Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Prius in my experience is like driving a refrigerator. Soulless and empty with hundreds of pounds of batteries and electrical motors you lug around for the life of the car. When you run the Prius on flat land with open traffic it can get good mileage but as soon as you put it under any load with passengers and stuff and drive up and down hills or other scenarios that involve acceleration frequently, the gas mileage falls through the floor.
We just traded in our Prius and got a Subaru and pretty much agree. That's not say the Prius doesn't have it's pluses - we just wanted something that was more enjoyable to drive, and the Subie definitely fits the bill. I think it depends on your priorities, but we are happy with our choice.
I agree you need to loom a overall cost and piroity fo what you need. Most Prus take high fuel prices to cover the cost differene. But then trading a paid for SUV because of fuel cost rarely actually pays for itelf really.
It gets on average over 50mpg (per our gauge) and it's very spacious.
Our wants were, space, good gas mileage, safety and reliability.
I'm not worried about the battery dying, or things going out, or whatever. A side note, there aren't any belts in our 2012 model, everything is electric; water pump, a/c everything.
It's not as slow as I thought it was; it drives like a Civic. It's by no means a sporty drive, but it does engage you.
The keyless entry and start takes a bit of time to get used to but that's the only real thing that's drastically different. In regular driving you don't have to worry about those futuristic layouts and gizmos and monitors. You just drive it like a regular car.
To see what you'd save over 10 years in gas use this: Save Money
I'd buy a Impreza if I needed AWD, and didn't drive that much, actually I'd buy a WRX but that's a different story.
+ 1 on the WRX especially if you drive in snow country. Go with prius if you do a lot of city driving and stop and go. On a highway the Impreza would give you around 30 mpg which is not bad per se.
Also consider the fun factor if you plan to keep the car for long (like I do.minimum 10 years from date of manufacture).
Fuel economy should be something that is important to everyone no matter how far one drives... However, I'm concerned that I don't drive enough to keep the Prius battery operating at optimal capacity. That being said I've compared the other hatchbacks/wagons within 25K range and the Impreza still stands out as one of the best for mpg and cargo area.
Is your statement about fuel economy a political statement or an economic one?
If you drive 60 miles per week, your annual driving distance is just over 3000 miles. From an economic point of view fuel economy is not very significant. The cost of fuel difference per year for a Prius vs. and Impreza is about $300.
When the difference is that small other differences may be more significant. Cargo. Safety. Performance. Handling. Etc.
The Prius' battery use is carefully controlled by the electronics. I don't think you should worry about your driving habits.
Is your statement about fuel economy a political statement or an economic one? Both
We test drove the regular Prius and the PriusV, we liked them both, but the regular was more within my price range but a bit too small for my dogs.
Currently, I'm trying to figure out if its possible to special order a Impreza hatchback that has a hatch release lever on the inside of the car, (currently the only way to open the hatch is with a button on the key fob) the sedan version of the Impreza has a trunk release inside the car but for some reason they left that feature out for the hatchback. Really seems like a design flaw to me.
Is your statement about fuel economy a political statement or an economic one? Both
We test drove the regular Prius and the PriusV, we liked them both, but the regular was more within my price range but a bit too small for my dogs.
Currently, I'm trying to figure out if its possible to special order a Impreza hatchback that has a hatch release lever on the inside of the car, (currently the only way to open the hatch is with a button on the key fob) the sedan version of the Impreza has a trunk release inside the car but for some reason they left that feature out for the hatchback. Really seems like a design flaw to me.
If the car is unlocked doesn't it have a hatch release button (it may be a tiny electric one as on our Tribeca just under the grip area/badge) on the outside of the hatch?
I wouldn't be surprised if the dealer is unaware of this, most dealers in my experience know far less about just about any vehicle they are selling than I do.
We just traded in our Prius and got a Subaru and pretty much agree. That's not say the Prius doesn't have it's pluses - we just wanted something that was more enjoyable to drive, and the Subie definitely fits the bill. I think it depends on your priorities, but we are happy with our choice.
That's so funny, I just traded in my one year old Subaru Forester for a Prius today. The Subaru was nice but not very high tech at all, and the gas mileage was horrific. They claim you get 21 city/28 highway but even doing even speed at 55 mph I only ever got 24mpg and my overall average after driving it 9K miles was 20.7 mpg... not good! I also didn't like how the oil filter is upside down so the oil drains out when parked overnight. It would always have a "rough" start every morning. It also wasn't very peppy. Ah well, different strokes. I'm loving my 50mpg now though and all of the cool features on the Prius (wireless connectivity for my iPod Touch, REAL hands-free calling/bluetooth, etc).
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
