Prius Prime Advance vs i3 Rex

what was the best deal you could get on a new volt?

 

Fo me the decision between a Prime and a Volt came down to two things, headroom for 4 passengers, and mileage on long trips. I am taking a 1100 mile each way road trip in a couple months, the 50MPG+ of the Prime was much better than the Volt. And the BMW i3 would have me off the road every 90 miles to put a couple gallons of gas in the tank after I burned the charge. I do really like the Prime and the ride. The Volt as nice also for this reason but it felt cramp inside. The BMW was just not going to work for my usage so we eliminated it fairly quickly even though I liked the funky look. A Tesla was also interesting but outside my allowed price range by a long shot or the one that wouldn't be isn't available any time soon.

Did you consider looking at the CMAX or Fusion Energi? Both of these I found interesting. The CMAX was actually a surprisingly comfortable and fun to drive car, if it were only efficient as a Prius it would have been great. Also, as sad as it is, they built a dedicated hybrid car but used the body parts from a car that was not a dedicated hybrid and thus ended up with the batteries taking up a ton of storage space.

Anyway welcome to the Prime owning family, and the larger Prius owning family

 

I have both a 2014 BMW i3-REx and 2017 Prius Prime. This morning I took the Prime but had to use the ICE for an unexpected errand. Still got 70 MPG. With the i3 I might have avoided using the ICE.

Had the Prime been available in May, I would not have bought the i3 but I am keeping both for now. Still, I am driving the i3 tonight as I am running errands around town even though the Prime was charged.

I like both cars, their strengths and relative performance. Someday I may have to make a Sophie's choice but not today.

Bob Wilson

 

I think you made a great choice.
The Prime over others you mentioned esp the Volt, first for utter reliability and night and day difference in build quality and second for the price difference. And this may be just a personal preference but I think the Prime looks better too!

 

Some of that could be bad dealer prep, but definitely not something you want to hear about.

If your newest ride is the Prime, you may want to consider updating your Vehicle in your profile. And as to the Westbrook dealer, I don't think my family was much impressed by them either. The advantages dealership have up in Maine is there doesn't tend to be a whole lot of them to compete, so they can get away with lesser quality sales reps. While I was still living up in central Maine, I bought a car down in Massachusetts (bad move, but I was already there for school) and drove it up to Maine to register it because the dealerships I could find were all more like snake oil salesmen than anything else.

 

The C-max isn't a dedicated hybrid. It is just available only as a hybrid in the US. It's been available for years before its US debut in Europe as an ICE model. They even get a three seat row one with sliding rear doors.

The hybrid's lower fuel economy and loss of cargo space all stems from it being a conversion of an ICE car