Just thought I'd share my initial thoughts, driving a "c" as a service rental which is my first experience in any gen 3 Prius. Likely a one or two model, as no smartkey. My initial response is very positive. Seems quieter in the cabin compared to our '05 and '08. Doesn't feel cheap at all despite the nice price. Really like the exterior styling, interior looks good too. Radio sound is not too impressive, but haven't played with the settings at all. First drive was 7.3 miles mostly highway at 55-60 with a little surface street driving. Car was already "warmed up" as dealer left it running for us while we were finishing up, but battery was low starting out as ac was running to cool down the cabin. Outside temps near 90F. Put in Eco mode, reset trip A and off we went. Was probably driving on my best behavior to see what it would do, but did have to scoot around a dump truck on the on ramp. Made a quick stop to pick up lunch at about 6.9 mi, last 0.4 mi after restart on surface streets netted 72.9 mpg, 82/100 eco score. Overall drive was 59.2mpg. Have to say I'm pretty impressed so far Rob
It is definitely a nice little car. Depending on how long you have the rental, you should see even better MPG if you can resist the a/c (hard to do in high temps, especially if the car has been sitting outside baking for hours).
I thought I was reading a newbie post until I got to the bottom and it was signed "Rob". LOL I have yet to drive one. In fact, I don't want to. I don't want to get seduced by high mpg numbers that come so easily in that car. I promised I would be faithful to my GenIII.
I have to say this experience could be seriously detrimental to my plans to drive our gen 2s till the wheels fall off... The C wouldn't really work for us, but its a pretty eye opening look at what the gen 3 platform has to offer!
You sure that was a C. Sure doesn't sound like the car Consumer Reports tested. I tested the C and really liked it.
Me too! I just passed 5000 miles and I'm still very pleased with my C. Because of a few long trips I ended up with at least 90% of that being highway miles (speeds 55 to 75), so I'm quite satisfied with the mileage.
Trip 2: 10.0 miles mostly stop and go freeway up to 50 mph, 61.2 mpg. Eco score 83/100. Total so far 17.3 mi at 60.4 mpg.
I think a" plug in" on a C would be a great option for those who might need it. We drove our first C at a local dealer. 2 days later, we bought one from another local dealer. I was impressed. After 3500 miles, I get more impressed every trip. Dan
Iv had some really great stop and go traffic into Chicago getting 70-75mpg. I do the trip in rush hour about once a week and seem to get slightly better every week. I totally understand the "drive it till it wont drive no moe" mantra. I was the same about my Honda Fit. As it was fate took that away from me and smashed the Fittieer TanU into bit. The Prius C is one of the best cars on the market, I know there are lots that don't think so. I only hope you get to see where my love, and lots of others too, comes for this car comes from. Have fun with the C
I test drove the Prius C and the Prius Gen III liftback at the same dealership. The mileage and the exterior seemed comparable. It was the interior/dash that pointed me overwelmingly towards the Gen III. I was willing to pay the extra $4000 based on that decision.
Final score was 56.8 mpg over 74.6 miles. Had a few trips where I did't have the luxury of taking my time which hurt the average a bit. Enjoyed my time with the c and was a little sad to have to give it back!
Hopefully Toyota has a plug-in c on the roadmap, seems like a natural fit for the c's city driving focus. In the mean time a c at $19k plus the 3kWh PIS kit giving a 10-12 mile range PHEV for ~$23k would be pretty sweet. If they do a similarly scaled down version of the 10kWh kit (prob 8-9kWh) for ~40 miles at $26k that would be pretty awesome. Rob
