Hesitating between a Prius v and a VW TDI Wagon

You need an extended test drive that allows you to test it at highway speeds and to get a good feel of the driving experience. Find a dealer that will let you do that.

 

get the tdi, the world could use a little more pollution.

 

Definitely find a dealer who lets you open up on a highway.

You'll know right away if you like it or not. The feel will still be "dull", if you're the type who likes a hard down shift from accelerating. But the speedometer will inform you that the Prius did indeed speed up as requested.

Of course, most of us enjoy the quiet of city/suburb driving... something you certainly won't get from a TDI with the windows open, an aspect often overlooked when test driving in the winter.
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No.

Kind of.

Diesel costs more here and VW reliability is lower. I wouldn't touch one myself. YMMV

 

I've had the TDI. It may be a little more fun to drive, but it is the most unreliable and expensive car I've ever had. I won't be doing that again. I'm trying to sell it now to buy a Prius V.

 

I've driven both.

The TDI is without a doubt the better car to drive...on the freeway or off.
Not even close.

However (Comma!!!) The Prius is without a doubt, the better car to own.
Not even close.

The Toyota dealership network is more extensive down here, and I suspect that the same may be true for our good neighbors to the North. Here's why that might be important for you.....
Talk to a few TDI drivers, and you'll find one in every group who has either had to wait for an extended period of time for daswidget to get their car back on the road, or.....they've had to sign a repair bill with a comma in it (period for those in the EU.)
Not fun.

A friend of mine back home owned his own import car repair shop. While I was visiting, he gave a TDI owner the bill ($US 1,400) She didn't freak out only because the dealership guestimate was well north of that.
When she asked (in tears) why they were so expensive to repair, he said:
"All that money that you saved in gas over the last year and a half? Volkwagen wants it back!"
Another friend of mine used to brag about how his fuel economy saved him soooooo much money when he drove in for monthly (Reservist) drill weekends (600 mile trip.)
Until.....his car left him stranded one weekend with three fellow commuters and a hotel bill to complement his USD $1,100 repair bill.


Your call......but I can't afford one myself.

Best of luck with your decision!!!
Please let us know if it's heads or tails...

 

i'd be willing to bet money that it's a lot more fun to drive that VW than the prius. I've only had my prius a short time but so far the gas milage has been between 49-53 mpg. 53 when i drive slowly, and 49 when i drive normally. I commute 72 miles and also tote kids all over. My first tank got me 556.2 miles. I did NOT buy the prius for sport driving, so i'm 100% satisfied becuase it fulfills the reasons i DID buy it, safety, reliablility, and fuel economy. it will accelerate quickly enough to safely merge on the highway, but i don't think it's intended to be challenging switchback mountain roads. although you could probably add suspension items and fake it. you should be clear about what you want to do with the vehicle and buy the right one. also, you should drive one that you can take out longer. ask the dealer for a used one you can mile up without guilt. good luck!

 

Drive responsibly (not saying you are not). Get a Prius v. You'll enjoy to drive again, differently.

 

I traded in an '09 Jetta TDI sedan for my Prius. One thing I can tell you is that the VW looks pretty zoomy on the back of a flatbed truck.
I drove TDI's for years, but the newer ones are having problems with the fuel and with no-start problems. It just wasn't worth it for me any more.

 

Having driven both, the TDI is in a different league for drivability, esp for the wagon which is based on the much nicer MKV platform.

In theory, the Toyota ownership experience should be better but it's going to be a YMMV type of situation.

Looking bad, I would've probably risked it and purchased a TDI since the reliability of my Prius has been nothing special and the build quality would have been better on the TDI.

 

What people say about diesel prices isn't true in most of Canada from my experience. In Winnipeg, diesel's usually slightly cheaper than unleaded, in lots of other places they're more or less the same price. There's been a fuel shortage this winter because of a refinery explosion so unfortunately diesel's been pricier than usual. I wouldn't use current fuel prices as an indicator for future prices, once production gets back to normal costs should hopefully come back down.

 

I would say, without knowing or driving a VW car, that depends on how you drive and also where you drive.

I know some people suggested diesel but in my area, which is the Santa Barbara/Ventura/Los Angeles Area, I don't know many of the Diesel gas stations, and very few in the Santa Barbara area. So I stuck closer to the Prius. While I could have also gone with other gas based cars, I wanted also long term so I went with Prius over some of the other cars for the better mpg.

 

Good luck with your decision.

I bought a Prius v January 31 from Carson Toyota after test driving it elsewhere. Does the engine whine while in power mode? Absolutely it whines like a stuck pig. Will the Prius V be more reliable than a TDI? I would imagine the Prius will be more reliable, Toyota didn't become number 1 (I think GM just regained the lead) for not being reliable. And VWs aren't the most reliable of cars, german engineered or not. Toyota's generally are reliable, if boring cars to drive. The TDI wagon I am sure is funner to drive than the Prius v, heck a lot of cars are funner to drive. My 84 MBZ Turbo Diesel is funner to drive than my Prius v. For me, the Prius is an EXCELLENT commuter car that gets crazy mileage. I am averaging 44MPG, which may or may not be accurate given the car has just 300 miles or so give or take. I drive it in ECO mode and put it in power mode just a few times on the 405 to see what it does, and it squeals like a stuck pig. DO I like the car? Absolutely I do. I can fit a 10 foot longboard INSIDE the car with the back seats down. Two 9ft boards can fit in, but my buddy will have to sit in the jump seat. Would I want a third row? NO. If you want a "driving" car, look elsewhere, but if you want a car that represents a bridge to the future, gets crazy MPGs, is just as utilitarian as that TDI wagon, and has a better resale value should you choose to get rid of it, the Prius v is the better car in MY OPINION.

 

Yo, Kinred-Earthbounds......


I bought a met. blue 2010 Prius 2 Month's ago with 5,450 miles on it on E-Bay Motors.

I took Amtrak to LA's Union Station to pick my baby up.

I saw around 12 yellow painted Prius taxi's at the station.

My salesman said his Company only sells Prius's and that the yellow cabs buy prius parts from them....and get this .........

He stated : " SEVERAL OF THE PRIUS YELLOW CABS HAVE OVER 300,000 MILES ON THEM. "

Wow ! .....good news on the Prius durability issue.

I added a strut bar over the motor that goes from strut to strut .....now the handling is super tight .....BMW like tight !
Jim

 

About the sound gas engine makes... Once the gas engine is fired up, the rpm will correlate with the distance you press the accelerator. If you hold the accelerator down, the rpm and the pitch will remain the same.

Think of it as your foot having direct control to the gas engine rpm.

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...sight-civic-hybrid-jetta-gas-tdi-wrx-sti.html

CO2 and NOx are particularly bad.

 

I have been driving my wife's Gen II Prius for 3 years, and my lexus RX 300 until I traded over to my Prius v (wagon) last November. I was always impressed how the Gen II drove like any other car with the added game of driving wise and try to get the high score in the MPG game. Now with my Prius v, I get an Eco and power mode in addition to the normal mode I'm used to from wife's Gen II.

Here is what I'm getting to; The power mode is really fun. It changes the gas pedal response and can push you into your seat if you so choose. It reminds me of my mother's Audi that has power to spare and the most sensitive gas pedal I've ever encountered. In the Audi I have to feather the gas or I'm accelerating so fast my eyes are tearing. So, I'm not saying the prius v is exactly like Mom's Audi, but in power mode it starts to approach it on the spectrum of zippy and sluggish cars. It's at least past the median on the spectrum in power mode.

My new slogan for Toyota is; The Prius Gen II made it fun to drive economically, and the newer Prii with power mode make it fun to drive aggressive also.

So, I'm saying come join us playing the MPG game, and when you feel like it take a break from that game and have some fun in power mode. When I first got my Prius v, I wanted to make sure that I could still drive like I was in my RX 300. I was passing cars up hill at +75 MPH and pulling away from traffic when the light turns green. The cost was an embarrassing sub 35 MPG on fuelly. I blame cold weather too.

I hope this helps.

 

double post