Possibly looking for a C or not...

i have never owned a c, and no nothing about new zealand other than how much my daughter enjoyed it there.
although he doesn't own a c, perhaps @dolj can provide some insight into new zealand cars in general.

all the best!

 

The member summon.

Completed the trifecta.

 

Rear visibility in the C is pretty bad. I removed the rear head rests on the right and left almost immediately, leaving the center installed. I hardly ever have anyone in the rear seat, but I can easily reinstall the head rests when I do. I know that some have replaced them with those from a Yaris; I believe the 2008 or 2009 model years will fit, but not sure so check first. The Yaris outer rests are like the center one in that they kind of wrap over the seat top when lowered, so they are more out of the way.

2008 Toyota Yaris Hatchback Rear Seats - Picture / Pic / Image

 

I have no Prius c experience other than when I drove my son's, so I don't feel I can contribute much except to say it didn't stand out as extremely horrible. The interior of the NA c, the JDM c, and the NZDM c I imagine would be on par (allowing for the steering wheel being on the "wrong" side), so I'm sure the US observations would be equally valid in this regard.

Our market is flooded in general with JDM of all makes and models. Primarily people go for these because they are cheap when compared to their NZDM counterparts and they are usually more well-appointed as the Japanese like their bells and whistles. JDMs also tend to be relatively new and have lower kms for their age. The instrumentation on most cars isn't affected by the fact that they are Japanese as it doesn't show anywhere significant. But for Prii, in particular, I personally wouldn't buy a JDM. The three main reasons are:

• You generally know nothing of the Japanese ownership and service history before importation;
• The MDF/instrumentation is in Japanese and I don't speak or read Japanese (katakana);
• If you need panel work done, you might be held up waiting for a part to be imported from Japan. NZDM and JDM parts are not necessarily interchangeable.

Particular to the Prius c is the JDM (Aqua) only has a Driver Safety Rating of 3 stars and an Overall Safety Rating of 4 stars. The NZDM (Prius c) has an Overall Safety Rating of 5 stars with no specific breakdown between Driver/Overall Safety Rating.

When my son was looking for a Prius c I advised him to get an NZDM one and helped him buy it, but it was more difficult because they do not come on the market very often. You have to be prepared to search the whole of the country and possibly wait a while for a good one to turn up. However, if you use the Toyota dealer network they are (usually) more than happy to bring the car from the far reaches to your location. The Prius I bought to replace my first Prius I used an east coast of Te Ika a Maui (The North Island) dealer to buy a car from Invercargill (very bottom of Te Wai Pounamu (The South Island)).

This is what I did coming from first a 2.2L Camry Station wagon and then a 3L Camry sedan. I did not want a small car like an Echo or Yaris (I don't think the Prius c was around then and even it was I wouldn't have considered it) mainly because they were not big enough for the family and general life, IMO. I considered the Prius was a good 'medium-sized car with a big car' feel.

I know you said you were happy with the Yaris but if you plan to travel (which you will) a small car is just not as comfortable as a Prius although lots of people here still do drive long distances in their small cars. The biggest thing for me is the engine noise. YMMV.

I find the same in the Prius, except I keep them fully lowered and only put them up when transporting rear passengers which is not all that often

Let me know if you have any questions I have answered well enough or other questions you might have.

 

Don't even consider a Prius C. As a Prius C owner I can tell you that this is a "toy hybrid". The battery is only 0.9 kWhr. You can go about 5 blocks on a level street with a fully charged battery. You will completely recharge the battery in about 5 blocks of a downhill lightly on your brake. The new Ford 150 pickup battery is 100 kWhr by comparison. It is useful as a town car in a fairly level city.

 

i'm not following you, why would you want a bigger battery?

 

LOL. The Terrace is pretty wide by Wellington standards and if you were that close to the parked cars in a Yaris you must have been quite to the left of the centerline. I certainly had no problems driving a Camry around the streets around here, even The Terrace. You get used to the narrow streets. The best thrill is meeting a bus or a large truck coming the other way on a really narrow street. Oh, how we laugh at the cheap thrills.

Not really, except to say you might want to expand your horizons to consider some EVs.

For Auckland traffic, if you will be commuting in the gridlock (on the motorway - Freeway to the Americans) I definitely recommend staying away from a manual box (stick-shift to the Americans) and make sure to get an automatic.

I am a Toyota guy now, so the only other model I could think to recommend is a Corolla and again not a JDM and a hybrid if you can get it.

 

Rear visibility was a major concern when we first bought the car in 2018, 44k miles ago. We thought it was going to be terribly limiting.

Well, we got used to it. It really gets easier with experience, and now we don't think of it. Ours is a 2018 with camera and that does help. It also helps to remove unused back row headrests and stow them under the front seats. There's room.

• 12v battery changed to an even more obscure type
• HVAC controls updated, nicer display, better button layout.
• The LED headlights included in the facelift (for some markets anyway) are really amazing, a standout feature on the car.
• Instrument panel updated to include full color video display
• Toyota Safety Sense auto brakes, lanekeeping nanny package- seems nice, hope we never need it. We don't find it intrusive anyway.

Our daughter was born in January so we just went through this. I'm 6'4" and with a rear-facing seat (chico something?) installed in the rear right seat, we get tight: I cannot sit in the front passenger seat. I can still put the driver's seat anywhere I want, no corner obstruction from the kid seat. Mrs. McCoalroller is of considerably shorter stature, so she can still fit in either front passenger or rear right seat when I drive with the baby also on board.

The only real restriction is that if we have the baby with us and she is driving, I must sit in the left rear seat. She normally keeps the seat far enough forward that I'm genuinely comfortable back there. More back seat headroom than a lot of larger cars.

I see no hope of putting two rear-facing child seats in a c if the front seat occupants are over maybe 5'9".

Where strollers are concerned, the big clunky one that goes with the modular safety seat is quite large even when folded. It requires that the left rear seat be folded down to stow the stroller longitudinally- meaning don't get the One spec, because that doesn't have the 60/40 split seat.

We also have an "umbrella" stroller that folds up much smaller. It fits easily in the native storage area without needing to surrender seat space and leaves us appropriate room for ordinary errands.

Now, we just yesterday bought a larger car, because we were planning on a "family hauler" in the other half of the garage anyway. With the pandemic, we didn't need cars as much in general, so we decided to get by for a while on only the Prius c. It did fine, even with the limits I've described above.

So now our Prius c is returning to mostly ultracommuter duty for my wife, plus grocery-getting duties around town. It already excelled at that duty, and now we've proven that it can be a backup family mover in certain circumstances.

Good luck!

 

Having owned Gen3, Prius v wagon, and now the Prius C, I thought the visibility in the C is pretty good! Certainly better than Gen3, but not as good as the v wagon.

 

Yes, the Prius C's battery is small ( 0.9 kWh as you pointed out ). The Gen3 and Prius v wagon have a 1.3 kWh battery.

However, the Prius C only weighs 2,500 lbs. The Gen3 is 3,042 lbs. The Prius v wagon is around 3,274 lbs. That's a LOT less weight to push around. I can feel it when I'm driving the Prius C.

We have owned a Gen3, Prius v wagon, and now the Prius C....and trust me, weight makes a HUGE difference when trying to 'glide' without the engine running. My 'test' is the approach to our house in our neighborhood, which has a slight curved uphill stretch. The Prius C 'glide', believe it or not, is the easiest to accomplish. I can maintaining or even increase speed slightly with the engine off. The Gen3 comes in second, and the beast that is the Prius v comes in third.

 

Don't worry if I (or anyone else, for that matter) don't approve, it is your decision to make. You asked for opinions and I gave mine, but at the end of the day, you need to do what you think is best for you and your circumstances/situation.

All the best and I hope you find a nice car to start your NZ adventure/relocation.

 

I like the balance struck in the late model USA c: you get a camera that genuinely helps you back into tight spaces, but you don't get beepy sensors in the bumpers to jack up the costs of fenderbenders, or throw false alerts etc.

Just so you have the right idea- it's not like there's a vaulted ceiling back there. It's just enough. Specific comparisons: I can't sit naturally in the back seat of a Chevrolet Impala or a Tesla Model S. The crown of my head hits the headliner before the back of my head finds the headrest in those cars. If I scoot down/forward just a half inch, I can fit. but I've already compromised comfort and possibly safety just to do that. The scoot isn't necessary in the back of a Prius c.

Speaking of fits...

We also considered the late model Honda Fit. We loved it on paper, and everything was great until I tried to sit in the front passenger seat. No go. They've changed a contour on the dashboard that takes away too much knee space. Previous generation was fine. Driving position is fine for me, it's only the passenger side.

The secret of the Fit is that everything is compromised to create more back seat & cargo space. Even the fuel tank is under the front seats to enable a lower floor in the back. It's brilliant engineering and they've probably created the ultimate Uber car. It just didn't work for us due to limited legroom on the front passenger side only.

We combed the subcompact category pretty hard before we bit into the c. We had a Hyundai Accent hatchback previously- we loved that one dearly for its simplicity, reliability and frugality.

 

Why would you want to drive 5 blocks on EV??? It's a Hybrid not an EV. Am I, as a new Prius C owner missing something?

 

No, you're not missing anything. In fact, you've hit the nail right on the head.

 

yes, we're all wanting to know, especially when you can buy a ford f-150