I know it is not ment for off-roading, but a few roads I often drive on in the summer are unpaved and have a surface mostly made of crushed rocks. (About 1-3 inch rocks) Does anyone have any experience with this? And also how does it hold up to shallow mud puddles?
I drove on this road twice daily for a week while on vacation this past summer. It is located in Morongo Valley CA in the high desert near Palm Springs. Not gravel but it was pretty rough. I did not encounter problems even after one major albeit brief rain storm
I posted some photos going off road on this post: Some Australian c photos | Page 3 | PriusChat No photos of the worst of what I drove through... but in general no particular issues with this vehicle. My only challenge was the same as any vehicle, which was just watching for the erosion channels and picking my line carefully to avoid bottoming out anywhere, but otherwise I had no problems with traction or anything like that, but I drive fairly conservatively in those areas and was on those roads to enjoy the view and had no reason to rush.
It's a small car. For me, the ride is way stiffer compared to my junk 4x4 and potholes make me cringe more than they used to. Will your car manage? Yes. Will your like the bumps? Probably not...
I've been on a fair bit of unpaved roads with my C and while it can be a little rough, it doesn't really bother me, but I've only gone about 50 km/h max on those roads. My main concern with these types of roads are potholes, especially if the road is of a type where the potholes like to migrate every time you drive on it. It can be pretty easy to bottom out the C if you hit one of those suckers dead on.
