Your Opinion: Prius TWO or Prius TWO Eco?

I like rear wipers, but with the steeply raked Prius rear window, the blocked-out central strip, the lower glass never cleaned and encrusted with salt rime in the depths of winter, and with the wiper being a miniscule blade that sweeps such a small area, whether it's there or not becomes moot.

 

There's only one car I put money down on sight unseen and Toyota doesn't make it.

I suspect Twos & TwoEcos will be a dime a dozen when the ships start unloading. Test drive both cars and form your own opinion.

 

I've Personally blown out 2 tires (Buick ultra, mazdaspeed 3) as well as thier corresponding rims (one was repairable for around $200 and the other rim was trashed and cost lots of money due to the wonderful Pa potholes.. Had a couple other repairable flats as well since living out here. My wife had a blowout in our old Prius three due to a large rock in the roadway that was unavoidable.

Never had a flat with my Persona when I had it, granted I ran 44/42 psi with those low profile tires which I think made them more resistant to flating out on potholes) and Knock on wood no flats as of yet with the v.

Flats suck especially if you are away from civilization... So I guess it depends on your wants and needs.

On the flip side, that is the reason why I think the wiper is so useful. The amount of visibility we all know is limited due to the split rear window so add to that as you say salt covered rear window, that's when having a rear wiper with washer fluid is nice to have. It just gives you that extra bit of visability especially when conditions are not optimal. It sure beats not having one and trying to look out said salt covered rear window..

 

Seems like the lower glass, below the spoiler, gets a lot more rime build-up, due to it being vertical I think. The one time that wiper is worthwhile I think is with snow building up on the glass. Rolls Royce would be a wiper with blade that remains vertical, moves laterally across the glass, like one of this:

 

The reason why Prius 4 doesn't have a spare tire is because it's already too expensive and they wanted to cut the cost down a little. Toyota chose to not provide a spare-tire well in cars without a spare tire but provided extra cargo space. I wish they wouldn't do that so that people would have an option to buy a spare tire as an accessory.

 

i heard it was due to offsetting weight of other accessories.

 

That was Honda's reasoning with Fit, at one point: the manual transmission had the spare, while the automatic sub'd a slime kit. Basically to drop the weight a bit, allow the automatic version to get slightly better mpg, stay in some category, and ultimately sweeten their bottom line.

But for a couple of hundred you could easily swap back to the temporary spare setup, the well under the hatch floor was compatible with both versions.

With the 4th gen Prius this is not easily done, unfortunately. I don't mind when folks tell me they know what's best for me. What does start to rankle: when they make sure to nix the alternatives.

 

it's going to be interesting to see what it looks like back there, between all the models.

 

According to fueleconomy.gov, the difference in fuel savings is about $4 a month. I'd rather have the extra standard equipment on the Prius two.

 

Really? That's it? Oh wow! So like 10-11 years to make up the $500 surcharge assuming gas stays cheap. Plus no rear wiper or spare tire.

I guess if gas skyrockets....

 

Full size spare, Compact spare and No spare options are all shown in the 2016 Prius manual (See pdfs below).

I like the option with the Full Size spare. I don't really want a Compact spare and I really don't want one without a spare.

I really doubt that the sheetmetal is any different between the options. Even if the full size spare doesn't come standard in North American models, I assume it should be possible to get the necessary OEM inserts and covers to change to Full size spare .

 

I honestly think that's good advice.

I wouldn't bother or be pressured into putting a deposit down just to get one of the "first". I wouldn't make this decision sight unseen.
I'd definitely want to see both, and I'd make my decision then.

I might be wrong, but I don't project the demand to be so great that once they start arriving at dealerships it's impossible to look at either or both.

Unless there was a tangible reason I needed one ASAP, I'd wait until I could see what I'm buying.

 

Fuel efficiency is an option like leather, audio, window tinting, bumper guard, or an expensive paint color. What is the pay-back interval for them?

The one with the gold gets to choose and some of us value efficiency and spend time and money to accomplish it.

Bob Wilson

 

Totally agree. That's why I put the personal qualifier in my post.

 

Yup. $500. It's pretty significant for a measly 5% boost in fuel economy. You can completely make up the added cost over a 120k mile ownership and purchase a spare off Craigslist. And that's if gas prices stay low. When gas does go up, your payback shortens. And you get the luxury of 3 door SKS and auto on/off headlights.

P.S. Notice what I did there?

 

If you are set on a 16, I would go up one step to a 3, in the long run the price difference won't matter and look at what you get.

 

Oh yea? And what is the pay-back period for all that car bling! <grins>

Sorry, 'low hanging fruit' and not personal.

Bob Wilson

 

yeah, but I love bling, and I learned my lesson by owning a new 11 Prius 2. I think if I had sprung for a 4 I'd still have a Prius rather than an Avalon Hybrid (talk about bling) which I like very much.

 

i put $500. down on my pip, site unseen. and i had never driven a g3, let alone their first phev. i don't think you can make a mistake with prius. i wouldn't hesitate to do it on a g4.