New 2013 Persona owner from ATL

The lease on my 2012 Volt ends today so I picked up a 2013 Prius Persona yesterday. I have been looking for a Prius 5 when I found this one for the same price. I was very happy with the Volt and possibly interested in another a few years down the road. We still have a Nissan Leaf as well, and are deciding if we are going to purchase it at the end of the lease. I got the extended warranty on the Prius, which I'll likely use up in 4 years with the amount of driving I do. I was reading the forums and it seems most think it's not necessary. I got really burned on a 2005 Tacoma X-Runner, but I know that's not a fair comparison to the Prius we had before. As I understand, I can still cancel that? I'm happy to be in a Prius again since I enjoyed the last one so much. I've owned somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 Toyotas, and still have 2 94 MR2s.

 

The Prius is what got me interested in fuel efficient and electric cars. Prior to my girlfriend getting the Prius, I was daily driving a Tacoma X-Runner, and spending about $700-800 a month in fuel (gas was expensive at the time). We started driving the Prius on the road trips, which was remarkably cheaper. The Volt lease deals were good when it was time to replace the truck, I'm typically an early adopter, and the perks (HOV access, plenty of free charging, and tax credits) made it worthwhile.

The Volt was a fantastic car and it will be missed. The ride was very smooth and quiet, with very good handling and acceleration (if you were not being battery conscious). I was very close to 100% electric for the first year, until my gf had an accident in the Prius. After that, we started using the Volt for the road trips. The Volt averaged out to 106 mpg over the 45,000 miles I drove it. On road trips the Prius out-performs the Volt in efficiency, especially at higher speeds (80 mph). The Volt also required Premium fuel.

I didn't get the heated seats option in the Volt, which was a huge oversight with an electric car. The heater was inefficient and killed the electric range in the winters. That was probably my biggest disappointment with the car. Those should be a standard feature. It really depends on your driving requirements.

With the amount of long drives I do, the Prius is the better option. I'm perfectly content with either car, but for me, the Prius won when it comes to buying instead of leasing. If the new Volt had been available, I may have gone that route, but I needed a car for road trips since our other car is the Leaf. While I had no major issues with the Volt, I trusted the reliability for the Prius more, which was a factor for buying instead of leasing. The Prius has more interior space, plus space for 3 in the back. I plan to keep the Prius for a while. I had been considering a Prius 5 for a while when the Persona popped up in the same price range on the last day of my Volt lease. I'm very happy with the purchase.

Seems like they would be with the lease turn-ins. I haven't checked to see what they are selling for. The residual on my lease was more than I was willing to pay. The lease on our Leaf is done soon, and those are selling pretty cheap used, with low miles. Still debating if we are going to buy it at the end of the term. Nissan is currently offering a $6500 discount off the residual, which would put the payoff under $12K, and the total of our payments will only be $1720 (after the $5000 tax credit).