If I had not bought this Prius I would have kept the car I had. I bought my Gen3 Prius because I like hybrids and I considered the Prius to be the best hybrid available. Next car? depends on what the Accord Hybrid (non plug-in due out this fall) is like. Camry Hybrid is a good car but I am not anxious to own another Toyota due to poor customer service. Honda may not be any better but I may decide to find out, depends on road tests and reports from owners.
I just got a second hand 2010 Prius, upgrading from my trusty Toyota Echo... was tossing up between the new Corolla, and the Renault Megane Diesel. 2nd hand Prius was cheaper than both, and more fuel efficient. No brainer in the end. Am more than happy with my choice now - think I'll be a loyal Prius driver til the end of my days!
Fusion hybrid or 4 door focus hatchback... I'm a ford guy... Still might trade in this prii for a focus ST one of these days. Until then I'm a happy camper with this prii
If I didn't buy a Prius, I'd look at the Lexus CT200h, Prius C, Honda Insight... and then the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ. The latter would've had my heart, and it would seem to me that the other hybrid contenders would not have made enough of a rational argument (not saying anything about them, but more of how partial I am to sporting cars) to win against the boy racer in me. Of course, this sort of decision would've been possible because I keep an IS300, which kind of splits the difference between a sporting car and a practical one. Either choice would not have been a complete overlap, and I always have an alternate car to serve as both backup and capability augmenter. The lifestyle difference is that with the Prius, I get to travel more and do more things. With the FR-S/BRZ, I would've gone back into playing with cars for its own sake.
I wanted a high mileage car this time around. I looked at a number of hybrids in addition to a Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Because I do a lot of highway driving at all hours in many different locations, I ruled out every hybrid except the Toyota Prius because the Prius is the only one that I found that comes with a real spare tire. All the others came with a tire repair kit (which is essentially a can of fix-a-flat and a compressor) instead of a spare tire. There's no place to fit a spare tire even if you were to buy one. That won't work for me if it's 2:00am and I get a blowout that the repair kit won't fix. The tough decision was between the Prius and the Jetta TDI (diesel). There's no doubt to me that the Jetta TDI drove SO MUCH nicer, great pickup, big trunk for storage which I prefer to a hatchback because of equipment that I cart around, and the highway mileage by users is reported to be as high or higher than the Prius. I was real close to getting the Jetta TDI, but I couldn't get past the fact that in the 80s I had a VW that was a real money pit. I bought it brand new, replaced the transmission twice in the 5 years I owned the car, plus various other abnormal expenses. Even if VW is better now, I just couldn't pull the trigger, when I knew that the Toyota Prius was considered one of the most reliable cars available. Now I have the Prius for almost 3 months, I'm getting about 55mpg, and today regular gasoline in my area is going for $3.03, it's dropped big time in the last 2 months, but the price of diesel didn't drop at all, priced at $3.67 a gallon. Reliability and cheaper gas = I made the right decision.
Jetta TDI or Passat TDI. Space and utility were plusses on the Prius' side, fun to drive were on the VW's side. Practicality won out.
We were looking at the Ford C-Max and the Prius. I liked the look of the C-Max, DH liked the Prius, so we went home and researched. As we were researching, we saw all of the mileage issues with the C-Max, so we went back to the Toyota dealership to do another test drive. I liked the ones in the lot, but just ok. Then we went into the showroom and saw mine...love the color, love the look, love, love, love the car. So we bought it (after quite a bit of haggling). We haven't regretted it for an instant.
My wife and son told me it is either the Prius or the Sienna ;-) Next year we are ordering a Sienna to go with my Prius Mike Mobile on my SGH-i717
I swapped out my Honda Civic in 2004 specifically for a Prius; no other car would have tempted me at the time. If the Civic had died I would have replaced it with a Honda Fit. Now that I have long distance drives to work I chose to buy a wagon. If not Prius V -- I'm not sure. I refuse to buy diesel, and am not aware of any other wagon that gets my minimum requirement of 4o mpg on the highway.
Can you imagine saying that or even thinking it a few years ago? They have done a good job at getting up to par!
I have gone through a lot of cars in the last several years... In 2010 traded in my 2003 5 speed corolla on a 2011 scion tc lease. Then I bought a 2013 Chevy Cruze LTZ, got hosed on the financing and the mileage is extremely extremely overrated, with 38 psi in the tires and 91 oct fuel was the only way I could even hit 30mpg on the highway. When I bought the Prius I have now I was looking at the Prius C first, but I decided that was too small for me. So essentially I was between a Prius c (3 I think?) and my liftback. Through all the car purchases I have strongly considered a Jetta TDI, twice I was really interested in buying a new older stock (a 2010 when 2011's were out and a 2012 when '13's were out) and the dealership nearby refused to negotiate. Came down like $400 on the sticker when the new year was the exact same price. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have driven the Corolla into the ground and bought a Prius when the Corolla was dead. That thing would hit nearly 40mpg on highways and would average almost 35mpg with normal driving... wife got car sick in it though... Overall I am very happy with my Prius and will probably upgrade once I finally have some positive equity in mine, but in no rush cause of the 0% financing.