New here! some questions

The Prius is going to get the best mpg period. Even in harsh winter conditions. The Cruze will get worse mpg during the winter just like the Prius will. I would say Prius is likely to be more reliable than the Cruze but since the Cruze is brand new I can't say for sure. The Prius is one of the most reliable cars on the road.

The model years with the most issues were 2004 and early year 2005s. That being said, those years still have a good track record for reliability. My late year 2005 has not had any really issues in 144,000 miles.

Go check out the fuelly website and fueleconomy.gov to see what kind of mpg numbers people are getting in both cars.

 

If OP is willing to drive a Ford Fiesta, then no contest, the Prius will be a winter upgrade.

Reliability: Prius proven, Cruze unknown, although the company that builds it has been ... *cough* ... unreliable. I just read that a hugh recall is coming to GM, but the company is saying they will not take responsibility because the cars were produced before BK. Way to stand behind your cars GM!

MPG: Prius will double the MPG of the Cruze in city driving, and use 30-50% less fuel in highway driving.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems with the Fiesta. Do you have the semi-automatic transmission?

I think the Prius is far superior to the Cruze. However, do some reading her about winter driving and the inability of the Prius to spin the wheels. If your winter driving style is to spin the wheels until you get some grip, I'd buy something else or decide to change your driving style. Oh, and get some good winter tires, especially if you live in the NE Ohio show belt.

If you want a snow monster, buy my used Subaru Outback. LOL

 

The recalls are really non-worries for future owners...any problems or perceptions of problems are gone. Toyota techs seem to mention often how easy it is to work on the Prius versus other cars, because there aren't any real problems to work on. I feel very safe in mine, for what it's worth.

Mileage is no contest, a Prius will always do much better than a Cruze. The percentage by which it will beat the Cruze has the potential to increase dramatically in non-highway driving, dependent on how it's driven, though highway mileage conservatively would still likely be at least 30% better in a Prius, to echo Sagebrush. City driving you should do 100% better, and with some knowledge about the Prius, toward 200% better (damn, it sounds so impressive in percentage terms!). I have an obvious bias, but either way, mileage-wise, the Prius is your car.

 

This was a very limited issue and supposedly no cars left the factory with this, um, feature. I know a couple of Cruze owners and they are very happy with their cars. One of them is a former Honda Civic owner. That said, I feel the Prius is a superior car with better anticipated reliability - that happens to get awesome MPG.

 

Seconding the comments regarding fuel economy. You will not find any recent cars w/better fuel economy than the Prius. If you want the gas mileage king, then go for the discontinued 1st gen Insight, assuming a 3 cylinder 2 seater wil work for you.

You can see how the 2nd gen Prius did at ConsumerReports.org - Most fuel-efficient cars, 3rd gen at http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...ce/most-fuelefficient-cars/overview/index.htm and http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/...-fuel-economy/best-and-worst-fuel-economy.htm on CR's tests. If you want fuel economy, I can tell you that in the automatic non-Eco versions of the Cruze didn't do so hot in their FE tests and thus didn't even place on the above lists. They didn't test the Eco versions though nor manuals.

Results were:
2011 LS sedan, 1.8-liter Four, 6-speed automatic: 17 city/36 highway, 26 overall, 34 for 150-mile trip
2011 1LT sedan, 1.4-liter Four turbo, 6-speed automatic: 17 city/36 highway, 26 overall, 35 for 150-mile trip

Yep on the reliability. Prius has had a good reliability record. No, I wouldn't be concerned about the recalls. Looking at safercar.gov, none of the reaclls there have affected me, as far as I can remember.

If I had to stay away from any model year, I'd stay away from ones before the 2nd gen (so that means anything prior to MY2004) but I doubt you'd go for something that old.

 

Do be aware that the Prius Traction Control is different than in other cars, as it is also intended to protect the transaxle from overspin.

The original version stranded some drivers in some conditions, especially those without good winter tires. It has been upgraded several times, so judge each version separately.

Most drivers with the 2010, including me, now swear by it, but a vocal group still swears at it. With studs, I can't imagine that you might fall into the later group.

 

Does the Cruze really only get 17 mpg in city driving ? Ughh
I had a chance the other day to look closely at a Cruze from the outside. Like most cars some angles looked better than others, but overall I thought it looked awkward in its proportions. Does it have a high center of gravity ?

 

BTW I want to commend the OP (DriveGreen82) on his post and questions. Sometimes we get some new folks in here who want to know about the Prius, but type their questions in such a way that they come across as patronizing or trollish (and the folks on these boards sometimes have a hair trigger when it comes to perceived trollish posts)

So, thank you for your post/questions. The Prius is a remarkable car, especially if you have certain attributes rated high on your priority scale (Cost of ownership, reliability, practicality, environmental impact).

Keep on asking questions and checking out the forums. There is a TON of information here and a lot of knowledgeable people to help. Don't be put off by those who might say "use the search button", it is acknowledged that it isn't the best search engine around. But, most of the information you might look for is stickied in the subforums.

 

Yes, there's so much random misinformation about the Prius and plenty of haters. It's likely that 99% of them have never owned a Prius and the majority have never driven one or been been given a proper demo of one buy a knowledgeable owner.

That's what it got in CR's tests, which admittedly seems pretty harsh in terms of the end result, judging by the values that every car gets on the test. Last page of http://www.consumersunion.org/Oct_CR_Fuel_Economy.pdf gives a high level overview of their tests vs. the pre-MY08 EPA tests.

For the Cruze, CR says:

 

Now that fuel prices are stabilizing/falling, you might be able to pick up a nice G2 Prius for an attractive price. I'm not trying to steer you away from a new G3 Prius in any way, I just thought a lightly used G2 is also something to consider.

 

i recommend a genII with almost 100k (if under or over that's good too) for about 10k... buying my car new, i spent about 42k dollars with financing and such... my brother is looking for the same car for 10k (many in california)... which is an excellent deal.. i'm at 170k miles and i've really never had any serious issues.

proven reliability of the prius says that a good 90 percent of them probably don't have any problems before 200k miles. while repairs on a prius are expensive... so are other cars... the prius parts just last longer because it's a less stressed design.. all the stress is basically on the pack and electrical side, and it deals with it really well.

so... i've seen a lot of cars fail before 100k miles.. if a prius has 100k and last only 100k more... that's still a really cheap car at 10 grand.

original test by toyota stated that the "system" (hv battery) was "tested" (cycled) and at 20 years or 500k miles they only had a 15% drop in pack capacity. (some consider that dying... some consider it ok.. it depends if you want peak mpg or not)