Prius 2017 v C-HR v Prius Prime

Motorways are such a rip off!


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Only 5 more sleeps until I get my test Drives.

Interestingly, my wife has now warmed towards the Prime as the favourite. One of the reasons given is that she would prefer to plug it in rather than go to the gas station (she hates filling up).

That suits me as I think the Prime is my favourite too. We just need to confirm that we can get a weekends luggage for a family or four and a dog in there. Ideally I would like to be able to fit 2 weeks worth of luggage for longer holidays but might be happy to use a roof box for the once a year trip.

If that does work out then the regular Prius is next in line with the CHR at the back of the queue.


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I did. Great thread. I just need to see it in person now!


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I think the right compromise will be the Prime. My wife has started to ask about things like what the wall charger looks like, whether we can get a roof box and how easy it is to charge.

For me the key draws of the Prime are the looks, 8 inch screen v 7 inch in the Prius, better LED lights and plug in function. Having looked at the money both the plug in and normal Prius are the same after fuel is taken into account so it is a straight decision based on what we like.

During my test drives I plan on taking lots of pictures and providing my thoughts.

I am obsessed at the moment and just want Monday to come!


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I have now had the Prime / Plug In for two days and have a few observations. These are against what I am used to which is a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 1.6 diesel auto.

Pros:
- better ride and handling. It’s very smooth over the bumps and goes around corners well.
- faster. Especially from a standing start.
- comfortable cruiser. Sits at 80mph nicely. In the UK I only do 70mph but we go to France and so need to be able to comfortably do 130kph.
- JBL and audio touchscreen. Much better what I am used with good sound at all levels.
- quiet electric drive. Love the quietness while on electric. Appear to be getting about 25 miles but not massively focused on it.
LED lights - they are amazing. The auto full beam and being able to drop some parts of the beam while maintaining the other parts of the road are amazing.

Cons:
- rear seatbelts. we have to younger children (7 & 3) and they are both in full ISOFIX car seats. The 7 year old can put their own seat on no issues but we still put the 3 year olds on for them. As the rear arm rear is fixed I find it difficult to do while leaning into the car. It has got easier over the 48 hours and I am sure there will be a knack to doing it and so will become more natural.
- sat nav. The sat nav works perfectly fine with the exception of the fact that the map seems to be about 10 metres behind the actual car. That has lead to me missing a few turnings where there are a number of roads close together. The voice commands and instructions in the 4.2inch screens are spot on so I can get around it.

Neutral:
- boot space. We have managed to do a big monthly shop and fill it up with suitcases. Both are satisfactory. We still think that for our main 2 week holiday will require a roof box but that was expected. A week away will be no issues.

Happy to answer any questions.
I will add any further thoughts on the Prime / Plug In if anything else comes up.

I get the Prius on Thursday and C-HR on Monday so will let you know what I think.

At the moment I can’t see either of them beating the Prime / Plug In.




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Today we took a trip of ~120 miles and averaged 62mpg. Most of the journey was at 60/70 mph on the motorway.

None of the journey was completed with Plug In electricity as my wife had used that up running errands during the day.

This is ~15 mpg better that what I would have achieved in my diesel.

The cruise control really impressed on both the motorway and slower roads. It takes all of the stress out of driving.

One additional thing to note is the rear window. All night it has rained heavily but as soon as I got about 30ish mph the wind started to dry it off. At 60 mph it looked completely dry. I didn’t miss the wiper and think that the more interesting shape of window is worth the compromise.


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So the Plug In has gone back and now I have the standard Prius.
Fortunately, I have needed to travel 180 miles today for work and so got to spend over 3 hours on it one day one.

My observations so far are:
- mpg - I managed 73 mpg with average speed of about 50 mph. I set the cruise at 70 where possible although the M6/M5 both have plenty of 50 and 30 mph zones so that would have helped. This is 10 mpg more than what I achieved in the plug in. Is that normal???? In the plug in it was dark, raining and I had 4 people in the car and the traffic was more stop start. Today it was more free flowing, day time and dry. Plus I was on my own.
- screen size - the Prius’s 7 inch screen does look as nice as the 8 inch in the plug in. I didn’t seem as clear or high definition but maybe that’s just my subconscious.
- general driving - again this could be subconscious but it just feel like all of the systems (cruise/nav etc) are all just one tiny step better than the Prius. It felt like it was one system release further up the road but I don’t know if that’s true.
Noise - the Prius on 15 inch wheels seemed to be slightly noisier than the plug in on the same size wheels.

Other than I found it very difficult to see/feel the differences of them both.

I would be glad to hear any thoughts on what I have found/observed.


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It’s the excel trim (top spec in the Uk) but has the smaller wheels fitted.

The seats are exactly the same as the plug in ones (leather).
I find that my right leg gets uncomfortable if I leave my wallet in my pocket in both cars. I don’t have this issue in my Citroen but I just have learnt to take my wallet out of my pocket.


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Mine might be fake leather but I am sure the brochure just says leather. Will check.


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