Buyer describes his preference for the Plug-in Prius

[BlackVolt]

It may not be the right thing to say but I bet he also has fear of being seen in a Volt after all the FoxNews stuff going on. I really don't think he wanted to save on gas. The mileage to DFW in a Volt means it would still use less gasoline in a Volt round-trip than a PiP. He can keep supporting the import vehicles. Hope he doesn't get his engineering job outsourced when his firm finds engineers are cheaper overseas.

He obviously has forgotten about the run away Prius sager that was in the media not that long ago. It would be safer with the Volt. I would rather have a Volt catch fire three weeks after a crash than be in a run away Prius with no control lol. No pun intended. I don't have a problem with both cars but the Volt is a much better car IMHO

[gt4fore]

Unintended acceleration in a Prius or "run away" Pruis is fantasy. I have a Prius and I'm unable to get intended acceleration with it. Since I own both a Volt and a Prius I can truthfully say both cars have different purposes - and yes, the Prius is ugly.

I make one - two trips a week from Mount Airy, MD to Chantilly, Va with a detour to Columbia, MD. For that trip - the prius is cheaper to run - I get 51 mpg - combined, in the Prius running a 65-70 on the highway and without doing any of that hypermiling stuff. Figure about 160 miles round trip at 50 mpg is excellent. In the Volt, on the same commute, the mileage drops to around 68 mpg (winter time) - but - I have to factor in the cost of a charge - about $1.14.

However, since my wife stole my volt - her daily commute is about 22 miles- so she rarely uses any gas. When she was using the Volt - the lifetime MPG on the display was 250+. Anyway, due to being a car short for a little while, I had to drive the Volt for several months, after my commute the lifetime MPG on the Volt is down to 123 MPG.

My point is - while you can drive the volt for extended trips - the Prius, for me, makes better sense. If your commute is close to the EV range of the Volt - the Volt wins hands down.

Before the flames come - Yes - I prefer the Volt over the Prius, and Yes - I would buy the Volt again. I like the idea of supporting an American car company.

-gt4fore

[Brian Loves Cars]

I have to agree that interior space is an issue for many owners. We had to keep my wife's HHR for that very reason. Our kids' carpool requires room for five.

I wish him luck on that "quality" bit. This CNN articles brings back into light how much Toyota hides problems http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/01/us/toy...html?hpt=hp_c2 for the sake of appearances. I dumped my '05 Prius over quality and engineering problems that drove me nuts after 18 months.

Volt has been vastly superior.

Thats no joke. I had an 06 Prius and I truly hope to never have a car that bad in my life. A list of some of the quality issues includes:

-it rattled like crazy

-the fold down rear cupholders would routinely just fall out if they were in use. Meaning they couldn't be used.

-the car stunk. not a musty A/C smell, not dirt, it just smelled funny

-the rear bumper fell directly off the car once when I hit a pothole

-on two occasions something went wrong in the electric system and it drained itself in a couple hours leaving the car utterly dead. In both cases it came back from the dealership fixed and I was told "nothing was wrong". Something was wrong.

-it had so much road noise that I would nearly lose my sanity attempting to drive any kind of distance in it at 70mph.

-It was unbearably uncomfortable. I had the seats re-done with leather and an extra layer of padding and that helped quite a bit.

-The brakes would routinely just not function when you pushed the pedal. Except the first 2 or 3 times, before I got used to the possibility of not being able to stop, this didn't bug me as I just drove well behind traffic and stopped well early for lights, etc.

-The spontaneous acceleration problem occured half a dozen times, although for me only when the car was on cruise control. It'd just take off, but fortunately the prius is so slow that a spontaneously accelerating prius isn't all that dangerous.

-Oh, and it was horridly uncomfortable, gratingly loud on the highway, and it rattled, and I just couldn't take it. No way.

It was a disaster. It was impossible for me to enjoy owning a Prius, and I was so annoyed by the car by the time I got rid of it that I've never even web-shopped a Toyota product again.

[Trakehner]

I looked at Prius before I tried a Volt. Prius was a mature platform, they'd built it for over a decade, so they were able to polish some of the problems away. The Volt is new(ish), it still has some teething pains (e.g. stupid stereo turns on when you hit, NAV or any other button it seems....stupid)...and the lack of selector to run of gas or electric by choice the Ampera has...typical decision by management we shouldn't have such choices in the US.

Mileage....I get 42-44 on battery...maybe the VA area is more generous range running than the rest of the 37 miles people. This is with air-conditioning etc. doing 55-65. I'm currently getting (at 1100 miles) 45-50 on the road using the ICE. Of course, I'm usually alone in the car, don't know how much difference that makes.

Volt also has 0% interest for 6 years...big selling point.
Chevy dealer also gave me $4,000 more trade-in on my BMW...big selling point.

I'm not "green" in any way, shape or form. I have no desire to be a tree-hugger wanna' be. Nobody put the "obnoxious" bone in my head that makes me want to coast up to a red light from 300 yards out and to park myself in the fast lane with the cruise control set on 56 while staring at the MPG read out. Nope, that's not gonna' happen in this life.

[Voltastic]

and the lack of selector to run of gas or electric by choice the Ampera has...typical decision by management we shouldn't have such choices in the US.

That was the EPA not letting GM put the hold mode in for the US.

[KyleH]

That was not an review of the PIP versus the Volt or Leaf, it was a cry for help. If you read between the lines, it was full of ironies.

* someone that prefers driving a non "ordinary car".

* "wish Prius has a bigger battery", but prefers it over a Volt? If Prius has bigger battery wouldn't it mean that it will not have 50mpg? Is this guy a "for real" engineer? But...

* forget 40 miles of electric driving (when your commute is 22miles), and prefer 50mpg over 36mpg?

* He's a "Digital System Engineer" and teaches at a community college? I thought most Digital Systems are types of electrical engineers (EE's); I thought the average EE make considerably more than working at many community colleges.

* proven track record? GM has been building cars longer than Toyota. Also, GM has more research and understanding of the EV motor and car needs than Toyota.

* comments the price of the Volt and Leaf (before any incentive), but doesn't hint about the price of the PIP. really?

* "won't use much gas"? what? why bring gas up? if you even care about using any gas, you would want the larger battery in a leaf or volt.

Conclusion, "clearly articulate" bunch of confusing irony! I do not like to question individual choices, and good for him on his decisions. But, when someone is trying to pursuade the public with a bunch of stuff that does nto make sense, it is just bull.

I am thinking that doing "not" what he is doing seems to validate me doing something right. To me, it is too obvious that he has a bias towards a favorable report on the PIP.

(Man, and this guy is from Texas. Trust me guys, not all of us from Texas are this dumb. Some maybe dumber, but not this dumb. ha! that's irony for you.)

-KyleH

[Skotty]

This thread makes me want to test out a Prius for awhile. I'm curious to see what MPG I would get on my highway stretch. I'm one of those folks that say you only get about 37 or 38 mpg in the Volt on the highway (sorry!), but I also like to make it clear that I drive at 70 mph (the speed limit for the road) and there are hills. My most common stretch some of you have surely driven on before, a long stretch of Interstate 70 in Missouri. I bet if the road were flat, I would get 40 mpg. And I do get 40 mpg if I drive at 60 mph, but it's rare that I drive so far below the speed limit.

Looking at the Prius, just randomly checking a few different years, I see EPA highway mileage numbers of 41 mpg for 2002, 45 mpg for 2006, and 48 mpg for 2012. So it's been improving. I bet if I did my same highway stretch in a Prius at my usual speed in each of those years, the numbers would be approx 38 mpg, 42 mpg, and 44 mpg. But I would love to actually try and see for myself, to both compare mileage as well as general driving experience.

I was wondering how the EPA would handle the blended operation of the PIP. I looked up a EPA sticker for it, and now I understand. The 11 miles figure is for blended operation while it is in CD-mode, but it also suggests that electric accounts for 6 of those 11 miles. Interesting. If that's the case, the electric range is perhaps worse than I thought, as I originally assumed you could get 11 miles pure electric out of it.

[Casita]

I have owned a 2001 Prius, 2005 Prius, and a 2010 Prius. I loved them all. That being said the Volt is in a entirely different class. Far superior in every meaningful way. Prius paved the way but the Volt is the logical step up. My Volt has never required any service and is the most satisfying car I has ever owned.

[Zythryn]

...
I was wondering how the EPA would handle the blended operation of the PIP. I looked up a EPA sticker for it, and now I understand. The 11 miles figure is for blended operation while it is in CD-mode, but it also suggests that electric accounts for 6 of those 11 miles. Interesting. If that's the case, the electric range is perhaps worse than I thought, as I originally assumed you could get 11 miles pure electric out of it.

My understanding is that the PiP first started the ICE 6 miles into the EPA test. The batteries still provided the vast majority of the power for the remainder of the EV range (11 or 13 or whatever they rated it at).

The Prius is a very reliable car with a very high quality record. We drove 2 for a while with no serious issues. They actually were quite exceptional.

As for cargo, I could definitely fit larger bulky objects in the Prius (20 8' 2x4s for example).

All that being said, the reason we have a Volt now (and are thrilled with it) is we use much less gas in the Volt than we would in the Prius. Even though we got an average of 52mpg in the Prius, the vast majority of our driving is 35 mile round trips or less.
11 miles EV range (which still uses a tiny bit of gas normally) just doesn't cut it. Combine that with the better handling and ride and the fact that we virtually never need a 5th seat and the Volt was an easy choice.

[oneborch]

I also considered Prius because of great gas mileage. But after testing both Volt and Prius had concerns about how they handled in snow. In Mn we can get a lot of that white stuff. The Prius dealer said it was not that good in snow, maybe I should look at the Camry Hybird. So went back and tested the Volt. Thanks to this website, decided the Volt was a no brainer. I loved the Volt better plus got a much better trade value from Lupient Chev in Mn. This no gas thing is really catching and people just can't believe that I can go 350 miles so far on one tenth of a gallon of gas and nightly charges of less than $1.