Hatchback all its cracked up to be?

I think a hatchback is the only real design choice. I drove an '02 Prius and an Accord hybrid and I saw how the battery pack decimates a trunk. I've never particularly liked the appearance of a hatchback, but now that I've become an mpg freak I also appreciate the aerodynamics of it. Having put a few varied loads of stuff in there I'm a complete convert. I'll bet you will be too.

 

We just had a week long trip to Orlando. We had three adults and all our baggage plus a display for the exhibits at the convention. All fit nicely in the Prius for the trip to the airport. I had to put one seat down but everything and everybody fit. In Orlando our rental car was a Taurus. We had trouble fitting everything in. Finally the display had to be across the back seat with the passenger having it on his lap. Several pieces of luggage wouldn't fit in the trunk. I love the hatchback and split seat.

 

Having a hatchback makes it WAY easier to get large objects in the back of a car. Whereas having a trunk limits the size of things you can throw in the car pretty noticeably.

 

I'm getting used to the hatchback as well. I'm a new owner and find the rear visability different - but we do appreciate the head room. Haven't had an occasion to really "load her up yet". Interesting insights!

 

It sounds as if the rear vision really bugs you. I'm not one of those who'll claim rear vision is even BETTER than normal, but it only bothers me, oh, 2 on a scale of 1-10.

If the Gen 2 had still been a sedan with no fold-down rear seats (forget the hatchback), that would have been a 4.5 on my Bother-O-Meter. But I certainly still would have bought it for its other attributes.

I was a little skeptical of a hatchback sedan. Having had it for 1-1/2 years, taken together, the folding rear seat + hatchback ease of loading/unloading - rear visibiltiy still gives me, oh, +5 on my Happy-O-Meter.

 

Depends on what you haul.

I hated the trunk of my 1996 Saturn coupe despite the fact it also had 60/40 seats. Much good it did me. The hinges for the trunk came down and took up so much trunk space I could only use the center of the trunk for storage. And it wasn't that tall either with the fixed rear window.

Plus the fact that the opening of the Prius comes all the way flush with the floor of the cargo area is the best. I don't have to lift things up and over the rear.

So I can stow things across the entire floor of the hatch area, side to side and front to back PLUS I also have vertical storage, I can fold down either or both rear seats to access the entire passenger area to add to the cargo area making it, well, huge. And there's the flush loading.

Yep. I love the hatchback.

 

one other thing to check is the turning circle of the G2 compared to your Classic. It sucks, about a 3 foot bigger turning circle and on the narrow roads in Britian it might just sway you to keep your Classic. A test drive is in order.

 

I'll be getting an 06 Prius in January, my dealer has confirmed. I'm giving up a Honda Odyssey for a Prius and am hoping my dog will be able to fit in the hatchback if one of the 60/40 seats are down. I have an 80lb labrador retriever who loves going places with me in the car, is it possible he will fit in the Prius? I don't want him sitting on the sits, but if one of the seats are down I figure he can lay down in the back. Anyone else have a big dog they drive around in their car? Thanks.

 

My cat comfortably sits on my shoulders behind my neck (head cushion is reversed), sometimes when I'm tooling around locally.

 

Measure the dog's height. Then measure the height from a folded-down rear seat to the headliner in someone's Prius (even a dealer's).

The dog at least should be comfortable lying down. But standing up of sitting? do not know.

 

Mine sits like that when I'm at the computer half the time.
And gets there by jumping from the floor to one shoulder, sometimes surprising me.

 

My wife's #1 concern with this vehicle? Making sure she could fit a bicycle inside with at most taking the front wheel off. The #2 concern is that it doesn't look like a wagon or SUV. Her cars were: '95 Eclipse GSX (she stole it from me :angry: ), '01 Subaru Forester ( a quick replacement she was never totally happy with after the Eclipses motor went), now an '05 Prius (she's happy again and calls me every day to tell me how much she likes it B) ). Seriously, since the Eclipse we've given away our bike racks and accessories.

I don't know how often you carry equipment that size around, but if you do once a quarter you will be amazed by the versatility this car has.

 

The bike-in-the-back was my top carrying capacity concern, too.

 

I replaced my Ford Explorer with my Prius. Giving up the cargo space of my Explorer was hard to do. I figured I could just rent a pickup truck when I need to carry really big things, but I often find the need to cary smaller, but still big things.

So, I decided a hatchback was the only thing that would do, and the Prius has a good bit of cargo space when you fold down the seats. There's even a good bit of room when you don't fold down the seats.

For instance, I had to repair a large portion of my lawn and put down new topsoil. While doing, I rented a lawn roller from Home Depot. It fit quite nicely in the back and I didn't even have to fold down the seats.

I'd hate to have to try to put one of these in the trunk of a Civic hybrid, which doesn't even have fold-down seats:

 

To add to the list of things you can fit in a Prius:

A 6'x3' folding table. We do craft shows, and squeeze in a table, a couple of big boxes, and the two of us.

I'd never buy a non-hatchback vehicle. They're just too useful. I'm surprised there aren't more on sale, it's obvious from SUV sales that people like the practicality of a medium size cargo space.

 

I have a 65-70lb dalmatian. He fits fine in the back (with the seats up). His head will brush the ceiling if he stands and puts his head over the seats. We haven't gone on a long trip yet with him in it, but I imagine he'll settle down and it won't be an issue.

We've also had him in it with the seats down and that was fine too. Only issue is the gap between the back of the front seats and the cargo area. There's a number of ways to get around that though.

The one other issue I found was the back window. On a sunny day, the sun will be on him non-stop - so some sort of window shade would be needed, or they'd need to ride with the seats down.

 

I'm probably echoing many similar replies. I'm not going to lie, I didn't read them all.

First, we like the carrying capacity, we've had other hatchbacks and loved them. This one is no exception. Last weekend we picked up 100# of sunflower seed and 100# of cracked corn, went grocery shopping, ran errands picking up stuff here and there, and still had room for more if we'd had the need. If not a hatchback, then I'd have had to drive the truck and burned 2x+ the gas.

Second, we have large dogs that need to go to the vet periodically. We looked at a pre '04 and it simply wouldn't have worked. Our old Saturn wagon did work and the '05 is a similar size, so we knew the dogs would fit.

Third, hatchbacks just look good, at least to our eyes. We REALLY like the looks of the Gen2 Prius.

Other folks may not need or even like a hatchback, but frankly I haven't a clue why someone would want a sedan and it's static "people mover only" design over the versatility of a hatchback. A sedan absolutely wouldn't have been purchased by us.