Hi all! New member here, appreciative of your help. We're thinking about buying a used 2013 Prius v 2 this week, and I was hoping for your help with two questions: 1) Because of the recent Toyota recall, which includes the particular vehicle we're hoping to buy, would you recommend that we either a) don't buy or b) try to negotiate a price reduction from the Toyota dealership? It's a CPO vehicle, $19,983, 17,790 miles, 1 previous owner. Hopefully it's ok to share this info on this forum... 2) We live in Salt Lake City, and we definitely need a car that can handle stretches (2-5 miles) of unpaved gravel, washboard and moderate-severe rocky and pitted roads to get to trailheads in the nearby canyons. There's not a lot of rain here, so we don't anticipate too much in the way of slick or muddy unpaved roads. In the winter, we want a car that can handle light to moderate (dry) snow to get up mountain roads with 3400+ ft elevation gain to get to the resorts. We are ok driving in the slow lanes w/ semis, and will take buses (or carpool with Subaru-owning friends!) if we really want to get to the resorts in severe snow conditions. With all of this in mind, would you recommend the Prius v? Because of the terrible pollution problem in SLC, we are set on a hybrid. We anticipate most of our driving to take place on occasional, long highway stretches and semi-frequent short drives in the city. Most days we'll be commuting by bike. What do you think? Thank you a million!
welcome! 1) try to negotiate 2) i don't cotton to unpaved roads, but since i can't see how bad they are, someone else will have to help you with that decision. the prius rides fairly low to the ground. snow isn't a problem, with a good set of snow tyres. all the best with your search!
1. You can try. It is just updated software, so there is no basis in reality for a price reduction, but you can try. 2. I would not buy any Prius for a lifestyle that needs wheel spin. They won't. The traction control completely eliminates wheel spin to protect the transaxle. considering a Prius | PriusChat
Any PZEV vehicle will be as good as the Prius for the type of pollution you mean. Subaru models, e.g As far as snow traction in the mountains goes, with winter tyres -- yes. Without -- not sure.
No, a Prius is too close to the ground and you will probably knock some of the underside plastic shields off. Otherwise it would be fine, no concern on recalls or snow driving. Pretty low miles for a 2013.
The way you described not only the roads, but where you want to go, no. I would look into something else, and there are many choices. Escape Hybrid Mazda CX5 Subaru My choice in that group would be the CX5. Not a gas guzzler, good ground clearance and cargo room, not that pricey. But the $20k budget might be an issue, in which case, the CX5 would win that battle too.
