Prius "must-haves" vs. "frills"

In my opinion ... anything other than a 2 or 3 in a Prius is just gilding the lilly.

It's still a $20K car no matter how many toys you add on to it. You can pay $30-35K for it ... but it's still a glorified Corolla in terms of performance.

If I was spending $30K ... it damn well wouldn't be on a Prius. I love mine, but I paid $21K for it brand new after rebates and discounts in Jan of 2011. I wouldn't have paid a penny more then or now, which is probably why I'll never get another one ... even though I'd like one. Simply put ... it's a $20K car.

REV

 

The question of "Must Haves" vs "Frills" is basically a question of whether we have become accustomed to things we might not actually need (hence the word luxury). We can all be creative enough to rationalize a nicety as a necessity. Yes, we "need" that Nav system, because before they came out, all we did was wander around aimlessly until we stumbled eventually upon our destination. Like Columbus or Lewis and Clark.

 

LOL !! I've NEVER had a factory nav system even come close to the quality and usability of my $79 Garmin widescreen with free traffic.

Factory nav is the biggest con job in the industry ... and to think that in most cases you have to buy UPSCALE option packages to even get it ... all for the privilege of getting what is in many cases .... an unusable, anti-ergonomic, out-of-date, poorly designed nav software package.

Same with 'entune' and 'sync' ... and all the other unusable, unreliable, unrefined crap that these automakers are pushing ... and that we as consumers are so stupidly jumping all over ... only to be disappoionted. I won't have ANY of it.

REV

 

Got into a new American car the other day as we are looking for an new tow vehicle to tow our camper and the steering wheel looked like it was out of an F1 car, it had more buttons,levers, paddles, touch screen I would have wrecked just trying to turn on the radio.

 

Totally agree with you on this and the nav. It's why I chose the 3. The cost go jump to the 4 or 5 will not be recouped on sale, unlike the difference between a BMW 3 or 5.

 

We had an 06 Maxima with all the extras, heated seats and steering wheel, leather, sunroof. We replaced it with a 2011 Prius Three and we have not missed anything that we had in the Maxima.

 

In the case of the BMW's you mentioned ... they're totally DIFFERENT cars ... unlike the Prius 2, 3, 4, or 5 ... which is the SAME $20k car with a bunch of electronic doo dads added on.

There's VERY little difference between a $22k Prius and a $35K Prius from a performance and ride perspective.

REV

 

You can do this with any car -- and the loaded ones have a lower relative resale value.

The Prius is an odd duck -- it appeals to many that would never buy a similar car