Volt vs. Plug-in Prius – Who Buys Them?

I looked seriously at both, but was swayed partly by price and even more by long drive fuel efficiency. The trade off of more electric mileage against worse ICE efficiency didn't work for me.

No loyalty issues (had Fords before) but Vauxhall (the GM brand over here) also has a bad name for reliability, build quality etc. at least when you compare it to Toyota.

 

I think a big deciding factor has to do with the individual's specific commute. For instance, with a 90 mile round trip daily commute and no office charging, the PiP made more sense for my driving, considering the Volt's significantly lower HV mpg, requirement for premium fuel, and higher use of electricity (Southern California Edison seems to be one of the more expensive utilities companies, TOU rates would pretty much rape me for using air conditioning during the summer).
In addition practicality makes more sense with the 5th seat and added space. Plus being able to pay nearly 2k under sticker at the time with a 2k rebate and 0% APR made it a no brainer. But my commute was the #1 deciding factor, thanks to HOV Stickers.

 

I didn't say a few years ago, I said over ten. I'm relating my own personal experiences. Unlike the majority of the country I drive at least 20k miles per year, so I have a pretty good perspective of longer term durability. I will say this, all my experience is with rear wheel drive vehicles.

 

Good call on "Sneaky Old GM", their history really backs up the title.

DBCassidy

 

"Not really. The i3 with range extender is about $10,000 more (MSRP $34,xxx vs $45,xxx).
After the federal tax credit, the Volt ($34,xxx - $7,500 = $27,xxx) is slightly less than the Prius Plugin ($30,xxx - $2,500 = $28,xxx)"​

No one pays 30k​

My Pip was 28k 13 months ago and they've come down a bit since. Plus they're still offering 0% 60mo financing - I'd say PiP beats Volt by several thousand net.​

 

You forgot to quote the next paragraph which said:

 

I couldn't fit my guitar case in the back of the Volt.

 

sorry, I didn't mean to include the BMW part - was really just addressing the pricing on PiP vs Volt since I think Jeff had that backward.
The gap has closed some but I've yet to hear of a new Volt selling for within 2k of a new PiP - net

 

Actually for me it is my dislike for anything from GM due to quality issues from previous ownership experience over many new GM purchases in the past.

 

We are a family of four and sometimes we pick up Grandma too for a shopping. So Volt was out of the question from the very beginning. Considering less trunk space and higher price (for similar level of equipment) PiP was a clear winner in my case.

 

Here's a link to a Los Angeles Chevy dealer selling Volts at a $4,000 discount to the MSRP of $34,995. They ship out of state.

Newspaper Specials | Rydell Chevy | Northridge, CA

These prices are real and the discount has recently been as high as $4,500 and briefly $5,000. People have posted on the GM-volt.com forum about buying at these prices from this dealer. There are other high volume dealers that also sell Volt's well under MSRP. Same for Toyota dealers and Prius Plugin. Same for many other car models and brands.

A Volt at $34,995 - $4,000 is about $31,000 then take away the $7,500 tax credit and you get $23,500. Other state rebates may apply to both cars equally.

Do you still think the Volt is inherently more expensive than a Prius Plugin after tax credits?

 

I have to believe that Toyota is working on a PiP with greater EV capability. If they can substantially improve range without scarificing anything else I love about my Prius, then I'm in.

 

I used to think this.
After Toyota stated their plan to roll out the PiP, then their second plan, and now no plans...
Add to that their focus on hydrogen and skepticism of plugins and I am no longer expecting anything further from them on the electric plugin side of things.

 

Can't imagine a 2nd generation Prius Plug In without some improvement in EV mileage. Either continue it with greater EV range or "pull the plug" on the PIP model.

 

"Here's a link to a Los Angeles Chevy dealer selling Volts at a $4,000 discount to the MSRP of $34,995. They ship out of state.
Newspaper Specials | Rydell Chevy | Northridge, CA

These prices are real and the discount has recently been as high as $4,500 and briefly $5,000. People have posted on the GM-volt.com forum about buying at these prices from this dealer. There are other high volume dealers that also sell Volt's well under MSRP. Same for Toyota dealers and Prius Plugin. Same for many other car models and brands.
A Volt at $34,995 - $4,000 is about $31,000 then take away the $7,500 tax credit and you get $23,500. Other state rebates may apply to both cars equally.

Do you still think the Volt is inherently more expensive than a Prius Plugin after tax credits? "

great price on the Volt but Yep - I do think they're more expensive !
Clicked on the link you provided and spoke to an associate - they neglected to add the TTL.
PiPs have dropped more than you realize and CA prices reported $24.5 if you exclude that TTL so 22k net.

Thats before 0% 60 mo financing too which wasn't available on the Volt. Depending on your situation that can easily be worth another thousand.

 

I quoted today's price which was $4,000 discount. Within the past 2 weeks they had it priced with a $5,000 discount so $22,500 without TTL vs. $22,000 according to you. You didn't link to or name a specific dealer selling at that price but I believe you.

In any case, I think it's fair to say the price is about the same. The Prius Plugin gets you better hybrid mpg and probably a little better reliability (although, for whatever reason, the Consumer Reports survey showed the PiP as less reliable than the Prius). The Volt gets you 3.5 to 4x the battery range and does that will full EV power without speed limitations if you are trying to drive it without the gas engine turning on.

 

Noone here has been able to explain this. Even weirder, the 2013 PiP is reported with marginal reliability (half-black dot), while the 2012 PiP is high reliability (solid red dot), even though the two models are identical. One conjecture is that usage expanded to less sophisticated users in 2013, who are reporting as faults things which are as designed, such as the turning on of the ICE for "unknown" reasons, or people are reporting as faults things they don't like about the nav/audio system (particularly in the Base model).

 

The detailed data for both Prius Plugin and Volt for the most recent full model year (2013) shows that both got all solid or partial red dots except for the audio system where Volt got a half black and Prius Plugin got a solid black.

Prius Plugin got 11 solid red dots and 5 red half dots.

Volt got 12 solid red dots and 4 red half dots.

Both Prius Plugin and Volt got half red dots for rattles and overall body hardware issues.

Prius Plugin also got red half dots for drive system, fuel system, and brakes.

Volt also got red half dots for electrical system and climate system.

Predicted reliability for the new 2014 Prius Plugin is shown as 9% above average. For 2014 Volt it is 7% above average.

The 2012 Prius Plugin data is a close match with the 2012 regular Prius. I suspect the small sample size caused the 2013 Prius Plugin data too look artificially average.

The new 2014 regular Prius is predicted to be 68% above average. The Prius Plugin probably has substantially better reliability overall than the Volt but the Volt shows quite well among all cars and scored much better than some people would think, given that it's made by GM.

 

Thanks for the details, Jeff.

So the half-black overall reliability dot for the 2013 PiP is due solely to the the nav/audio system?! Have there been reports of unreliability or repair issues of the audio system in the Base models, as opposed to people complaining that the functionality (as designed) was lame? A car getting an overall rating of "unreliable" solely because some people don't like how the sound system works says to me that something is seriously amiss with the rating system.