Which one: Gen 4 vs Volt vs C-Max?

they're all good cars from what i've read. i would encourage him to buy the one he likes best after test driving.
80 miles a day is a lot of miles to put on any used car, depending on how long he plans to keep it.

 

volts have a great high mileage track record, idk about c-max. neither one is made anymore, and gen4 prius should be at least as good when your talking 300,000 miles. he will still have to plan for major expenses down the road, but the prius might be his best bet.
the other issue is a reasonably priced hybrid mechanic v the dealership repair gouging. it doesn't take many repairs to offset gas savings over a non hybrid.

 

Depends on if he can plug into a 110 volt outlet at work.

make sure he finds the car as comfortable and that whatever he puts into a car fits.

Generally you have
Volt - EV Range & Comfort
Prius - Fuel Economy & wheel chair storage
CMAX - Room but storage may not be as good as Prius, economy and range worse than both

 

Only ONE of the cars you are considering has a consistently high record of reliability. HOWEVER, that one is the one that is going to cost you the most money. One of the others comes from a company that has a very poor reputation regarding reliability.
Perhaps the wiser choice would be to buy a non-hybrid/electric vehicle that has a very high reliability rating from the manufacturer of the vehicle you are looking at that also has a high reliability rating. In other words, you might want to consider a Toyota Corolla non hybrid. JMHO
In addition, (again, FWIW, from a former owner of 7 GM vehicles) I wouldn’t touch the Volt with ANY pole!

 

The most efficient (least gas + electricity) on that commute would be the Prius.

Most thirsty the CMAX

The Volt is borderline
His trip theoretically should use a full battery + 1 gallon gas
But will really depend on the battery condition, tire type and temperature + speed

70MPH+ is not good for efficiency going up, long downhill glides are the volts friend far beyond the Prius. Very smart trip planning could give the volt an edge or a disadvantage. Word of caution never go up a mountain in a volt with an empty battery .

Volt is likely the most enjoyable of the group but he should check out the seats and storage first.

Meh the majority of the Volt complaints have to do with incompetent dealers overcharging, no different than the problem affecting the Prius about a decade back.
There is a vibrant dir volt community to cheaply take care of any issue you might encounter, 400,000 miles later several have no complaints.

 

Those year Volts require premium. Then there is the price and todays market for hybrids. I think the CMax hybrid of those later years is supposed to be good. I believe of the three the Prius will be most economical and best. The CMax plug in has a compromised cargo area. The regular hybrid is less compromised but still has a raised floor. The 2016 Prius has a great cargo area and the only one with a spare tire. The Prius has a much less expensive tire size.

 

I have 144,000 miles on cheap KT88e15 gas with my 2013 Volt, at my mild 1200Ft elevation I see no difference between it and expensive premium

 

Then you're probably also too far away from useful repair resources for all but the Prius. You're not talking about new cars, you'll need somebody who can work on them eventually.

 

The first gen Volt requires premium, not recommended, required. You can put in regular to save 30-40 cents per gallon it is your business. It still requires premium. You bought the Volt at what mileage?

 

I save 80 cents- $1.50 a gallon 88e15 vrs 91 premium is extraordinarily expensive in this area.

I bought at 34 miles on the odometer and have 80% gas miles

I have the word of the engineer who designed the car and the fact there is an 87 octane tune in the ecm. Completely a non-issue, per my scanner at 1200ft on 88 (not rug) the car still has nearly identical timing as premium and no knock events.

You supposedly loose gas MPGs running lower octane but it’s within the margin of error .
Well worth saving nearly $10,000 in unnecessary fuel costs over the last 144,000 miles.

88 is on its own pump and is typically 15-30 cents a gallon cheaper than the RUG shown.

 

Who does your maintenance?
How much is gas?
What are the real-world availabilities for these cars?

I have 4 GMs in the driveway, and about 200k miles in G3's.
Personally I'd go for the '16 Prius.

Yeah,
They're uglier than the nightly news but the real-world availability for the Volts is really really low, and I would not wish a C-max on anyone who is at the tender mercies of a Ford service department.
Toyota's service departments are much, MUCH worse, but then they don't require as much service, and the G4 has been pretty reliable.
We have some "Max's" in our fleet locally and they tend to be hangar queens.
Both of my old Priuses are still in service after 20++ years and well over 200K miles each.

Good Luck!

Let us know how it shakes out.

 

GM called for premium mostly for concerns over what could happen to the fuel sitting unused in the tank over time. If the sealing of the tank didn't remain tight as designed, the octane level would drop. Filling with premium ensured the octane would still be above the absolute minimum for the engine to safely operate.

The compression ratio of the Volt engine is just 0.1 higher than the regular octane fueled 2.5L in the 2016 Camry. Turbocharged siblings in the Cruze and Sonic called for regular. Naturally aspirated siblings in Europe called for the 91 equivalent, but produced 16 to 56 more horsepower than the Volt. Calling for premium for the Volt could have meant slightly better EPA results in fuel economy testing.

If the engine is being used daily, as in this case, using regular shouldn't be an issue.

 

That’s fine, but in 2016 the redesigned Volt went to regular on the new engine, and has the same gas storage situation. The Prime has the same gas storage situation and uses regular. The Volt made sure the gas didn’t sit unused over a year or the engine would run to burn the gas, don’t think the Prime is as aggressive with that, and uses regular.
Anyway all I said was GM wants premium only to be used as a comparison tool to the other two cars. They do say premium, there is no question. I had one a 2014, and to keep it simple, went by what the book says. It didn’t have to turn into anything at all with all this talking. Maybe it’s this product sensitivity thing, one against another.

 

One think to keep in mind is the cost to replace the battery pack. For a Chevy Volt it runs about $6k, for a Prius it runs about $2k.

I have an 80 mile commute as well and test drove both a Volt and a Prius. I went with the Prius and I’m glad I did.

 

What's a hangar queen

 

Strictly speaking - an aircraft that is not flyable, usually due to multiple or very severe problems.
In a fleet or squadron environment it's parked in the hanger - and often striped of useable parts to keep other birds flying until it is ultimtely scrapped or replaced.

Sometimes?
It's an accounting thing.

If you have 8-24 hulls (truck, aircraft, ship) in a unit, group, squadron, etc...and one of them is constantly down for problem after problem then sometimes it's useful to 'keep it on the books' as a source for spare parts, maintenance training, etc.

It's not meant as a complement.