I guess we need a second car, but...

Honda Civic or Accord. Both are nice.

Tom

 

Jenndbay
I would suggest that you look at the Hyundai Elantra. Ignore the sticker price, here in NoCal, a 17,000 sticker Elantra will sell for 13-14,000 new. Car is fairly loaded, power windows, locks, remote entry, airbags all around, abs, cd and mp3. Manual height adjustable seats, fog lights, lighted vanity mirrors, pretty much everything one needs. The GLS with popular equipment pkg is the way to go. We own 2, one for my dh, and just bought one for my 18 yr old son. Only negative comment I can make about the car is get seat covers, the upholstery is really cheap and stains easily. It gets good gas mileage, dh gets 28-30 mixed and close to 40 highway only. Car is quiet and comfortable. We usually take the Elantra on family trips instead of the Prius.

With all that said, I bought a Prius for myself because I commute in stop and go traffic and the Prius just shines there. And I wanted the techno goodies. But in my opinion, the Hyundai's are currently the best value out there.
Fernsmom

 

Our second car is a 2005 Honda Accord. It's a great car, but of course I like the Prius better. If you do get an Accord, get the 4cyl, not the 6. On a recent highway trip I got 34 mpg in the Accord.

 

I would never recommend a hyundai, I don't care how little it costs.

What about a Smart Car? Is there a dealer in your area? Or what about a private party sale of a used Prius??

 

Just out of curiosity, why would you never reccomend a Hyundai?

Hyundai is making some great cars nowadays, quality and workmanshio rivals or in some cases is better than Toyota and they're certainly a lot cheaper.

If I were buying something in that range, I would buy a Hyundai.

 

I think you're right that a salvage/rebuild is about the only way to get a Prius in that price range right now. Its a big part of why we bought one. Just be really careful who you deal with. With the Prius so popular and commanding such good prices, there are bound to be some shady characters out there cashing in. We bought ours from Steve at the site below. We went out and interviewed him and inspected the shop, and were very impressed (as have others from this site and the phev community been). He's been exclusively rebuilding Priuses for 4-5 years now, and really seems to know his stuff.

Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicle PHEV

Also be sure you know what you are giving up for the discount. You probably won't be able to get traditional financing (we had to use home equity) and you won't have factory warranty coverage. You want to know that whoever you buy from is going to stand behind their work.

Rob

 

Right now you would be "buying high" on a Prius anyway. Demand is high and people are falling all over themselves throwing absurd money at dealers for them.

If the Corolla isn't doing it for you I would echo others who recommend maybe a used Accord or Camry. I have never driven a Hyundai but I've heard positive things about their newer models and they do come with a nice warranty. I'll probably take a beating for this but if I were in your position I would kick the tires on a Malibu as well.

 

My GF has a Civic. It's quite nice. If you want to spend significantly less, I was also pleasantly surprised by a rental Kia Spectra.

 

Eeeek!

I agree it sucks to try and buy a Prius right now, but things aren't that bad

The Malibu is not a bad car, its the same size, speed, and cost as a Prius. It just uses twice as much gas, and is much higher in emissions (T2B5). While there are some deals on some less efficient cars available, there have been numerous reports/studies on how much more you pay in the long run for fuel, depreciation, maintenance etc.

If I had to buy a small car right now it would be a Fit. Good FE, very roomy for its size/class, good utility with hatchback, Honda reliability, fun to drive, very good reviews and customer satisfaction and still pretty cheap. While you might be tempted to save a few thousand upfront on something like an Aveo, over 5 years CR says the Aveo actually costs $1000 more. So your spending more money on a car that is smaller, less fuel efficient, slower, less reliable, and much worse in reviews and customer satisfaction.

The Corolla and Civic aren't bad either, but I just don't think you get enough space and performance to justify the higher cost and lower mileage compared to the Fit.

Rob

 

The Civic is a good car.

 

My Accord was a good car, and you really can't go wrong as long as it has a 4-cyl. Driven conservatively it should be good for30-35mpg easily. I bet you could get a very nice one for $18K. Or spend a whole lot less on a much more used 6th gen (1998-2002) while you save up for one of those new tech cars on the horizon.

 

I rented that exact car last year for a week and it was a really nice car.
Quick..comfortable..quiet. I would buy one of those in a heartbeat. Even the wife liked it.
Changed my entire opinion of Hyundai's.Just sayin'.

 

Roll up your sleeves fix a wrecked one yourself; it's fun! My '08 should come in well below $16,500 when everything is said and done.

 

First you need to decide what your needs are. Do you need room for kids / car seats etc...
There would be Three ways I would go.
Small Economy car - If you don't need much room and just need a car to commute in I'd go with either a Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris both are around $14,000 new and hold the resale value well. There are some great Kia's and Hyundai's and they are very reliable but their resale value stinks even though they have gotten better.

If you need more room with similar space as a Prius, I would take a serious look at a Mazda 3 5 door or a if you don't need quite as much space a Ford Focus (the Focus has some very nice options like the Microsoft Sync which is absolutely amazing by the way). Both vehicles are about $17-$18,000 decently equipped.
On the other hand if you aren't going to be putting a lot of miles on the vehicle you could probably find some great deals on quite a few year or two old small SUV's that would complement your husbands Prius nicely.

 

We're also shopping for a small hatchback. We liked the price, comfort, safety, and standard features of the Nissan Versa that we took for a test drive. However, we want to look at a Honda Fit before we make our decision. Unfortunately they are all spoken for before they arrive at the dealer. We attempted to look at a Ford Focus but they didn't have one and weren't even interested in showing us a brochure or having a little chat. Plus, the Focus is no longer being sold as a hatchback. We thought about the Toyota Yaris but Consumer Reports doesn't recommend it because of safety features not being standard, etc. Other small hatchbacks we've investigated cost more and we might as well get a Prius if we were going to pay that much. Oh yes, I almost forgot, the Hyundai Elantra has a hatchback in the 09 model that we might also check out.

 

haha here in San Diego, there is a weekend ad in the paper every weekend so far advertising the 2008 Ford Focus Base 5 speed for $8899 Net Cost hard to beat that. I have the Motor Trend Issue next to me and they rated the 2009 Hyundai Sonata on top of the Toyota Camry and other sedans. I would check the newspaper for deals on Friday. Thats how i got my Prius, moms Avalon, and Camry haha.

I had a Kia Spectra out in Phoenix while my truck was in the shop. Not a bad little car, and it sure felt very peppy for what it was.

The Fit is in that much demand? The Honda dealer 4 miles away has half the 1/4 lot full of Fits, 1/4 Civics and 2/4 Accords. The trucks and Suv's are in the back.

The Nissan Versa is a very nice and roomy hatchback, I would recommend that over the Fit just because it appears to be bigger.

About the newspaper ad, theres a newspaper ad in todays paper here showing Mazda CX-7 for $18,995. The Toyota dealers out here frequently advertize Corolla CE's at $13,577 or around there. I will scan a page from tomorrows paper and post it.

 

We had a Hyundai- a 2002 Sonata with a V-6 & loaded. Yes, it didn't cost much to begin with, BUT come trade in time we found out just how bad the resale value is on Hyundai's. The car only had 34,000 miles on it when we got our 1st Prius in '06. The Toyota dlr. gave us a sub wholesale trade in price. The car had 4 brand new tires on it to boot.

I wouldn't buy another Hyundai. Honda would be my next choice to a Prius. For maximum MPG I'd get the Civic. Our last car was a 2003 Accord Ex-V6. It was sweet and we traded it in to the same dlr. on our '08 Prius.

This time we got a much higher trade in price as Honda's hold their value. The Accord had about the same miles as the Hyundai when traded in. The only bad thing about the Accord was it had a 6 cyl. engine. It sat on the dealer's lot for over 40 days and they took it to the dlr. auction as nobody wanted a 6 cyl. car.

A good used Honda or Toyota would be at the top of my list for a 2nd car if I was in the mkt.

 

in general, our second car has always been a used camry.

 

what's wrong with a Honda FIT?? get's very respectable mileage and is an UltraLowEmissionVehicle... or look around for an EV company.. someone to convert an existing ICE into pure EV.. if your daily needs are under 40 miles.. would be PERFECT.. even less emissions than our beloved Prii