Prius vs. Corolla

Prius vs. Corolla, the age old question

most of you know my prius is smashed up and in for repair. In the meantime I'm in a rented Corolla.

So.. I'll try objectively point out the difference in the two of them...

Prius I own: '05 Seaside Pearl, AM pacakge (sks, side curtain bags, back window wiper)

Corolla thats Rented: 04-'05 Corolla CE I honestly don't know the package thats on it

Visually from the outside in--

Body:
Prius- hatchback
Corolla- typical sedan

Storage:

Prius: as a result of the hatchback, I have more storing/ hauling capabilities, including whats under the floor boards in the back for more things. The rear seats fold down, so oversized items aren't a problem, and the front passenger seat folds flat, so I can haul extra long items and still close everything up

Corolla: Typical trunk storage, can't haul something as large as say an Ijoy massage chair (which would fit easily into the prius) but still plenty of room. Rear seats fold flat, so longer items can be carried. Haven't tried the front seat yet, as I haven't had to worry about it.




Doors:

Prius: I'm spoiled by the sks-- just walk up and stick my hand in the door, completely keyless as long as the key is on me somewhere at the time that I do this. Heck, it could be as little as a finger or two into the actual door handle, and the car will unlock all of its doors for me (you have to reprogram the car in order to do this, instructions are easy and found on prius chat). Trunk opens the same way, reach in and up and push the button, as soon as the car recognizes the key is there, it will open for you. Also the other option is to hit unlock twice on the key fob and all doors will open.

corolla: Key gets stuck into the door, inconvient when carrying large packages, or working with relatively rowdy kids. Trunk doesn't have the same options as prius, key has to be inserted again. Transitioning to the system takes time after being spoiled by the sks.




Windows:

Prius: Front window is huge, only major gripe here is the damn small side window-- that beam up there sometimes block the view of traffic. Can't see the hood of the car either as its a short car front.
Rear window: This takes some getting used to, its spilt, and for a while looking in the rearview mirror it might be hard to tell where to look, but with practice/time it gets easier to know where to look, and what you're look for. Also, the back window is split-- the split right in the middle has the high rear brake light in it, and this is positioned at the right height for night driving, blocking the lights of the traffic behind you. Lower portion of the split window is tinted, and not difficult to see out of at night as one might initially think.

Corolla: Standard size front window. Again, I can't see the hood of the car/where it ends, but I have a better feeling for it. Rear window, after driving the prius for months on end, I'm adapted to the split, and used to using it when night driving as an aide to help block off the lights.

cleaning the windows at the gas station:

Prius: Front windows, not a problem-- bugs and splattered road debris come right off, never treated with rain-x or any other cleaner to improve this. The back window how ever is a trick. The back window upper portion cleans nicely, despite the fact that the rear wiper has to be held up on the top. The rear lower portion is a problem, that squeege doesn't FIT in up under there, so its almost always filthy.

corolla: Front window loaded with bugs, don't clean that nicely, again I don't know if its because its never been treated with anything. Rear window cleaned up nicely.



Headlights:

Prius: I love the lights that are on the car, they are bright, and annoyingly blinding at night without the highbeams being on. On a two lane road unlit, they clearly carry for an adequate distance and width. Fog lights are a bit dimmer but I guess thats to be expected, used them twice in all my time of having the car.

Corolla: Bright, but standard lights on it. Adequate, but nothing to write home about.


Interior features:


Seats:

Prius: I spent 6 hours in my car driving along the same stretch of road in both cars... so my butt only fell asleep after about a good four and a half hour sit in the Prius, they are comfortable enough to be adequate, but need lumbar support added to them.

Corolla: My butt was asleep in about 2.5-3 hours of hitting the road. And boy howdy these seats don't compare to the prius's at all. If given a choice, I'd definately look at replacing the corolla seats with the prius ones.


Shifter:

Prius: On the dash, takes a little getting used to as everything is on the dash. Once its explained its simple to use, and easy. Convient that its located on the read out section (technical term escapes me) and you don't have to look down to see it. Parking brake is to the left by the door, step on it to set it.

Corolla: Floor shifter, easy to read layout of it. nothing fancy. Parking break is located right next to it.


starting the car:

Prius: I have an option. I can get into my car, slip my foot on the break, hit the power button and drive without the key in the slot, or I can insert it. It all depends on how I feel about it, or where the key is. The only drawback to not inserting it is the fact that you run down the key's battery a bit faster than usual.

Corolla: Standard operation: Sit down, turn key, engine starts.


Spedometer:

Prius: Reads it out in written digital numbers-- its a reflection of whats coming out below, so don't put anything up on the dash that would potentially wind up in that area. Convient for knowing almost exaclty how fast you are going-- checking it against several gps (global positioning units) with built in landspeed tells me that the spedometer is only off by 1-2 mph. The only draw back to the LARGE and not hard to read display is traveling with people that don't like it when you're even 1mph over the speed limit and they can clearly see that you're speeding, can't claim a paralax error there.

Corolla: Needle type gauge, which makes me miss the prius even more. I like to be able to take a quick glance and know how fast I'm going, but its impossible now for me to do that, and I spend more time trying to read that.


Average MPG-- test was done on the same stretch of road from 80-94 to 65 s to 70 east... filled the cars up at the same station and tracked just how well the MPG stood up.

Prius: Averaged 45.6mpg on that particular stretch of road.
corolla: Averaged about 39.9 mpg

clearly its a close call. I arrived at my final destination with the corolla still having a half tank of gas, and only three bars remaining on the prius-- but those three bars were indictive of another 5-6 gallons (approx half tank) of gas left. Prius Has a GUESS gauge-- most of the guess work should be taken out of it if you simply realize the tank has about 10-12 gallon capacity (err to the side of caution and go with 10) and you can take your average MPG and miles driven on the tank, and then... divide them out and come out with how much gas you've used... on average.

As for city/highway driving mixed up The prius that I drive has a lifetime average of 46.7 mpg... its boosted by the fact that I do get better mileage if I'm doing long stints of city driving, shorter jaunts will ruin the gas mileage. The corolla's single half tank before I left with mixed driving was only around 28.9mpg.


Handling:

Prius: I added a BT tech chasis stiffening plate to my car for a reason, better handling. With this plate I've noticed a huge improvement in the actual ability to steer/remain in control of the vehicle when faced with road debris. Stomp stay steer-- with the prius it responds nicely

Corolla: everything on it is stock. When faced with road debris (truck blew a tire out and I had to avoid the chunk of rubber in the road) the actual car itself doesn't respond to well, I don't like the handling of it as it seemed looser than something that I would be used to.



Handling at highspeeds:

Prius: I've had my prius up to 93mph once... no real problems/feedback from the wheel.

Corolla: Anything over 65-70mph I was experiencing major feedback/vibration in the steering wheel.


Freak out Feature:

Prius has what I call the freak feature.. the fact that your friends get into the car and go "OMG your car just died at the light"! Its funny, and fun to mess with them.


Climate control:

Prius: Set a temperature for the car with auto a/c on and the car will automatically determine the blower strength and coldness of the air coming out. Its good if you like popsicles out your nose in the summer, or dry desert noses in the winter. Its not particularly fun as you have little control over it, but if you shut off the auto feature you can control the fan speed and things like in a normal car. Prius temperature ranges are from 65-85 degrees F, anything outside that range is "max cold" or "max hot"

Corolla: no temperature zones, typical knob to be turned, three "zones" for the knob to be in-- blue- cold/a/c white- um... room temperature? red- hot/heat.



Cup holders:

Prius: two upfront in the center console area, door pockets are big enough to hold 1L pop bottles. Back seat, two more cup holders in the flip down area, both are of a "standard" size

Corolla: Two upfront, no additional holders, back seat, two more, can be sized out a little differently than the standard ones-- holds cups real well.



Horn:

Prius: easy to find/hit sounds like a toy car horn.

Corolla: easy to find and hit, ... still sounds like a toy car.



If theres something I left out that you're curious to know about let me know. I'm having a ton of fun playing with writting this. I have no background in cars, so I'm just making general observations (kinda like the typical prius buyer/ owner prospective type questions).

Amy