50K miles a year, is the Prius right for me?

How about getting the very best mpg vehicle possible for your commute and get a hybrid version of whatever type of Toyota you wife most likes the look of?

It used to be that if you wanted a hybrid car you had to except whatever kind of ugly the Prius designers dumbly decided on. These days you can have a beautiful looking hybrid Lexus, or Corolla or Camry that actually looks like it was designed by a responsible team of adults and not a bunch of 8 year olds.

Also, it goes without saying that if you buy a used one or two year-old car from a private owner/seller that your overall cost is about 1/3 less. Don't let financing offers of brand new make you think it's more affordable unless you're a millionaire. Pay cash for used and do the transaction with solid security around, like at your bank. Find a seller that has to sell fast at a low price!

 

gen 4 is an unknown quantity long term

gen 3 has head gasket/egr issues around 100k

gen 2 are too old for you

 

Nice personalized avatar.

 

Your commute seems ideal for a hybrid.
California will treat your car right.
If you chose a Prime, there are HOV perks.
Toyota makes more normal hybrids as well, Avalon and Camry, but without HOV perks.

Choose a car that you will like, it will last longer because you care for it.

 

Camry hybrids push all your buttons 2019 Toyota Camry Hybrid Sedan | Smart tech. Bold thinking.
Unless HOV perks help one of you 2018 Toyota Prius Prime Plug-In Hybrid | Let's imagine the new possible.

 

My wants:
- Comfort, lots of it.
- 47+ MPG Highway.
- Reliability.

You won't find that kind of "comfort" in a Prius. Or sporty performance. No zero to 60 in 4 seconds. The Avalon or Lexus Hybrids would have more comfort. Not sure what their mpg is.

Wife wants:
- Reliable
- 40+ MPG Combined
- Safety

If she is fine in a noisy 2002 Civic, then any of the Prius models would probably suit her. Even the more basic Two or Three.

Strongly suggest you go rent a Prius for the weekend, and take it on a long drive at freeway speeds. Drive it briskly, just like your Infiniti. Take the same route to work.The first thing you might norice is road noise. Lots of it. And evaluate the seat comfort. Or lack of it. Test the audio system. Decide if you are ok with the moderate acceleration, CVT groan, engine growl. Stomp on it! The Prius is a great car, for what it is. Just dont have over-lofty expectations. It is not without flaws; has its share of recalls and drawbacks. Read all the complaints in these forums, some are very valid. Rent one FIRST, for a whole week if you can.

 

There are other hybrids you could consider too. The Hyundai Ioniq is basically their version of the Prius, and the base "Blue" model actually beats the Prius in terms of mpg (I think it was rated 57 highway/59 city/58 mpg combined) if you can live with a bare-bones trim. Hyundai's got a really long warranty on their battery system too, and they support Android Auto/Apple Carplay if you have a smartphone, which basically lets you use Google Maps/Waze on your car's center dash.

Toyota still doesn't support Android Auto, and I think Apple Carplay is only available on a few of their cars. Not sure why they're dragging their feet on this awesome function that's becoming available in many cars today.

There's also its relative, the Kia Niro, which shares the same powertrain but is in a small crossover body. It just sits slightly higher than a sedan, but the crossover shape is kind of appealing.

Both of them also offer plug-in hybrid variants if you want to try to snag a CA carpool sticker. And living in CA, you'll probably have an easier time finding those than I would out in the Midwest.

Check out the Honda Clarity too, which is available in plug-in hybrid, battery only, and hydrogen fuel cell. The latter two probably wouldn't work for you, but the plug-in hybrid version can do 47 miles on electric, then gets around 42 mpg on gas. It's also a mid-size sedan, and you can fit 3 adults comfortably in the back if needed. Honda is also re-releasing their Insight lineup, which will come in a sedan form this time (vs the liftback of its previous gens). They also pack a lot of safety features in it, though the Clarity is pricier.

But if you're just looking for a Prius, for the most part you can't go wrong with those. Like others have mentioned, take a close look at the Prime, mostly for the solo HOV lane access stickers. Just keep in mind it's not designed to be a sports car, though they at least try to emulate Tesla with the higher trims having that large screen in the center dash.

 

Sorry bro but suggesting a Hyundai or Kia (same company) is a bad idea, a really bad idea. Nobody I know that have every owned either has ever had a good experience.

 

Prius or Camry Hybrid is my recommendation. And see if there's a version of the Prius that still gets you an HOV sticker, because that would seal the deal for me.

 

I would consider the Prime, not sure about EV charging in that region but if you can plug in can accomplish a couple things. One is, better fuel economy over the Gen 4 Prius and reduced fuel cost, another perk would be free charging. Plus with EV driving there's less wear and tear on the ICE over time. For instance, I've got about ~400 some odd miles on the tank and about ~80% of those were EV miles. So you could have 50,000 miles on the car and lets just say 50% of the time you were in EV mode, the ICE would only have 25,000 miles of driving. So even if issues are found with the Gen 4 ICE it will probably take a lot longer for it to appear on the Prime. I do know here in the forums someone did already have 116k on their 2016 Prime... I had 61k on mine when I got my Prime last month.

The nice thing is you don't always have to plug in if you can, I will say that I enjoy driving it in EV, so there's that. There's a lot of flexibility, you can change modes, charge the battery back up while driving and so on.

 

As far as comfort goes the Avalon hybrid works, my 4 year average mileage is 36.3 but I do mostly city driving, on long trips I have seen a consistent 41 mpg.
Hybrid battery life is a function of age and mileage, age being really important, with the number of mies you drive a year 300k on the battery should happen.

 

Besides Rent-A-Wreck (Enterprise), you will likely be better served by renting from a Toyota dealership. Most Toyota dealerships participate in this program. Toyota Rent a Car

Ideally, the vehicle rental fee would be refunded or applied to the purchase price of whatever Prius you bought from that dealership.