Should I buy a Prius?

That is the beauty of the Prius, you don't have to. "worry about how to get good mileage".

Just drive it and you will get good mileage.

Some people are obsessed with getting "The Best Mileage" and that takes time and effort.

Buy one you won't be sorry!

 

I think they are both good cars but Toyota has a better reputation for quality control. I haven't checked but I bet the Prius has a lot better resale value also? If you don't like high tech buy the VW; if you do buy the Prius.

 

If you want people to tell you to buy a Prius, you've come to the right place. I think that's secretly why you're asking us

I think more and more "regular" cars are going to be hybrids, and if you by an old-fashioned car now, you'll be behind the curve pretty quickly.

In my blind optimism I'm imagining a world where old "internal-combustion-only" style cars become increasingly obsolete and within a small number of years lose their resale value completely without drivetrain replacement. Even if that's not realistic, you'll feel good about the Prius.

It's not a racecar by any stretch (see threads devoted to drag-racing the Prius for a laugh), but you really have to ask yourself "do I need to get to that next red light 3 tenths of a second faster in exchange for the cost of some extra fuel and pollution?"

 

You ran the numbers with the tax credit and they're about even.

You don't have to baby the car to get the "best" mileage. You can drive like you normally do and still get better mileage than a lot of cars out there.

The resale will be better.

I'm not familiar with the Jetta but how does it compare on other things, like roominess, amenities like the stereo and nav, smooth transmission etc. Do you ever have to haul things where the hatchback would be handy to have. Because that's pretty much a freebie given the mileage a Prius gets.

Have you test driven both cars? I suggest you test drive both. But I suggest you test the Jetta first and then the Prius.

 

I'm sure (buy a Prius) you'll weigh all the apporpriate alternatives (buy a Prius) and make the best decision (buy a Prius) for you and your family (buy a Prius) without allowing (buy a Prius) all the advertising and opinions (buy a Prius) of other people to (buy a Prius) influence your decision (buy a Prius).

 

Both are nice cars.

One thing that I like about the TDI is the possibility of running bio-diesel. It also has good HP but as with any vehicle you do have to worry about how you drive it to get max MPG. My buddy bought an '06 GMC crewcab 200HD Duramax because he figured it would get better milage than his 6.0L gas version of that truck. Whne he started driving it he was gettign 13-14mpg (his '02 got 11-13mpg). After awhile he learned how to drive it better and is now averaging 17mpg. Its all in how you drive it.

Personally I dont like the VWs because my racing buddies always see lil rich preppy kids driving them around or the EMO kids so the sterotype associated with the VW cars throws me off. Then again the Prius stereotype isnt much better hahaha

Overall Im very happy with my Prius. After driving my 4x4 for 5 hours yesterday through crazy traffic I missed my Prius even more.

As for numbers... Drive it like its stolen and expect to get 37-41mpg on a tank. Drive it like you care about it and its milage and you should get 45-49mpg. Drive it like an OCD freak or you are 90 years old and you can get soem of these nutty 55+mpg numbers My best tank was 54mpg, next best was 51mpg.

 

a prius is best at longer trips (aka more than 5-10 miles at a time) so the car can get warmed up and hit max efficiency.

normal driving gets me about 46-48 mpg with a 14 minute commute and various errands that are usually right on the way home from work. i don't baby it.

i don't have to deal with winter cold down here but when we drove back up to wisconsin last january we still got lower 40s mpg if i recall correctly. and that was with much shorter than average trips.

good luck

 

Diesel pumps are aren't available everypace gasoline is. Besides diesel stinks when filling up. The pumps are always nasty, and your hands smell. If you go for the TDI, you need to buy a pair of those leather gloves for fill ups like the truckers do! Also, watch out, cause the ground is pretty slick around the pumps. That alone should be enough!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pault842 @ Sep 3 2006, 03:22 PM) [snapback]313564[/snapback]</div>

Great question. I struggled for a few weeks before buying my prius. I test drove 02,04,05,and 06 VW TDI's. The o5.5 and 06 TDI's are VERY nice, anything earlier seems very cheap. B) The interiors are much nicer than the Prius with power, leather heated seats, nice person-kicking stereo, huge trunk. My wife is still upset at me for buying the Prius. :blink:
Here in California, we can't buy a new TDI due to some weird smog rules or something like that, so we would have had to by a "new" one with 7500 miles on it, for $31,500, package two. Who knows how the car is treated by the person hired to put on those miles?? After the tax break I end up paying $26.5 for my pack 7 with cool chrome wheels.
Apparently, getting service done on the TDI is questionable as VW doesn't train well for them, and I hear they are very quirky in some areas. The injectors are very finicky, and I would be very careful about running bio-diesel, or "vege-oil" from Mac-D's. :mellow:
"Real world" TDI mileage is 34 compared to Prius's 45. (I'm getting 51 200 miles into my third tank)
I dig diesels and terribly miss my dodge cummins for pulling my bass boat rig. (18 mpg !!) <_<

Conclusion:
Either car IMHO is cool. The Prius is more techie and "now man", but the TDI was very cozy and the stereo rocked right out of the box. I contemplate buying an older tdi for my run-around car and using the GMC Envoy for boat towing only, as wifey will be using the Prii exclusively as soon as we sell the Lexus pig. (17 mpg) She doesn't want to sell it though, another reason she is upset. She really wanted the TDI, as it almost matched the Lexus in creature comforts.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(sluggo42 @ Sep 3 2006, 04:48 PM) [snapback]313671[/snapback]</div>

"... weird smog rules..." = Diesel is filthy and California doesn't like filthy cars.

While biodiesel is carbon-neutral, it still is particulate-filthy. And it smells like french fries. If you burn fossil diesel it stinks to high heaven. Prius is SULEV (Super-Ultra-Low Emission Vehicle).

VW has a reputation for mediocre build quality. Toyota has a reputation for stellar quality.

Prius has excellent acceleration.

ANY car will give you its best mileage if you drive it "right," and that takes learning and practice. In this respect the only difference between the Prius and the VW is that many Prius owners are concerned enough about the environment to make the extra effort.

Buy the Prius. Of course, the folks on jettachat.com will have a different opinion. But that's only because they don't know... hee hee hee.

 

YES! PETE

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daniel @ Sep 3 2006, 08:10 PM) [snapback]313692[/snapback]</div>

the classic prius is SULEV, but the second gen is even better than that

the 04-06s are AT-PZEV (advanced technology partial zero emissions vehicle)

 

I've owned 4 VW TDI's and liked them a lot. But go with the Prius if you want a more luxurious and bigger car than the Jetta. Also, the Prius CVT (automatic transmission) will provide about the same fuel mileage as the Jetta TDI 5 speed transmissions. The TDI automatics will average a lot less. I don't think the new VW TDI models get as good a fuel mileage as the older ones like I had. Here are some stats.

2005 Super White Prius pkg. #6 30,031 miles 46.74 avg. mpg.

2003 Jetta TDI Silver Wagon Automatic 11,629 miles 31.92 avg. mpg
2001 Jetta TDI Blue Sedan Automatic 39,749 miles 35.85 avg. mpg
1999 New Beetle TDI Yellow 5 speed 15,843 miles 44.40 avg. mpg
1998 Jetta TDI White Sedan 5 speed 56,456 miles 43.50 avg. mpg

I've just bought another Prius, a 2006 Black pkg. #7.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pault842 @ Sep 3 2006, 03:22 PM) [snapback]313564[/snapback]</div>

Hi Paul, I've owned both cars. A 06 Jetta TDI and a 06 package 8 Prius. Both are excellent automobiles. I had little or no trouble with either car. These are some of the differences: The TDI got better Interstate (65-75 mph) gas milage (it always was 50+ mpg), however when you calculated the overall mpg it feel in the low40's. Thats my experience over the 22,000 miles I've put on the TDI. The interior of the vw definitely had a edge over the prius. The plastic did not seem to be as obvious. I found the sound system to be average. I found the overall comfort of the vw to be greater than the prius simply because the seats were totally adjustable in tilt, vertical adjustments etc. The vw has a 4 year 50,000 mile bumper to bumper compared to the standart 3 yr - 36,000 on the prius (the hybrid stuff on the prius has a longer warranty). I had no problem with getting or pumping the fuel. Once above 45 mph you can't hear the engine. It definitely has more torque than the prius. The prius on the other hand is a better performer overall. Unless you do just long distance high speed driving without any around town motoring the prius will generate another 7-10 mpg making it a bit more fuel stingy. However in my case the prius (option 8) was approx. 5 thousand dollars more expensive than the tdi. It would take me over 75,000 miles of driving just to break even. I purchased the prius because of the toyota rep. for building a good solid car. I like the technology, hybrid, gps, back up camera, blue tooth etc. all in one package. The sound system in the prius is just average. The design of the car - well you either like it or you don't. To cheat the wind you have to look like a wing going thru the air and thats what toyota has accomplished with the prius. You can't go wrong with either car. And yes, you will find faults with both cars - but if I had to choose just one - it would be the prius. Not to mention your doing your part to reduce harmful emissions. Keep in mind the tax credit starts to disappear the end of sept. 06. And you might not get the credit anyway - talk with your tax advisor.

 

VW's reliability over the last number of years has been somewhat lacking... Toyotas often last forever. Think about repair costs, as well as the lower maintenance costs of the Prius (oil changes half as often, never need to replace brake pads, no tranny work to be done, etc...)

 

I also considered a TDI at one point, but I could never get over the perceived unreliability of VWs. Every time I see a new JD Power automobile quality report come out, I notice VW on the lower end of the scale while Toyota tends to be near the top. I don't put a whole lot of stock in surveys, but the general trend can be seen.

The two people I know who drive VWs have had their transmissions changed at least once, whether auto or manual. I'm sure many people have no problems with their VWs, but when I factor in the difficulty of actually getting a TDI here in California, the Prius is an easy choice.