Going Volt this time around.

I've owned a Gen 2 and Gen 3 Prius. I put 181,000 trouble free miles on my Gen3. Then one day it began to have a serious engine issue. It's my belief that the head gasket was leaking. I drove it two weeks that way trying to decide what to do, fix it or buy a new Prius Prime. There is a dealer row close to work so after a quick sandwich I went to the row. I was certain I wanted a Prius Prime. But I stopped at a Chevy dealer and told them I wasn't buying today but would like to try a Volt.

Started the test drive, man, this thing really felt different then the ol' 2010 Gen3. It was tight, quick and very quiet. The interior was very nice and oozing with tech features my old 2010 was missing.

I thanked the dealer, got back into the 2010 and started on my way. Immediately my reaction was "Eeewwww, this sucks", something I never thought I'd ever say about a Prius, but it did suck, badly.

I then went to the Toyota dealer and tried a new Prius Prime. More techie than my 2010, especially with that huge LCD. But other wise it felt a lot like the 2010. Maybe a bit more electric whir sound on take off, maybe a bit tighter on handling, but still, it was mostly a "eewww".

After shopping around a few weeks later I pulled into the garage with a brand new 2018 Volt Premier.

I have not looked back. It's been almost a month, I've put nearly a thousand miles on it and still have 3/4 of the original dealer gas still in the tank. I drive about 62 miles a day on week days and only a few on weekends. It cost me $0.72 a day in electricity to drive the 62 miles round trip to work and lunch and back. On a really good day, it's happened a couple of times, the gas engine never comes on. Mostly it comes on a mile or two from home.

The volt is incredibly tight, scary quiet, and off the line it's very fun, probably 2-2.5 seconds faster than the Prius Prime to 60mph. Will easily spin the front tires even with traction control on.

I also own a Porsche, which I haven't driven since getting the Volt, the Volt is just a blast..

I don't have any complaints about my Prius experience, it was a good reliable car to the bitter end. I did negotiate an extended factory warranty on the Volt, it's a Chevy after-all. But looking online I just don't see many Volt owners with big problems.

The Volt's gas engine comes on so little and so infrequently that it will take forever just to get to the first oil change. The change oil timer still says 99% oil life.

I'd recommend that any Prius owner should at least do a test drive.