Thinking of getting a Prius
Discussion
Hello,
I have been thinking about getting a Toyota Prius 2010+ and am after some owners opinions please!
My commute almost sounds like perfect territory for the Prius, lots of frequent journeys per day of approximately 2 miles comprising of a number of traffic lights, low city speeds and lots of traffic! I currently have a 330d which is great on the motorway, 53mpg, but around town my average drops to around 28mpg and is only going to get worse now its getting a lot colder.
I am also looking into the possibility of getting one of the battery pack add ons to allow me to run longer range, according to the spec I was looking at approx. 20m. I could easily cover 95% of my journeys on electric mode. My current payout in fuel is at best £170 a month so say I save £120 + £17(fuel + TAX) a month we're looking at a payback of 3.33yrs and that's without taking into account the extra value added to the vehicle from the plug in kit.
I'd love to hear from owners of these cars with and without the plug-in battery kits, what was it like going from a conventional car to one of these and would you buy again? What are they like to live with on a long term basis, what are they like to drive, quality of the interior? etc Any thoughts on my plans are most welcome!
Thanks!
I have been thinking about getting a Toyota Prius 2010+ and am after some owners opinions please!
My commute almost sounds like perfect territory for the Prius, lots of frequent journeys per day of approximately 2 miles comprising of a number of traffic lights, low city speeds and lots of traffic! I currently have a 330d which is great on the motorway, 53mpg, but around town my average drops to around 28mpg and is only going to get worse now its getting a lot colder.
I am also looking into the possibility of getting one of the battery pack add ons to allow me to run longer range, according to the spec I was looking at approx. 20m. I could easily cover 95% of my journeys on electric mode. My current payout in fuel is at best £170 a month so say I save £120 + £17(fuel + TAX) a month we're looking at a payback of 3.33yrs and that's without taking into account the extra value added to the vehicle from the plug in kit.
I'd love to hear from owners of these cars with and without the plug-in battery kits, what was it like going from a conventional car to one of these and would you buy again? What are they like to live with on a long term basis, what are they like to drive, quality of the interior? etc Any thoughts on my plans are most welcome!
Thanks!
Not a plug-in hybrid, but we have just ordered a Lexus IS300H for my wife.
60mpg around town, really sublime driving experience, quite, refined, and amazing reliably, so whats not to like??
If you are after a 'fun' or 'sporty' drive though, forget it, the slow witted CVT transmission will drive you mad, as will the monotonic drone when it's accelerating. As a 'sports' saloon its awful, its in the same league as the 1.2L Toyota Corolla rental I had to put up with a few years ago.
The IS300H is replacing our diesel Civic, which I've driven quite a bit over the last 12 months, and to be quite frank I cannot wait for our IS300H to be delivered so that I can wave good buy to the rattly diesel engine. But even if Lexus gave me a FREE IS300H as a replacement for my ageing 08 BMW 335i I wouldn't be tempted, not unless Lexus also give me another £30K on top, than I would sell the IS300H and buy a Tesla S
60mpg around town, really sublime driving experience, quite, refined, and amazing reliably, so whats not to like??
If you are after a 'fun' or 'sporty' drive though, forget it, the slow witted CVT transmission will drive you mad, as will the monotonic drone when it's accelerating. As a 'sports' saloon its awful, its in the same league as the 1.2L Toyota Corolla rental I had to put up with a few years ago.
The IS300H is replacing our diesel Civic, which I've driven quite a bit over the last 12 months, and to be quite frank I cannot wait for our IS300H to be delivered so that I can wave good buy to the rattly diesel engine. But even if Lexus gave me a FREE IS300H as a replacement for my ageing 08 BMW 335i I wouldn't be tempted, not unless Lexus also give me another £30K on top, than I would sell the IS300H and buy a Tesla S
Edited by gangzoom on Friday 5th December 15:21
I have the 7 seat version. I did a writeup here
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Now 15 months old and 20K miles on the clock. Previous car history is in my profile.
Things I like:
Lots of diesels out there, big and small, but after owning a Prius they all feel rather old-tech and primitive. And they seem to go wrong an awful lot.
Nothing else seems to hit the sweet spot for me. I seem to hear this a lot from Prius owners. They keep buying them because there simply isn't anything else that does the trick.
Maybe I need to wait for the Prius Gen4 coming out late next year...
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
Now 15 months old and 20K miles on the clock. Previous car history is in my profile.
Things I like:
- Very reliable. Nothing has gone wrong, nothing feels like it could go wrong.
- Simple drivetrain. No emissions nonsense apart from a cat, no gearbox, no turbo, no alternator, no belts...
- Accelerates linearly. You don't have to mess around trying to find the powerband, you just press the loud pedal and go.
- Feels high tech. I have a soft spot for digital dashboards
- It's different from the norm. I like to own cars that are niche in some way.
- No problem with short journeys, you don't have to worry that your DPF is about to pack up, because there isn't one.
- Fuel economy, obviously.
- Cheap interior trim. The dashboard display and HUD are great, but the plastics and fabrics are frankly awful. Kia were using this sort of stuff 10 years ago.
- NVH needs improvement. In particular there's a lot of road noise.
- Not a driver's car. You can have fun with it, but you have to try quite hard.
Lots of diesels out there, big and small, but after owning a Prius they all feel rather old-tech and primitive. And they seem to go wrong an awful lot.
Nothing else seems to hit the sweet spot for me. I seem to hear this a lot from Prius owners. They keep buying them because there simply isn't anything else that does the trick.
Maybe I need to wait for the Prius Gen4 coming out late next year...
Mudgey said:
My commute almost sounds like perfect territory for the Prius, lots of frequent journeys per day of approximately 2 miles comprising of a number of traffic lights, low city speeds and lots of traffic!
We ran one for 3 years. Don't expect amazing economy under those conditions, particularly if lots of those short journeys are cold starts. If you have the heater on, and the engine hasn't warmed up yet, the engine doesn't shut down, for obvious reasons. You still get good economy, but you won't be shouting about it. Different story in warm conditions though, provided you can avoid racing it up to and away from every single traffic light.Mudgey said:
I am also looking into the possibility of getting one of the battery pack add ons to allow me to run longer range, according to the spec I was looking at approx. 20m
I've never heard of an add battery pack. The only option I know of is to buy the Prius Plug In, which the range extender version of the Prius. That only has a range of 15 miles though, and AFAIK, there's no way you can convert a standard Prius to a Plug In version - they have different batteries (obviously), and different electric motors, completely different software, and probably different power convertors to run it all.If there's an aftermarket option, I would be very suspicious of it - the electronics and standard battery charge/regen are relatively complex and also very reliable. Do you really want to mess with that? I'd also be curious where the aftermarket battery goes - something with enough range to get you 20 miles isn't going to be small, and whilst the Prius' boot is ok, you wouldn't want to be putting more batteries in there.
We loved ours (had both a Mk2 and a Mk3) - they're turbine smooth, faster than they feel (although nowhere close to a 330d), and pleasant places to be. The only real downsides are being a bit noisy on the motorway (tyre roar), the sat nav being pretty primitive, and having to put up with "experts" telling you that they're rubbish because Mr Clarkson told them that.
Thanks for the informative replies guys!
I have been doing some more research on these battery packs and have read mixed reviews, tbh the extra cost would get a PiP but then I think after depreciation it doesn't make financial sense. Electricity is included in my rent at my current business premises, however I am looking to move next year and then electricity so won't be such a huge saving to be had.
It looks like the 3rd Gen Prius is definitely the way forward as a works vehicle for me, the pro's are:
No VED.
More luggage space over the 330d coupe.
Automatic (albeit unconventional) - ideal for town driving.
Almost half the insurance cost!
Higher economy.
The only downsides I can see is the interior trim but tbh I have had a large number of 90's Jap cars and so the plastic I hear people mention isn't as much of an issue, I think if people have had high end German cars all their life then it may feel quite different.
Its funny you mention about the Clarkson thing, everybody I have mentioned the car too instantly dismisses it as rubbish! Usual comments are: they look crap, 'hybrid rubbish', unreliable and expensive to fix! But when you start to drill into their opinions you realise they don't know anything about the cars.
I admit the earlier iterations of the vehicle weren't lookers but the gen 3 is actually rather nice IMO. Also from research so far it seems they don't suffer from battery pack degradation, they are pretty reliable; no clutch, aux belts, chain instead of cam belt, no DPF or EGR etc to go wrong..
Next step is to go out and see what they are like.
I have been doing some more research on these battery packs and have read mixed reviews, tbh the extra cost would get a PiP but then I think after depreciation it doesn't make financial sense. Electricity is included in my rent at my current business premises, however I am looking to move next year and then electricity so won't be such a huge saving to be had.
It looks like the 3rd Gen Prius is definitely the way forward as a works vehicle for me, the pro's are:
No VED.
More luggage space over the 330d coupe.
Automatic (albeit unconventional) - ideal for town driving.
Almost half the insurance cost!
Higher economy.
The only downsides I can see is the interior trim but tbh I have had a large number of 90's Jap cars and so the plastic I hear people mention isn't as much of an issue, I think if people have had high end German cars all their life then it may feel quite different.
Its funny you mention about the Clarkson thing, everybody I have mentioned the car too instantly dismisses it as rubbish! Usual comments are: they look crap, 'hybrid rubbish', unreliable and expensive to fix! But when you start to drill into their opinions you realise they don't know anything about the cars.
I admit the earlier iterations of the vehicle weren't lookers but the gen 3 is actually rather nice IMO. Also from research so far it seems they don't suffer from battery pack degradation, they are pretty reliable; no clutch, aux belts, chain instead of cam belt, no DPF or EGR etc to go wrong..
Next step is to go out and see what they are like.
I've had one for 3 years now as a company car and put 91k on it (just about to be changed.)
As others have said the interior is low rent with hard plastics and thin glass and it does make it feel a little cheap. I have averaged 56-57 mpg over the mileage but mine has done 90% of that on motorways so not its normal habitat, I do get around 65 mpg in London on the odd occasion that I go there but that's due to the traffic being slower. There were a few reports of rattles from the dash on the early cars but I haven't had this on mine. It has been serviced almost on time every 10k or so, has had a two sets of new tyres all round and it has needed two new wheel bearings on the rear since I've had it, this is all the repairs/new parts I know about.
Good;
Low tax as a company car
lowish running costs
nice dash layout with HUD
really comfy seats
good spec for not a lot of money
silent running on electric
surprisingly quick off the lights
very well balanced car (batteries under the rear seats, engine up front and all that)
IMO it looks better with the 5 spoke alloys
I quite liked the way I felt I had to plan every overtaking maneuver when I first got it just like my old 1.3 escort van (had a vRS before the Prius)
very easy to drive with all of the controls being easy to use.
It really teaches you to think ahead; do I really need to floor it to get up to the speed limit on this little bit of road before the next junction kind of thing.
Bad;
Low rent interior plastics
you seem to be able to hear every rain drop hit the drivers window on the motorway in the rain (very annoying)
not as good on fuel as I expected but not far off
front door bins are tiny
zero and I do mean zero feedback through the steering wheel
Tiny boot, more of a shelf really with storage under the boot floor
the auto windscreen wipers (ggrrrrr, just f
k off)
takes ages to de-ice in the winter but you do get used to this quickly
ave 400-420 mile range on a tank full, for me the tank could have been just a bit bigger so I didn't have to fill up so often but I get why it is the size it is.
Having said all that if I were looking to buy myself a car and doing mostly urban driving under 30 mile trips I would be seriously looking at them for a daily hack as they are very good. As a company car I felt it was a bit of a no-brainer having one as I paid no PUC, low tax and got a higher fuel allowance.
HTH
As others have said the interior is low rent with hard plastics and thin glass and it does make it feel a little cheap. I have averaged 56-57 mpg over the mileage but mine has done 90% of that on motorways so not its normal habitat, I do get around 65 mpg in London on the odd occasion that I go there but that's due to the traffic being slower. There were a few reports of rattles from the dash on the early cars but I haven't had this on mine. It has been serviced almost on time every 10k or so, has had a two sets of new tyres all round and it has needed two new wheel bearings on the rear since I've had it, this is all the repairs/new parts I know about.
Good;
Low tax as a company car
lowish running costs
nice dash layout with HUD
really comfy seats
good spec for not a lot of money
silent running on electric
surprisingly quick off the lights
very well balanced car (batteries under the rear seats, engine up front and all that)
IMO it looks better with the 5 spoke alloys
I quite liked the way I felt I had to plan every overtaking maneuver when I first got it just like my old 1.3 escort van (had a vRS before the Prius)
very easy to drive with all of the controls being easy to use.
It really teaches you to think ahead; do I really need to floor it to get up to the speed limit on this little bit of road before the next junction kind of thing.
Bad;
Low rent interior plastics
you seem to be able to hear every rain drop hit the drivers window on the motorway in the rain (very annoying)
not as good on fuel as I expected but not far off
front door bins are tiny
zero and I do mean zero feedback through the steering wheel
Tiny boot, more of a shelf really with storage under the boot floor
the auto windscreen wipers (ggrrrrr, just f
k off)takes ages to de-ice in the winter but you do get used to this quickly
ave 400-420 mile range on a tank full, for me the tank could have been just a bit bigger so I didn't have to fill up so often but I get why it is the size it is.
Having said all that if I were looking to buy myself a car and doing mostly urban driving under 30 mile trips I would be seriously looking at them for a daily hack as they are very good. As a company car I felt it was a bit of a no-brainer having one as I paid no PUC, low tax and got a higher fuel allowance.
HTH
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