Help, ? before buying in the morning

Short commutes will not be bad for the car.

Short commutes may not show off it's excellent mileage once warmed up.


(you sound like you have an excellent PIP commute)

 

No problem. We do about the same thing.

 

seat warmers heat your buns in about 60 seconds, mine are excellent. you won't get the best mileage with 3-4 mile trips, especially in colder weather where the engine is warming up for most of the trip. but it will be better than anything else except electric. is a plug in too expensive? if money is an issue, you might consider a yaris or similar. it wont get quite as good mpg's, but great value overall. all the best!

 

The mileage will certainly not be as high as most c drivers get, but it will do as well or better thann anything you can buy at this price point. Going from a F-150, you might forget what a gas station looks like.
You could save some money up front with a Nissan Sentra or Versa or even aToyota Yaris or Corolla, but none of those cars will get better mileage, so it's up to you, enjoy your choice.

 

2 miles each way is within bicycle range.
A 2 mile drive isn't going to be great for anything other than an EV. Nothing will warm up completely in that distance unless its stop and go traffic slow enough to make walking faster. You probably won't be able to get the rated mileage in any car. Unless you would start doing a lot of driving other than to and from work, a cheaper car like a Yaris (or even better, a used Prius or Yaris) would likely end up costing less overall.
For the price I paid for my '05 Prius with 85k miles, I could replace the battery and any one of the 3 other expensive components (engine, transaxle, and inverter) and buy 100k-150k miles worth of gas for the price of a new Prius.

 

Pip stands for Plug in Prius.

 

any idea how many miles per year you average?

 

Your commute won't make the C an economical purchase. An electric or plug in would be better for that. But your weekend and other driving make it just right. Get the C. Bump it to a 3 if you can afford it. Audio system in the 2 is sub par. Since your $40.00/week gas budget will probably drop to about $12, that gives you $100.00+ more to spend on your monthly car payment

 

It is no worse for the 'c' than it is for any other fossil fuel car, including your F-150. Only plug-in cars with enough electric-only range to avoid liquid fuel will do better.

 

If you want a flat deck with amazing cargo space, Go drive a Honda Fit. We referred to the Fit as our 'truck'. If the Fit was a hybrid, I would haven chosen that over the C. My understanding is that next year it will be.

 

I also live in Coventry. Bought my C3 in April 2012. I got through last winter without any real problems in the snow, although it wasn't a bad winter, I only faced one deep snow situation, and the tread on the tires was fairly new. Still it felt like the traction was just barely there a few times. It's a very light car, with little ground clearance, and low rolling resistance tires. That combinations puts it at a slight disadvantage over other cars.

With 40,000 miles on the stock Turanza el400s, I decided to get a set of Michelin X Ice 3s for this winter, and have had them on for two weeks now. In that last snowstorm they behaved quite well, but they haven't been really tested yet. They handle extremely well on dry and wet roads, and the ride is as good as the stock tires. I only keep them at 36/34 pressure, like I did the Turanzas. I know all the mad for mileage C owners are thinking "Good Grief, man, put more air in those things!" But I did the testing early on last year to see the difference in the ride comfort to mileage ratio, and I chose ride comfort. It's quite improved at the lower pressure, and I still manage to average 60MPG on my 40 mile commute. Road noise on the X Ice is slightly higher, but I only hear it at slow speeds when the ICE is n't running. At higher speeds, the difference is hardly noticeable.

By now I am sure you have given the C a test drive (Tarbox?), so if you are still considering it, then the relatively cheap looking interior, road and wind noise at highway speeds, and a ride that won't be as smooth as your truck don't bother you. If you are looking for gas mileage and a low cost of ownership, the C tops the list.

As to our idiot drivers in RI, I am noticing a few more now. The Prius changes your driving habits. If you are serious about improving gas mileage, the dashboard gauges in the Prius are of immense help. They show you all your bad habits in glaring digital detail, and help you to break them. I am pulling out from stop signs and lights a bit slower, coming to stops a bit more gradually, coasting, and taking advantage of the cars momentum when ever possible. Which means that I tend to go around corners faster than I used to, not wanting to lose speed unnecessarily. Cars following me can't figure me out. They see me pulling out from a stop light at 5-10 mph, probably cursing me for getting up to speed so slowly (but I DO get up to speed, and still have a radar detector on my dash); but later they see me go around a curve that they are braking to take, and I just slip around it quickly with barely a slow down, and are probably thinking Wth? The low center of gravity in the C due to its traction battery placement under the rear seat makes it handle quite sportly, without a lot of body lean.

All I can recommend is give it a good test drive over many different kinds of road surfaces, and at all speeds so you know what your getting into. it will be a big change from your F150.

 

+1 - my wife's old Fit is amazing for cargo space. Fun to drive too. As for the hybrid Fit - still waiting - several years of rumors and hybrid Fits in other countries but "not in the U.S.A." finally made me buy the C.
2015 Honda Fit Hybrid: Forbidden Fruit Drive Report

 

I read that there will be a hybrid Fit in the fall of 2014. We'll see!