Considering a 2014 Prius

If the roads are really crap, you may wish to consider a Subaru Impreza:

Safe
EPA 36 mpg highway
AWD
Reliable

A recent thread here on PC is from Pikeville, KY. He says 50 - 60 mpg in the hills of Eastern Ky with a Prius.

 

I'm new to the Prius and live in Phoenix, so my thoughts might not be worth much, but I'll offer them anyway. Passing crash tests has very little to do with safety during everyday driving under adverse conditions. If you do opt for a Prius to get better mileage on clear days, keeping the MDX for the other days is a wise choice IMHO. However, if your wife is already against the Prius, I think your first hurdle is getting her to change her opinion. The best way to do that is to rent a Prius from your Toyota dealer for a couple of days. When I rented one back in 2010, it only came with 200 miles free, but that would serve your purpose. If she still doesn't like it after that, I think you're wasting your time trying to convince her. We rented one back in 2010 (1,100 miles over 3 days) and it did not struggle one bit with the 3 sets of 6% grades between here and Flagstaff. We averaged 46.5 mpg with the majority being highway driving (55-75 mph). A diesel may hold it's mpg, but diesel costs more, so I think you'd still save money in a Prius. My daughter drove a Jeep for years and then a Suburban, ostensibly to be "high up to see". Well, fuel costs finally made her consider something better on gas and she now loves her small, low Optima. My point is that until you actually drive a Prius, any notions about how they perform are ill-conceived.

 

I'm the same as DoubleDAZ, I'm in Phoenix but I've driven one for about 4 years. My issue in snow is just that there is quite a bit of front wheel torque and it's easy to spin a touch. The system does have a wheel spin detector and stops it, but it's something to think about. I've driven in flagstaff and surrounding areas during the snowfalls and the handling is great. It's kind of low to the ground though, so it's not going to do well with driving over snowpacks. As far as stopping for deer, it does have antilock on it, but ultimately it's all about the driver on that one. I'm from the country out east (Maryland/Pennsylvania) and most of the time it's about how good you are at maneuvering the vehicle out of the danger zone as you're braking . I'm sure you know that, but I figured I'd just mention that so it's known to everyone. I've never been in that situation with the Prius, the most ive had to do is stop for an elk who decided it'd be cool to hop out I to the road and stand there as I was coming around the corner.

 

The 'skin' of a Toyota is thin, but the safety engineering underneath is excellent.
Typical after an accident is a car that looks like it went through a blender, but the people walk away happy.

Works for me!

As for emergency handling, I suggest a look at the Consumer Reports test results. IIRC the cars are put through a curved course on wet payment. I'm pretty sure no snow though.

 

The Pikeville, KY owner is Ryan Hall
New Prius Owner From KY | PriusChat

 

Women think they need to be "sitting up high" so they can see....in a big arse huge SUV type vehicle.
Although a Prius makes sense I doubt you can convince her unless she listens to logic. If she listens to logic just use the compare side by side function on the epa.gov web site to figure out how much money it would save per year to get 46 mpg or better.

 

My wife has been heard in the past to spout that line, but experience taught her different.

 

I think you're going to find a lot more cars going to thinner steel, if not alternatives, as mpg requirements rise. No doubt the thickness makes it easier to dent, but how many dented Prius (or Camry for that matter) do you see? I don't know about stability, but I do remember that same comment when front-wheel drive first appeared.

 

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised that I seem to be able to see as well as I could in my van, even though that was not a consideration for downsizing. My daughter always said that too before the Optima, but I think it was her husband's testosterone talking.

 

My wife is not an aggressive driver by any stretch of the imagination; I think she bought into the notion that her forward view is compromised in a car.

When she finally got the chance to sit in an SUV she was terrified by the blind spots. After a truck backed into my Honda Civic at a red light because he could not see me, the budding love affair with SUVs was over.

 

Didn't mean to laugh, but couldn't help it.

 

By all means. It was meant to be funny. True, but funny

 

Sounds to me as though a Prius would be perfect for her.
The latest safety features are included or available. My experience with our Prius under panic stop or swerve conditions has been very good.
Its a great idea to rent one first. If you can't rent locally, can she do it near where she works or anywhere not too far off her route?

 

Just go here to see about rentals (Try Before You Buy, Business, Body Shop, etc.).

 

I would suggest either the Camry Hybrid or the Avalon Hybrid, good road cars, very very good gas mileage, not Prius good but really good, and as for price the top of the line Prius overlaps with both the Camry and Avalon.

 

Prius rear visibility is pretty bad, just saying. I guess the proliferation of rear seat headrests and thickened up rear roof pillars is ubiquitous, tho: not just Prius in that boat.

 

Of course you and your wife should be the final arbiters, but here are my admittedly biased 2 cents:
1. Safety - my wife was in a head on crash with our 2010, now own a 2013. Not even a scratch on her. I did have the front strut tower brace, lower brace, mid brace and rear sway bar installed. I believe all of these contributed to safe survival (transferred all of these to the 2013, imagine that, the insurance company would not pay for them). I live in Minnesota.
2. Mileage - This varies depending on outside temperature. I can get a low as 35 in the winter months (temps well below zero for weeks) where the ICE has to run to keep the engine temp up, to in the mid 50's in spring, summer and fall. Grill blocking, suggested by the participants in this forum, has been a great improvement for the winter months. Will know more this next winter how really effective this is for the whole winter, now that I know what to do.
3. AWD would have been great on the prius - adds weight, expense and complexity. The Prius does have a form of positraction (called something else) where if one wheel is spinning engine power is diverted to the other wheel. Works great all winter for me.
4. Reliability - I can only say that I haven't had any issues on the two that I have owned.