Why compare a Prius to a Corolla?

Prius vs Corolla?

Apples and Oranges.

The Corolla is a CHEAP economy car. Granted a great value, and noted Toyota reliability - but non-the-less it's designed to be an inexpensive economy car.

Prius is a technological BREAKTHROUGH that not ONLY has awesome gas mileage AND Toyota reliability, but it has been designed to be a great drive AND has all the best in tech gadgets AND rivals luxury vehicles in many ways.

There's simply no comparison.


Yoda

 

I see these arguments all the time. I agree with you, you can't compair the prius. If you are going to, you have to find a car with a safety record, gas mileage, features, and anything else you can think of.. that matches the prius. Doesn't happen.

I could go into detail about the cost and how other companies can't build this car for it's price.. but i won't. in fact, i wrote it and deleted it to spare people the pain of having to read it.

Other people argue that the high saving with gas are not worth it. true. With the prius you save in gas and in maintenance. Toyota's design is supposed to last 500k miles. No transmission to replace.. there is none. so.. that's 3k?

3,000 saved over the time of the car.

our car now cost 3k less.

Everyone can do their own math with fuel. for me, i save thousands. I drive 175 miles a day, 6 days a week. I have to do an oil change 1 time every month. I could save in oil.. but i buy expensive oil. others could tally this in.

It's simply an awesome car. I enjoy pulling up to a stop light and seeing 1, 2, 3 or possibly even 4 other prius all at the stoplight with me. It's very cool. Same for the highway.

 

Well soon we will be able to make a real comparison, when the Corolla is available as a hybrid. Of course the Prius may be an entirely different car by then and the Corolla is using an outdated technology and Prius drivers will be driving something else! To go before.

 

I think the opinion guys are trying to come up with a comparison such as HCH vs Civic, Escape hybrid vs Escape, Accord hybrid vs Accord, you know.

Even the HiHy has a standard-engine comparison basis. We could compare the 1G Prius to the Echo, but the 2G isn't really comparable.

 

I would agree on merits of options that the Prius is more comparable to the Camry. Size wise if I remember correctly it is a little over 6 ft bigger than a Corolla and a little over 5 ft smaller than a Camry, so neither one is a completely objective comparison.



However, I think your question is getting at a larger issue that so many in the many feel the need to show how a car that is getting lots of awards and selling like hotcakes is not all that good of a deal. I would like to thank that it is more of a hate the cool kid human thing rather than against the Prius per se.


Either way, it is irritating. I just make it a point to enlighten those who mentioned the Corolla comparison.


My comparison is as follows (I thought of this the other day with a friend who quoted something about it taking ten years to recoup my gas savings.)

Compare my Prius to my other car a Ford Taurus, which is somewhat bigger but not by much. At any rate, I told him the sticker price was about the same ($22K for a Taurus actually). but I getting twice the combined mileage that I was getting in it and have already saved $450 in 8 months for $675 a year in gas savings. Even if I assumed several thousands dollars in rebates and a grand or so in haggling, the Taurus is only 1K less than the Prius. At $675 a year in gas, I make up the difference in a year in a half.

Just for giggles, I went to Ford and priced a base level Taurus with ABS and CD player and it is $19635 (after $3K worth of rebates--seems pretty standard on the car). With 3K of rebates, maybe a good haggler could get more off making it a $2000 difference....still only 3 years before gas savings make up for it.


The Prius is immune to the comparisons like the HiHybrid, Civic Hybrid and others, but not immune to the Corolla or even Echo comparison.

 

I'm 6'3" and no longer a skinny youth so I tend too think in terms of interior room. I've owned a corona and a corolla (92) and picked them partly because the interior room at least subjectively exceeded the competition. When I got my prius, I thought "wow, look at all this space". My still skinny tall teen's first comment on jumping into the back seat concerned how much roomier it was than the corolla. Curious, I sat in a camry and it subjectively was the same size as the prius. I checked my wife's highlander which is supposedly built on a camry chasis and it now seems cramped because of the monster center console.

Incidentally, that corolla is one of the best cars I've owned. I've tought two boys to drive a stick on it and its been nearly maintenance free (except for that clutch that failed for some reason) and got 33 mpg.

 

I agree that it's an "envy, gotta spoil the people doing well" kinda thing. I don't see a lot of articles or debate that categorizes cars into discrete, all or nothing categories.

If someone says the Corolla is better economy wise over five years, and a used Corolla is better still; then, I say fine. IF they're driving that Corolla, then I'd congratulate them for the acumen.

I didn't buy the Prius b/c I thought I couldn't spend less over a given period of time. I bought it to:
a) consume less fuel (THAN MY JEEP)
B) be environmentally friendly and consciencious
c) support the leading edge in this particular technology

mtc

ps - and of course d) associate myself with the coolest folks

 

If buying cars was supposed to be a purely rational, economics based experience, who could justify buying a $60,000 Mercedes or an upteenthousand Lexus.

It was hardley completely rational for me to upgrade from a 2003 civic hybrid to a 2005 Prius. But at the end of the day, something told me I had to have the Prius. And I don't regret one extra dollar.

Not to mention the $3434 Colorado tax credit and the $2000 federal tax deduction.

At least when we are indulging ourselves a bit by buying a Prius, we are not buying 12 miles per gallon gas guzzlers.

I consider the Prius the next level. Yes, I am making a statement, but a statement that I hope will influence others. If the gas mileage won't completely get them, then maybe the "cool" factor will. Either way, the planet benefits and we have a bit of fun too at the same time.

 

I do understand the comparison to the Corolla, and even agree to some extent. The two cars have the same ICE, so at some level they are alike. A hybrid Corolla, when it appears, will resemble the Prius even more strongly.

If the nay-sayers want to nickel-and-dime the Prius, insist on justification for all its extra features, and demand an accounting for savings on fuel, let 'em. They're right; a balance sheet won't make them feel better.

It's beside the point, though. I agree with tstreet above; the Prius is a statement which we pay to make that can ultimately help to save civilization (if not the actual planet) by staving off the end of oil. I want to encourage my fellow travelers to invest in whatever the next step may be.

Fifteen years from now, whatever we can still drive will resemble the Prius much more than it will any of the phallic symbols touted by its detractors.

 

Heck if you wanted to save money you should have gotten a used Toyota Echo for $5k. Even with gas prices you would still save money. However, I got the Prius more than just for the money. Since biodiesel and natural gas is not readily available for cross country trips the Prius is the next best thing for the environment. It is spacious and versitile for my means and I love all the gadgets (especially the SKS, heck you could get rid of everything but the SKS and I would still buy it ). My old ride was a 15 MPG F250 King Ranch and I do not feel I have sacrified any comfort. An added bonus is that it fits in my garage.

 

Good point about the resale value of the Taurus, which we all know is no contest to the resale of Toyota makes. (edit: According to Kelley, the resale for a 13 year old Camry is 2K more than a 13 year old Taurus!)

We looked at several cars as well (Corolla, Camry, Matrix) when shopping and found that the Corolla was just too small for me at 6'5"--I literally couldn't fit! We had decided that we would get a Camry if we couldn't get a Prius, and I would still pick the Prius over the Camry.

 

If I wanted a Corolla I'd have bought a Corolla
I wanted a Prius so I bought a Prius
why do people still persist in comparing Grapes to Dog Sh*t. I used to think we were a little further down the evolutionary road, but I guess not.

 

well then. now that we know how you feel on THAT issue :lol:

 

Oooppsss sorry! I just find this sort of questions dumber than the bag the hammers came in. Have a look around, see all those different cars and trucks, they were all bought for a reason a Prius isn't a Dodge Ram pickup as a Ford 500 isn't a VW Passat most buying decisions aren't made on a rational basis. People walk on to dealer lots and look around and say Hey I like "that" car, truck, SUV what ever. NOT lets see which one fits my budget and gets the mileage and has the features I have to "Have" which is another subjective thing. How many people even research the car they are buying? Probably less than 15-20% I've known people who bought new vehicles and were p**s off because when the got it home it wouldn't fit in their car port. If we all plugged in the features that were required for our new vehicle it'd have 52 windows and be owned by the local transit authority.

 

If they really want to make a cost comparison, with payback as the highest measure, then they shouldn't be looking at new cars at all. A 3-5 year old Toyota is probably the best value on the market.

Instead, they need to look at why peole buy a new car, and what are their likely alternatives. The intersting thing abot the Prius is that there isn't anything like it out there. The Corolla is smaller and nowhere near as cool. The Camry is a bit wider but not available in a five-door.

The cool factor (styling, Nav, SKS, etc) is a draw, too, and as a package isn't really like anything else out there.

I bought it to have reliability, coolness, roominess, economy for my commute, coolness, low pollution-guilt, and did I mention coolness?

Nothing else was on my list for comparision. Over its lifetime, it's probably on a par with a Corolla or Camry in terms of life cycle cost, so I chose on coolness.

 

KTPhil
yup you mentioned that Coolness was on your list, as it was on mine. I also live with an asthamatic and low pollution was a major factor as well.

 

The only comparison I care about and pay attention to is the one my state uses to calculate the Alternative Energy Credit of $1,500, the maximum allowed. The state refunds the initial cost difference between Prius and their reference car, a Corolla. Fine by me. I hope they're as generous with HiHy and upcoming Camry and Tundra hybrids since I own one and am in line for the others.

 

If we look at media practices, journalists frequently compare apples to oranges and sell it off as if they were comparing apples to apples. Print editors and broadcast news directors are willing to allow this type of stuff to go on in order to make the story happen. No wonder we don't trust the media or the news they bring us. :cussing:

This leads to the Prius. It is a unique vehicle in Toyota's lineup. And it has no fair comparisons in the market. I'm inclined to believe that was Toyota's goal. The Prius is a product of a project that is well over 10 years old at Toyota called G21. As the project name implies, it was a design project that would build a vehicle for the 21st century. And the results are the previous and current Prius designs. It wasn't designed to compete with the Camry, Corolla or Taurus. It was designed to stand on its own, be evaluated in its own right and perform differently and better than other vehicles.

I don't honestly have enough background on G21 to comment on all of its goals, but in general it was to build a vehicle for the 21st century, and I think it has hit it on the head. A rather compact vehicle with a great deal of interior space, comfort and refinement (Chrysler used to call this Cab Forward design) that was also very fuel efficient.

Oh well, I will endure the continuing media ignorance of how to report on this product. Yet another black eye for free journalism.