Fit, and she like the C better.

 

Love our Prius C, but the standard IMO is still more aerodynamic. Just took a 625 mile trip, I've taken the same trip in my Prius, it has a better ability to coast/glide than the Prius C, unless I have to get use to driving it. But it seems the regular Prius is a breeze to get it to coast. Don't get me wrong. we love our Prius C and its an amazing addition to our household.

 

[quote="Fluxuated, post: 186]
I use EV when starting off a light to get up to speed, and disable when I hit the limit in my car
[/quote]

No wonder your wife beats you while driving normally. Dude, using EV costs you MPG.

 

Very welcome.... Glad I could provide some useful info.... Also Prius C 1 has no cruise control.. something I thought we could live without but after a long road trip, it would've come in handy.

 

How do you figure? In a small number of circumstances perhaps, 95% of the time, I disagree. Your telling me that If I EV off a light to get up to speed, then run the ICE I'll have lost MPG?? That logic is flawed.

 

Two reasons:
1) Maximizing EV use is less efficient because the ICE has to recharge the battery and the conversion losses in the charge and discharge cycle are simply paid for by using more gas.
2) EV is more efficient constant at slow speeds in the 15 to 25 mph range or when going down a gentle slope which is why the car computer often chooses EV in those conditions.

 

The car rarely chooses ev for me. Nearly all of the time I choose when to ev by letting off the pedal whenever under 45 mph. Careful use of ev in traffic situations easily nets me 80+ mpg. Impossible to do with the ice alone. There's a lot of "free" energy to be use in ev mode from regenerative breaking which happens a lot in city driving so imho its wise to take advantage of it.

 

1) If I use EV to start from a stop when the ICE will be used anyways, this point is moot, as the ICE will recharge what I use, otherwise If I use the ICE right off the light, I'll use more gas in that case anyways. Might as well take advantage of some EV time.

2) Agreed. By Selecting EV mode, I'm keeping the ICE from kicking in at a higher throttle setting, that's all. The ICE will be running anyways after that, but for less time, resulting in higher MPG.