Ready to buy if route makes sense

You shouldn't have any issues. Climbing steep hills (which you don't seem to have) and short trips are big MPG killers.

 

I live in a very hilly area and am getting 45mpg on average in mine (20 miles R/T daily, 30-35 mph). I may not be getting amazing mileage in the Prius, but the way I look at it is that I wouldn't getting above-average mileage in any other car either - every car is going to show an MPG hit on hilly terrain.

 

You seem like you have a good commute candidate for a Plug In Prius, especially if you could plug in at work.

 

I was thinking the same thing, even if OP couldn't plug in, the PIP would be pretty ideal for this commute. Still, even with a conventional Prius, I think they would do quite well. If the 30 - 60 minute drive is slow and go vs stop and go, their mileage would be stupendous! But the OP needs to let us know that detail. Even if stop and go, they will beat 40 mpg. In that type of traffic, a coventional vehicle will struggle mightily. All that pointless idling will be burning gas.

 

Since you didn't say so, I assume no plug in possible at work?

 

I always get my best MPGs when I hit traffic on the way home as compared to a high rate of speed. As a matter of fact I won't take the HOV lane if I know that it will be going too fast, because I can get 10% better mileage by taking the alternate route even though there is more traffic.

Once you learn how to drive the car, you can easily get 57 mpg actual in the nicer weather, no A/C. Most days I get about 63 mpg on the display which is really about 60 mpg actual.

I agree, if you can afford it and especially if you can plug in at work, the PiP would be the best solution for you hands down! Probably a great solution even if you can't plug in at work.

 

I have a ~9 mile commute to work in the morning, and there are quite a number of stop lights on the way to work. Average speed is ~60 km/hr (38mph). I use the A/C everyday and I still managed to get 4.4 L/100km (53 mpg) on my first tank of gas. So I think you should be alright

 

The last 6,000 miles on trip A with several fillups has an
indicated 55.3 mpg for about 52.5 mpg true. Winter mpg's
run around 47 to 48 mpg true.

 

Most of the time it's slow-and-go. This is ideal for max MPG's with a Prius. Occasionally stop-and-go if theres an accident. Not ideal, but better in a Prius than any other car. Best for PIP of any sort. Usually in that case I will take an alternate route that is more back roads and residential. In that case it's stop signs and limited to 25 mph, but it beats just sitting there. Not ideal, but better in a Prius. You'll beat 50 mpgs easy. I can adjust drive time to mostly avoid stop-and-go if my kids don't mind sitting in the school parking lot for 1/2 hr.

Edit: PiP and Volt would be ideal, but we won't get much of the tax credit due to mortgage interest and child credits. Also, dealers around here want MSRP. The payback period in my case is way too long even at double what we are paying for gas right nowPayback period? Why does your car need to have a payback period. I got leather seats in my car.....what is the payback period for those rather than cloth seats? You see, this question doesn't make sense in that context. No one can tell me the payback period for a Mustang GT vs a 6 cyl Mustang either. Just because a car saves you at the pump (and in cash flow) doesn't mean it has to have a payback period. (grumble)

 

What are electric rates like there?

If you are truly concerned about the payback then a trim level 2 has to be your only option, correct?

And you haven't answered if you have a plug available at work or not.

 

Living in the NOVA area and having perhaps a similar commute. The issue could be the actual route of your commute, and more importantly your driving habits and willingness to change them.

Looking at Fuelly and my stats gives you perhaps one of the best case scenarios.

krazypriuslady on here might be closer to what a more average driver can expect:

Prius 3 (Toyota Prius) All Fuel-ups | Fuelly

Another user on here, bigsteve in Richmond VA is another that shows what an average driver in our area can get:

Prius (Toyota Prius) | Fuelly

FYI - I live in Reston and work in Tyson's. About a 10 mile each way commute. I am loving my less stressful commute now that I am just driving according to what the speed limits require (generally between +3-5 over the posted). I avoid the Dulles Toll Road when ever possible.

In the end the Prius will give you better mpg's than most any other car out there if you give it a chance. Some of my highlights not showing in Fuelly (single/road trip on the trip that don't count towards the total tank) - Tyson's to Crystal City in evening rush hour on I66, 70+mpg's; a trip today from Reston to Tyson's via back roads to Rockville MD via 495 back to Reston via 495 and the Dulles Toll Road, 64.1mpgs. For this last trip when not on the highway the AC was off, and on the highway the AC was set to 6 degrees below the ambient temp. I kept at the posted or +5 for most of the trip when traffic allowed.

Now the two #'s above are the computer telling me this, but actual is on average 5% less. Still not bad!

 

It sounds like you are favoring the PiP over the Volt due to the absence of the full tax credit available for a Volt purchase. That is understandable to a certain degree but I would encourage you to test drive the Volt and make a judgment after you have driven both of them.

Now for the disclaimer. I just joined Prius Chat today and I'm a Volt owner. I'm definitely not a hater of the PiP but I don't quite understand why people, in general, would buy a PiP over the Volt. I want plug ins to thrive and hope that PiP owners are as happy with their purchase as I am with mine. So I'm going to search here to try to better understand the PiP and where it might make sense over the Volt. I'm sure there are plenty of instances where it might makes sense and the original commenter in this thread might be better served with a PiP rather than the Volt.

I too am in the DC area but my commute is 50 miles round trip, I charge at work and I frequently go at highway speed and so the Volt is more practical than the PiP for me plus I bought the Volt in March 2011 so the PiP wasn't even an option.

 

There are graphs/charts out there that show what type of mileage the Volt is best suited for. Search in the alt fuels forum.

 

Even with tax breaks in the best of cases the Volt and PIP are hard for many of us to justify. In California they are enjoying a special HOV status that we lost on hybrids in NOVA in the last year or so. The whole tax break thing is for the Pancake House LOL

In a perfect world an truly electric car would be best for the both of us, MAYBE. At least in my case the Prius is the perfect car in my fiancé's and me car driving needs. The other car, a Yaris works well as second car. But the Prius is our go to car for longer trips. And for the times we have similar work schedules - we both work retail hours. And our condo has yet to imbrace a charging station.

 

Welcome aboard, but hope that you don't mind if some of us look at your post as gorilla marketing....

One has to look at Edmunds to see the shortcomings as a regular car in the garage over a standard Prius for many of us. And maybe for some the PIP works....and for others the Volt....Glad that you can charge at work... Not many have that option at any cost

 

I guess that's the downside of being late to a well established forum.... I searched there and, man, there are a lot of threads. It's going to take awhile to dig through the information. I previously saw that there is an attempt to gather real world data from PiP drivers and that's pretty cool. I also saw that one of the people helping on that task is a prodigious Volt commenter as well. If he's as valuable to this community as he is to the Volt's community you're lucky to have him.

 

Not sure what gorilla marketing exactly is but I think I infer the concern. Let's put it this way. This is your home and I know some Volt owners didn't respond well to a well known Prius fan coming over to "our" home to constantly disparage the Volt.

I was trying to be forthcoming about my interest and also to get some real world feedback from real PiP customers. Like I said, I hope the PiP is a hit, but I just don't quite understand the niche for the PiP yet.