Trying to decide between Prius and a Mazda 3.

Mazda 3 is a smaller class of car while the prius is classified as a midsize car, the prius has more legroom inside, even in the back seat but is the same width as the mazda 3.

The prius will get much better mileage in spring, summer, and fall. But i get low 40's in the winter, and average about 51mpg the rest of the year. The engine will start the same as any other gasoline powered car, no worries about winter starting a hybrid. It's just that the battery pack is cold, so it decreases in capacity, and the prius runs the gasoline engine constantly for the first 7-10 minutes to get the engine up to temp.

If you only make short trips <15 minutes at a time, the fuel mileage of the prius is about 35-45mpg depending. It's not that great. I commute an hour to work.

All prius's have a small starter 12v battery. Yes, because of the keyless entry if left too long the battery will die in a few weeks. I believe newer prius's are better at sleeping the module after so many days, but it can still happen.

 

I have to chime in here to point out that the 12 V battery doesn't crank the engine--the traction battery does that and is more than up to the task in the coldest conditions.

 

? I have to ask, what do you mean by this?

 

does the mazda 3 get combined mpg better than 40 in the winter for short trips? I vote prius, if you want something smaller then check out the prius c​

 

The new generation of Mazda 3 is a stellar car - I think it's by far the best smaller car on the market right now in its price range. Handling and interior quality are far and away better than the Prius (I have never been a Mazda fan, but they hit it out of the park with this new interior design) and gas mileage is impressive considering the overall power the car has. The enthusiast magazines are even raving about the automatic transmission.

Ultimately I own a Prius plug-in because of my heavy city duty cycle, but if I was comparing 35-40mpg mixed in the 3 vs. 45-50 in the Prius, I'd take the 3 undoubtedly.

 

If you compare the two at 5 years ownership costs (Mazda 3 Sport hatch/auto, $22k msrp and Prius3 $28k msrp) 15K miles per year (you're at half that), the Prius ends up around $100 less expensive. That's technically a wash.
You will drive less than that, so the delta in fuel costs will be lower. On the estimate above, the Mazda burned about $8200, the Prius about $5400 in fuel, a difference of $2800. half the driving, half the gas savings... $1400. So, if I'm thinking about this correctly, now the Mazda is coming out about $1300 cheaper after 5 years.

PLUS it's better looking, PLUS it'll be a LOT more fun to drive...
MINUS it's smaller/less practical, MINUS it might not be as reliable, long-term.

If you intend on buying a car to keep until it dies, Prius. If you plan to buy this vehicle and replace it in 5-6 years, Mazda.

But, personal taste and driving preference and seat comfort will likely be the best way to judge your long-term happiness with the chosen vehicle. So, test 'em out, and make a happy, stress free decision. Good luck!!

 

That it didn't have a hesitation when accelerating from a "gear shift". I do realize it doesn't have a traditional transmission but the familial jerk/lurch of an automatic transmission changing gears wasn't there.

 

I calculate 11 to 12 years payback for the $1400 taxed premium of a Prius. Go with the Mazda3.

If you're willing to go with a tiny car like the 3, have you looked at a Prius C or Honda insight? I suspect the price tag would be lower than the 3. (Quoted dealer prices are only ~18,200 for base models.)

 

Omg, def don't get the Honda Insight. And 12 years payback, ridiculous.

Troy, is your sole purpose on this sight to piss people off by continually putting out false information?

Please go to another blog to terrorize them. We are sick of you. Pls leave.

 

I've ordered a prius so I have as much right to post as any other prous owner. Anyway: Honda Insight is a fine car (better than C). And yes a Prius gasoline costs 7.3 cent/mile versus Mazda3 at 8.9 cent/mile.

$1400 premium of Prius divided by that gasoline difference is 83,614 miles.....

that's 11.2 years for the original poster

 

Maybe on hwy. However, it's more than 2 fold difference in city driving.

 

The only thing you ever post is anti Prius so why did you not take your own advice and order one? Additionally, numerous members have caught you lowballing the competing cars costs and highballing the Prius costs. Why would anyone believe these calculations? Then you never post your math.

Frankly, we're sick of it and sick of you coming on here misleading new members with funny math. The Insight is better than the C??? Omg yeah right. The Insight is an absolute POS and IMA is seriously old engineering and flawed at its onset. There is absolutely no comparison between the 2. Don't be jealous because HSD is superior to IMA and all diesels. You'll be much happier if you just quit fighting it. I really don't believe your fighting it for any other reason except you gain some sort of sick satisfaction when you can elicit an angry response from a PC member. Is that what gets you off? It sure seems like it.

 

I had a Mazda 3 rental and hated it. It was tiny.

 

no zuzu?

 

I work with a lady who has the 2013 mazda 3, it is some kind of performance addition not sure what it is called exactly. anyway she loves the car, says the interior is nice and it has lots of power and gets goood mpg. she drives hwy most of the time and she says near 40 mpg. I still vote prisu c, I really like mine!

 

You must be referring to SkyActive package because it's getting high mpg.

The 2.5L Mazda Speed wouldn't get good mpg.

 

I don't think it was the speed. I am not very familiar with these cars.

 

Depends on what numbers you're using. Combined MPG of the mazda 3 is 33mpg. Prius is 50mpg. Current 87 fuel price on my last fill up was $3.829. So that's 11.6 cents per mile for the mazda and 7.6 cents for the prius. Yearly fuel costs for 7500 miles is $870 for the mazda and $570 for the prius. If the prius is $1400 more, then that's a 4-5 year payoff for the price premium of the prius, or 35,000 miles.

As for the Honda insight, you have no clue what you're talking about. The honda insight was a huge flop. It's an integrated motor assist, and doesn't have enough power to match the prius and retain MPG's. So they had to compensate by using more of the battery, deep cycling and using more amperage than on a prius. Then they quietly came out with a programming update because this was causing too many battery failures. Now people are lucky to get over 40mpg with the insight with the update, even then. They really have to work hard to achieve that. The integrated motor assist is crap. Honda went away from that solution with the new accord, which has a much bigger and seperate electric motor. It's actually getting mid 40's and is a really nice car aside from the cost.

 

I can tell you've never driven the second-gen Insight, since it rides pretty much like a Civic. I scored 80 mpg highway in a test drive.

As for the claim Honda makes junk..... that's ridiculous. Search google for "engine reliability" and you'll see a company that reviewed the data & found Honda engines had half the failure rate of any other carmaker.

And finally I consider the EPA's city numbers flawed. The test works okay for nonhybrid cars, but not for hybrid cars, since dishonest companies like Ford, Hyundai, Kia run the test with a full battery & end with a near-empty battery (all three were caught with inflated numbers). That means the combined score is also flawed.

 

I wonder if she is actually getting 40mpg calculated at the pump, or if she is reading that the car is outputting instantaneous readings of 40mpg on the freeway. Big difference.

I owned a 2010 Civic, and test drove a 2012 Insight. It rode nothing at all like my Civic, handling and power wise. Not to mention the air conditioning switched to blowing hot air when I came to a red light and the gas engine shut down. I was ready to purchase until that test drive, and could not believe the night and day difference between the Insight and the Prius C I test drove (at the time I didn't know anything about hybrids) and purchased a Prius C shortly thereafter.

Honda makes junk hybrids, I don't believe anyone here is arguing Honda makes bad engines. Their regular Civic has stellar reliability. However try taking a look at the Civic Hybrid or Insight reliability. Their hybrids (not accounting for newest Accord) were absolute garbage, both in terms of mileage and repairs. My coworker has a 2009 Civic Hybrid and has already gone through 3 traction batteries and he's still under 100k miles.
Honda Civic Hybrid Battery Reliability | Hybrid Batteries - Consumer Reports News

A lot of us are in agreement on this one. I trust Fuelly - Track and Compare Your MPG to give a more accurate number of actual usage. A lot of it has to do with how people drive. Sure there are a bunch of us that play the hyper-miling game, but we are in the minority in terms of the general drivers. Fuelly fails when it comes to plug-in hybrids however. And the EPA should get rid of that stupid MPGe number and switch to kWh per some number of miles instead (or miles per kWh if they want to match the MPG idea).