Prius v to Suburban and back

My daily driver is a v3 however recently on our family vacation in Utah and Wyoming, I drove a rented Suburban for over 1400 miles. We needed a vehicle of this size because we had six people with some luggage (mostly bulk not weight). My first choice would have been a minivan but none were available in Salt Lake City unfortunately.

As you can imagine, the transition from Prius to Suburban and back was pretty dramatic. A few observations:

1. Ultimately on the highway, the Prius v and Suburban seemed to handle about the same. From the edmunds web site, I calculate 24 pounds/hp for the Prius and 18 pounds/hp for the Suburban. So the power to weight ratio is better in the Suburban but it did not feel all that much more powerful.

2. Getting used to the bulk of the Suburban was hard. It took a whole day of driving before I became comfortable handling a vehicle of this size.

3. The effort needed to move both the steering and pedals in the suburban was substantially higher despite power assistance in the Suburban. When I came back to my Prius, I had to consciously reduce the amount of strength in my arms and legs.

4. I got 16.6 MPG for the trip in the Suburban which is not bad I guess if you distribute it over six people. On the other hand, my Prius v gave me 48 MPG on a road trip with five people.

5. The biggest surprise was that the interior room in the Prius is *much* better. Despite the great bulk of the Suburban, my family commented many times about the lack of room compared to the Prius, especially for the front passenger. Overall, the Prius feels more roomy. My impression is that the high ground clearance in the Suburban greatly reduces the vertical passenger volume.

Finally, we a saw a Prius v3 in Grant Village in Yellowstone Park with New Hampshire plates. I wonder if it belongs to one of the members of this forum. If so, I would be very interested hear how the cross country trip went in the Prius.