Prius - Buy or not to Buy?

[Brend]

Well, I'm saving up for a car soon and wondering if the Prius is a good idea?

The fuel consumption is very appealing...

Thoughts?

 

[Northstar]

If you like being laughed at and hit on by guys than it's a great idea.

 

[Brend]

haha
Thanks for the input!

 

[Turbonutter]

Too appliance-like for my tastes, but for basic fuel-effecient transportation you could do worse.

 

[Brend]

I see...

 

[Jim Prower]

Get an early 2nd gen.

Then stuff one of these in it.

With a bang-bang anti-lag kit. >:3

Seriously, though, it's nothing a diesel Golf or Jetta can do equally as well, and be a bit more fun at the same time.

 

[Brend]

haha niice.

Well, I was looking at diesels

 

[Perfect Balance]

Did you really just come on a racing game based automotive forum and ask if a Prius was a good idea?

 

[NissanSkylineN1]

Diesels have a lot of torque compared to its power. You might want something like a Camry hybrid or an Accord. A Hyundai Sonata 2L turbo?

 

[JCE]

Buy a superior Corolla, Civic, Miata or Focus if you want good MPG. A Prius is a joke really.

 

[skynyrd]

Or do like I did and get a $300, 20 year old car that gets 40 mpg without looking like a slightly smashed jellybean or sounding like a hairdryer...but I digress.

But honestly if you're just after good mileage, I'd go with a small car from the '80s. But then again, I'm not fond of the Prius.

 

[Danoff]

The current Civic pulls down 36 mpg highway without any hybridness or diesel. When you take into account the price difference, I think you'll find that it's very hard to justify the Prius.

 

[Time_Attack]

Are you a smug, pompous asshole? If so the prius is just the car for you!

Seriously though hybrids are the stupidest thing you could do with your money. If you were to spend lets say $30,000 on a hybrid that gets 40mpg rather than spending lets say $20,000 on a normal car that gets 30mpg how long do you think you will have to own that car before you make up the $10,000 extra you spent buying it on the fuel you saved? Now ask yourself will you own the car that long. Probably not.

There are plenty of great non-hybrid cars out there that still get great fuel economy and cost less. I say shop around more. If I were in Europe I'd buy a nice little turbo diesel something or another, put a chip and injectors in it and have fun while saving gas.

 

[Duke]

I hate Priuses (and, being in a college town, most of the smug, aging hippies that drive them) but be fair to it - it is NOT just fuel economy to be considered. The Prius does offer somewhat lower emissions as well, even compared to other cars of its fuel economy.

That being said, it still contains a whole batch of heavy metals and other toxic crap. So I'd pass.

 

[Time_Attack]

When the prius first came out wasn't it true that all the mining needed to make the batteries did more harm to the earth than the resulting car could ever make up for during its useful lifetime? I heard that somewhere. I'm not sure if its true or if they have improved this part if it is.

 

[deadcell96]

The fuel consumption is very appealing

That's the only appealing thing about that car. Anyway, you are better off getting something like a civic or something. Basically, avoid the Prius like it's the plague. Better yet, don't get a hybrid at all.

 

[BrutherSuperior]

The fuel consumption is very appealing...

Ever hear the concept of diminishing returns? If a Prius gets somewhere around 40mpg and another car you like gets 35mpg, there really isn't that much of a difference in the long run to justify the price premium a hybrid demands.

Now if you're considering two trucks that yield 15mpg and 20mpg, respectively, you'll start to see a savings difference rather quickly;

15mpg @ 15,000 miles/year = 1000gal
20mpg @ 15,000 miles/yer = 750gal
...you save 250 gallons of fuel a year

compared to;

35mpg @ 15,000 miles/year = 428.6 gal
40mpg @ 15,000 miles/year = 375 gal
...you save 53.6 gallons of fuel a year

That's diminishing returns for you.

For 53.6 gallons of fuel, is the Prius worth it economically? No. Factor in the driving dynamics (or complete lack of) and the only reason I really see for owning one is the emotional benefit of saying you own a Prius hybrid.

 

[Eric.]

The current Civic pulls down 36 mpg highway without any hybridness or diesel. When you take into account the price difference, I think you'll find that it's very hard to justify the Prius.

The Si is capable of 35+mpg on highway only trips, even.


Everything in the Prius looks and feels cheap, too.

When the prius first came out wasn't it true that all the mining needed to make the batteries did more harm to the earth than the resulting car could ever make up for during its useful lifetime? I heard that somewhere. I'm not sure if its true or if they have improved this part if it is.

As part of a paper I wrote, a source claimed that building a Prius and driving it 100k miles pollutes the Earth more than building a Hummer H2 and driving it 200k miles.

 

[niky]

Buy a Prius for the convenience, not for the savings.

Realistically, in mixed use, a current generation Prius will get you around 40 mpg or more in driving environments that would see you getting mid-20s from a Civic. On the highway, where you're getting 40 from a Civic, the Prius can get you 60-70 when driven properly.

The fuel savings won't make the purchase, though... But the fact that you don't have to load up so often is very nice.

Maintenance is easy, given you don't live in a harsh climate, as this does have its effect on the batteries...oil changes and brake maintenance are much less than in a regular car, and the Prius is one of the few hybrids to have an excellent reputation for battery longevity on the secondhand market.

It's also a fairly spacious car, with a decent ride and very quiet running. In fact, if you only need a car to commute in, it's an EXCELLENT daily driver.

Only reason I wouldn't get one is it's boring to drive. But it really isn't a bad car... Except for the price tag...

 

[sanmusa]

When we lived in San Jose, CA my wife owned a Prius. On bumper to bumper traffic the car was great as it got near 60 mpg. On trips it was a great car as the trunk is huge, the car is quiet and very comfortable; even rolling at 80 mph we got near 40 mpg.

When driving around, however, it's as exciting as a washing machine. As other have put it, the Prius is an appliance: made from get from point A to B in the least amount of fuel, with a decent level of comfort. It's not a driver's car. The CVT transmission makes it sound like a blender when you floor it, the suspension is all mushy, and, well... it's a gay looking car.

When we moved out of California to Alaska we sold the Prius (and made a profit because suckers were waiting six months for a new one)., and we bought a 08 Subaru Forester. The Forester as a much more fun car to drive, and gas mileage, while not Prius like, was very good: 25 in the city, 32 on the highway.

Today we own that Forester (wife's daily driver), a 95 SAAB 900 Turbo (my daily driver), a 98 Jeep Wrangler (my offroad machine) and a 79 Porsche 911. The SAAB does 25 in the city, 34 in the highway; the Porsche does about 16 in the city and 25 in the highway. The Jeep is a frigging guzzler, does 15 mpg all the time: city, highway, offroad, under water, upside down...

At least now they are all driver's car. All the appliances stay home now.

 

[Roo]

If you're living in Britain, buying new and interested in fuel economy, a VW Polo 1.2TDI Bluemotion will do 8mpg more (80mpg vs 72mpg combined, according to VW and Toyota's UK websites) for £5,800 less than a Prius; it also has no road tax. And your mates won't laugh at you.

 

[Brend]

Right, That Bluemotion sounds great. Just had a look at some videos and pictures etc.

Thanks everyone for the feedback

 

[sanmusa]

I'd take a diesel Polo over a Prius any day.

 

[Stotty]

In the UK they just don't make sense... From what I've read the Prius struggles to do much better than 40mpg in everyday driving, and this can be bettered by any number of small capacity diesels.

A BMW 118d for example, is in another class overall... comparable emissions, far superior performance and >60mpg in the real world.

 

[homeforsummer]

I'd like to point out at this stage that whilst I am interested in "eco cars" (I don't like the term but it's the easiest way to describe the genre), I don't really like the Prius.

For that reason, I wouldn't recommend one.

However...

As part of a paper I wrote, a source claimed that building a Prius and driving it 100k miles pollutes the Earth more than building a Hummer H2 and driving it 200k miles.

I can't find the link at the moment, but I'm fairly sure this was disproven a fair while ago. It was essentially just a load of tosh cooked up by meatheads trying to justify their use of driving Hummers. I've no problem with people driving Hummers but trying to make out like they cause less impact than something like a Prius is a bit daft.

Apart from anything they're about twice the weight. That's already twice the raw materials needed to build the Hummer...

 

[YSSMAN]

I think it would depend more on what you plan to do with the car than anything else. As a daily driver, a Prius is not a terrible option. There is plenty of room, they are very ergonomically pleasing, and ultimately end up being a fairly decent place to be when traveling from place to place. The problem is that Toyota didn't really think about adding any fun to the car until very late in the MKII model years, and now that we are in the MKIII, they do offer a sport-oriented (well, as sporty as it gets anyway) option.

Surprisingly, the early MKII cars are very cheap to come by in the US. I was surprised by how many can be had for right around $10,000. Reliability is supposed to be quite high, and they make it sound like replacement parts are not as ridiculous as one might think. That is very surprising, considering how cutting-edge the cars were when they came out back in 2004.

I personally have a sick, twisted fantasy with buying a black MKII car and going to town with some aftermarket bits and pieces to have it be taken a bit more seriously. A lowered, tightened suspension would liven the car up substantially, as well as changing out the older eco-tires for the modern, less-compromised versions. I wouldn't expect the fuel economy to be altered too much, and surely the overall "fun factor" would increase slightly. Maybe making it drive more like a Corolla S and less like a loaf of bread on wheels...

Still, being that you are in the UK, you have much better options to choose from if you are looking solely at fuel economy. The VW Fox or Polo come to mind in basic transportation, as do some of the diesel Ford Focuses (Foci?) and so on. I'd love to tinker with a Prius myself, but the extra costs involved may not make it worth it to other people.