Prospective Prius owner...Need help.

I rented a regular Prius two from Avis back in May for a 3,200 mile road trip that took me from Seattle to L.A and back. The car was incredibly comfortable to drive and I was able to go 80 miles per hour on long stretches of interstate 5, as well as climbing steep hills too. The mileage was fantastic too!! I loved the car so much, that after returning the rental car to Avis, I then practically took my own car to a Toyota dealership and bought a new Prius four. It's a fantastic comfortable car, and I find the acceleration to be adequate/good , especially in power mode.

 

I did a 2.5 year ~20k mile test drive in a few rental Prii. I ended up ordering what I have today. Very happy with the car. Prius has plenty of acceleration even loaded with 3 people and more crap than you'd want to sit in a car with. You can be out on the Interstates hammering it all day long and still get well over 40 mpg and be comfortable.

Mike

 

I think you'll like the car. It definitely grows on you once you drive them every day Just seeing the dollars saved in gas alone is neat even if you have plenty of money to burn

Mike

 

I was just in the same debate myself... Was looking at a Prius c 3 originally. For me the C was just too small, I am a big dude. It also didn't ride very nice in my opinion. The electronics and gauge cluster seemed much nicer in the C than even the Prius plug in.

I ended up getting a Prius liftback series 2. Overall rides much nicer and has tons more room. A little disappointed to have no nav or satellite radio, but those are easily fixed by a smartphone.

The absolute deal maker for the normal Prius is that they are doing 0% financing for 60 mos on anyone with tier 3 or higher credit. There is no such deal on the C. I just bought my car on July 2nd so the deal should still be the same.

 

0% is smart financing Mine is at 2.9%

Mike

 

I bought a 2013 Prius three. Very happy with it. 3 door smart key is very helpful, as is the backup camera. Navigation/Entune is so-so, but I also got the solar roof package (and my price was 25k + TTL, so I'm sure you can get yours down to around 23.5k. Check out truecar.com and see what they say for your zip code).

I was looking for a 2nd car recently and test drove a Prius C. That thing is terribly underpowered. Getting on the freeway required a lot of pedalwork, and it just doesn't make sense to spend that amount of money on that little of a car when the standard Prius is such a better value for nearly the same price. Funny thing is I also test drove the Elantra but decided not to buy just because it's on its 3rd or 4th year and will be replaced with something new fairly soon. I want my car to look "brand new" for more than a year. I ended up staying in the Toyota family and bought a Camry SE (21k + TTL) with 0% financing, and used what would have been my down payment to pay off the Prius which was at 1.9%.

After reading your original post I was going to suggest a Prius Plug-In, but it may be out of your price range. Your commute to work would be all-electric, and if you can find a place to charge while at work, your drive home could be all-electric too.

 

Voted for the 3, but I couldn't even fit in a C when I tried at the dealer.