Vehicle capacity weight (Occupants + luggage) 845 lb. (380 kg) Prius manual PDF page 490. Seems kinda low to me.
I'm sure you could put more weight in the car, but the engine would probably struggle and your MPGs would nosedive.
You can't go too much lower and be considered a 5 seater. That's just 169 lbs per person as it is with no luggage.
Next time we have a big shopping trip, which should be next weekend, I'll try to remember to take a photo after the car has been stuffed. I think much of the perception of smallness in the cargo area is due to the cover and how much rear visibility the packer is willing to surrender. As I did with the rear headrests, I pulled the cargo cover after my first grocery shopping trip in the C.
This brings to mind a recent advertisement cooked up by an advertiser in India for Ford, although Ford never ran it; nevertheless Ford has gone into apology mode. See Forbes article.
Back from our trip... Wisconsin to Florida. You just would not believe how much we were able to fit in our Prius C. On the way home, we drove straight thru, about 22 hours. I never felt that the car struggled, even up and down some very large hills/mountains. My husband connected an inverter directly to the battery under the seat, so we were able to run two laptop computers for the kids. They watched movies and played games the whole way down. I couldn't be happier with my car! 2800 miles, round trip.
Thanks beckysue. Wisconsin to Florida is my 2 x a year run and I was wondering how the c would do. I bought it for around town here, but if it could take on the long trips, well then, even better!
We've taken two 500+ miles one way trips with luggage and tools plus one trip with 2x200+ lb passengers plus 200 lb of race gas in a 30 gal drum. The 'pleasure' trips included one passenger 150 lb, two airline official bags plus 3 little cases and a number of clothes hung on a cross rod. Averaged 48 mpg at 65 mph overall, both times, including the WV Turnpike. The trip carrying the gas was not as long but with tools in place of those styrofoam pieces, we averaged within 5 mph of the average speed generally running 5 mph over the limits and it was was uneventful. That trip did include Monroe MA809 airlift shocks, which we have utilized often for more than 40 years in numerous cars. we don't see any real difference between our Civics, of which we've had dozens, and the Prissy for uggage capacity. Go ahead, buy the Prius C2, you'l miss the accel maybe but the mpg will make up for it and the C is not as slow as pretended. Now if Toyota takes the Yaris coupe and equips that hybrid with a supercharged or turbcharged engine of say 180 hp, the CRZ is toast (which it is anyway). And Toyota will be lucky to have an inventory of 10 days worth of car sales. (the CRZ has 250). And if its based on the Mazda 2 lookout 918 (not in performance but in sales, lets say 10,000 to one) The Prius has enough room for any luggage save the kitchen sink so go ahead, you'll love it.
Thank you to all of you who took the time to answer this thread. A month ago, I purchased a loaded 2010 Gen 3 Prius. With the rear seatbacks down, I'm able to carry my bicycle inside the car. I was ready to buy a new Prius C but I reluctantly concluded it would be a bit too small for my needs. All your answers were a great help. About my Gen 3: After three fill-ups, I'm getting 4.5L/100 Km (52 miles per US Gal). It's great! So long, everybody.
Just came across this great photo in my travels around the Internet. Photo by ratface • Instagram
When it comes to "how much space you can put stuff in" looks are always deceiving, and photos just never do any justice. Best advice I have is to bring your luggage (a whole bunch of it) with you and test drive a prius c, on a weekday (when it's less busy). While you're at the dealership, ask to put your luggage inside the prius c, so you can get a feel for how much space is really there. That's really the only way to know. If you're coming from your Honda Civic then my guess is that you'll be very satisfied with the upgrade in cargo space. There's a lot more vertical room, and you can fold the seats down so you can put very long items (e.g. skis) inside the car.
If you have to do it regularly, that's a problem. But if that's once a year event, rent a big car. I could not stop laughing 10 years ago when my friend told me the reason he bought a pickup truck: It is easier to move my furniture.
If you can take the front wheel off of your bike it will fit in the C. fred's c and the bicycle test | PriusChat
I just fit this dishwasher in the back of my c: Kenmore 24 Built-In Black Dishwasher: Energy Star Savings at Sears I looked up dimensions beforehand and knew it'd be a tight squeeze. The guy who brought it out of the store to load it went out the door, gave a weird look at the car he was supposed to put the dishwasher in, then went back inside. It just barely made it - the limiting factor was the height of the hatch opening, and because the rear seats don't fold down completely (they still bend upwards a little bit when put down), I had to push them down while pushing the box in. The dishwasher is 24x34x24, and the box was a bit bigger (probably more like 26x34x26). Didn't think to take a picture until after I took it out