Renting before buying is always a good idea when purchasing a vehicle that is completely different than the one you're currently driving!! Think of it as a few hundred dollars worth of “buyer’s remorse insurance.†Usually a rental car already has several thousand miles on the clock, so you'll get to see how the G3 will hold up after a few months use. Also it will give you some exposure to the many interesting aspects of Prius Ownership without long term commitment such as real world gas mileage, rearward visibility, rattles and squeaks, ride quality, audio system performance, etc. The G3 is a good car, but it’s not everyone’s ideal car. Good Luck!
on PA turnpike (pretty much all up and downhill) we were getting better MPG with CC in Eco mode, 51 vs 46. Part of it more aggressive driving , but part of it GenIII aerodynamics. It takes serious MPG hit at speeds over 75MPH. Speed limit on PA turnpike is 65, so you can safely CC at 70-72
I have a 2010 Prius IV. I average 54 MPG. A few weeks ago I was stuck in traffic for at least 30 minutes moving at 1 - 2 miles/hr. Most of the time I was running on the battery. Beautiful! Quiet! Everyone else was burning gas. I have no regrets about owning my Prius.
Thanks for the suggestion about the zip cars - hadn't thought of that. According to their website, there's a Prius near my office, I'll definitely look into it. This forum has a wealth of information (I found out that chains aren't a problem, which beats the Honda Fit and gives us options for bad weather days). The Prius is now top of the list. However, I'm starting to get over the "new car fever" I caught from my other half, and we've decided to think about the whole thing for a month or two. The Fit is running very well at the moment so there's no real reason for getting a new car right now, and there's some house stuff we'd like to do that's also not necessary but would be nice. We can't do both so perhaps it's best for us to think about it all for a while, let the dust settle first, then decide if the new car wins over the house (we've already been doing a number of things to the house this summer).
We have a type two and use audio books a lot, havnt had a issues with using my iphone with aux cable. I wanted the lowest priced prius i could get, so it was never a big thing.
If you are not driving carefully with an eye for mpg then CC can reward you with better mpg but in general the driver can do better if the know what they are doing.
