PiP vs. Volt - cabin noise, handling, driver room from owners of both?

My RR is a 2012 - so far no issues (knock on burl walnut). I'm 6'3", but it's all torso - I have a 30-32 inch inseam. I dropped by the Chevy dealer the other day and did what I always do in cars - pushed the seat all the way back, lowered it as far as it would go, and reclined the seatback quite a ways. I fit pretty well. There's no way anyone could fit behind me unless I scrunched up for short distances, but again - this won't be the car I take when I'm driving a group of people. I assume that the PiP interior is the same as the regular Gen III; if so, I'll fit well in there, too. I haven't driven one since I test drove a Prius a couple of years ago (bought the JSW TDI instead), but I found the interior to fit well and be comfortable. It was a fairly short test drive (5 miles or so), so I didn't get a sense of road noise - and the salesman was beside me so I didn't get a sense of handling . I'll correct that soon.

 

Thanks, I have bookmarked the sound deadening threads. It would be a bit of expense and annoyance, but probably worth it if I planned to keep the car for a while, which I tend to do (notwithstanding my comment on leasing). I would drive the car for a while and decide. The noise issue is just a personal foible; I haven't heard that it's worse on the Prius than any other car at the general price point, I'm just sensitive to it.

Can I ask why you traded your relatively new PiP on a Volt?

 

Thanks for replying, I read and appreciated your threads in the other forum. I've rented Fusions a few times (the gas version), and enjoyed them, especially the Titanium (Enterprise has a few, usually rental agencies only have the low end base versions). I drove throughout Oregon and Washington over the course of a week in a lower end Fusion, and was comfortable the whole time, so I wouldn't have an issue with the Fusion Energi (I actually think the C-Max is pretty cool, too). The only downsides to me would be the limited EV range - better than the PiP, substantially less than the Volt - and the mileage when the EV juice is used up, which is significantly less than the PiP. A test drive is probably worthwhile, and a look at TrueCar shows that deals can be had.

 

Double post again - sorry, slow connection.

 

I expect I'll own a Model S one car down the road - it really is extraordinary - but not for the moment. Aside from availability issues and price, I don't have confidence in the charging infrastructure outside of major cities - I expect that to change in a couple of years. If I knew I was living in SoCal, I might have a different perspective. That also rules out the Leaf and the Focus EV (which can be had at a significant discount these days), and argues for a plug-in, e.g. PiP, Volt, or Fusion or C-Max Energi, that have as much EV range as possible; one or two generations from now I think the additional ICE engine won't be necessary. Comparing the Volt to, say, the Leaf, 40 miles will cover most of my driving, but I'm willing to trade off the last 35 miles or so for the ability to take longer trips without worrying. The same is true of the BMW i3, which I test-drove at the LA Auto Show. Very cool car, but if you get the range extender it only has a couple of gallons of gas, which rules out longer trips.

We're still early in the EV game, the capabilities a few years down the road will be very different. In the meantime, anybody wanting to purchase an EV, whether pure or plug-in, has to balance a set of sub-optimal features and choose the balance that fits them best.

 

In some parts of the country, yes, but public chargers and superchargers aren't thick on the ground in Utah, Wyoming, Montana, northern Nevada, etc., and the distances get pretty long. I'm not an early adopter out to prove a point. I like the technology, I believe it's the future, and I support that for a number of reasons, but I'm looking for a solution that fits my life, not vice versa.

 

To close the loop as the OP in this thread, I leased a 2014 Volt a couple of weeks ago. I did test drive the cars, and I can confirm what others have said - the Volt is quieter, has better ride and handling, better interior materials, and just generally feels like a more expensive car than the Prius - which isn't bad in any way, btw. They felt comparable in terms of interior space for the driver, which is what I care about - the Volt might have a bit more shoulder room. Ironically, after my comments that I'll never have anyone in the backseat, on the day I picked it up I took three other people to Dodger Stadium, maybe a 20 mile round trip. No complaints. I drove the Volt from LA to Park City, a bit under 800 miles, in one day in decent comfort (despite a 2 hour stoppage of I-15 for a police incident). It's a fine road trip car. I got around 37 mpg during exclusive use of the gas engine on that trip.

Since then, I've used about a half gallon of gas and I've traveled around 250 miles - my commute fits the Volt's range very well, I do a 16 mile round trip twice a day. The trip includes one uphill and one downhill leg; I use about 11-12 miles of range on the uphill leg (8 miles in distance), on the downhill run I don't use any range due to regenerative braking. It's turning into a game. I may be starting a new commute of 55 miles, and based on a trial run (when I used the half gallon experimenting) I may be able to do it all on the battery. The leg into the office is a 25 mile downhill run, regen the whole way. We'll see.

No comparison on price. The lease for the Volt was about 2/3 of the monthly rate that Diane Whitmire was advertising on the forum for PiPs, despite being better equipped and with an MSRP $7k higher - the tax credit is obviously being used to subvent the lease payments. Works for me.

Through this process, it became evident to me that these cars only superficially compete with each other. The PiP is essentially a Gen 3.5 enhanced Prius, it's not really a BEV in any way. The Volt is - I expect to go weeks at a time without using the gas engine, something few people can do in a PiP. The Volt's real competitors are the Leaf and now the BMW i3, not the PiP. Given Toyota's vision of a hydrogen future, it looks like the family trees for these cars will veer off further in separate directions.

Overall I'm very happy with the Volt. This is my first GM car since the '67 Camaro SS350 I had in high school a few decades ago, and I'm impressed, maybe because of my low-ish expectations for a Chevy. I don't know if GM has turned around overall (the rental Impalas and Malibus I get don't blow me away), or if it's just the Volt. In any case, I'm happy for the progress. I'm looking forward to the next-gen Volt (and possibly PiP, though it doesn't seem to be a priority for Toyota), but I'm really intrigued by the i3. Then again, as I told friends, this is my Tesla starter kit, and if one or two financial events happen, I'll probably order a Model S P85 Performance and pass the Volt on to a friend.

One thing that's surprised me over the last month is the hostility displayed by a few Prius fanatics on this forum toward the Volt ("moronic"? really?) and by a number of folks on the gm-volt site toward the Prius. I suppose I expected some general good will toward an expansion of choice in more sustainable transportation; instead it sometimes feels like a more intellectual version of a Camaro-Mustang rivalry. There are a few folks here who probably have a stencil of Calvin urinating on a Volt logo on their cars. Strange.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your thoughts, I appreciate them.