Possible New Prius C owner- Family

Nothing beats weight and size for safety. Also the Prius Hatchback is known to get better MPG at high speed (65mph+) than the the C.

I suggest you test drive both.

 

can't imagine having a whole family in it! haha, just being honest it's 99hp, even the yaris has this beat by a good margin. I think it's perfect for one or two in shape people I think the full sized Prius would be best for an incoming family. can't comment on the snow factor - L.A. area winters consist of 65 degree grey days with the occasional drizzle.

 

Love my C but it's small for a family car. Probably OK for 3, but 4 people (of any size) would be pushing it. Yes, it's based on the Yaris so if that is OK for your use the C might work for you. It's OK on the highway, but that is not its natural environment of course. With Michelin Xi3 snows it was terrific in the snow last winter.

 

im tall so i try to keep it to 3 people the most. but i dont find it that bad at higher speeds. i recently did a trip with 2 200 lbs people (including myself) and some luggage, going on the highway at around 75mph and averaging around 55 mpg for about 3 hours of highway driving.

 

I take a different view regarding the C as a possible family car. My father accurately predicted fuel shortages back in the late fifties and gravitated toward small cars. By the early 60's he settled on a SAAB which was a small 850cc 2 stroke motor car (yes we mixed the oil with the gasoline) and one of the original Minis. If you think todays MINI is small you should see one of those. Anyway we used the SAAB for numerous trips from the Boston area to my grandparent's home in Manitoba, a long 3 day trip back then. The trips were accomplished with mom, dad, and the 3 kids, my sister and I being teenagers. Long story short the two small cars served our family well. Both were smaller than a C. I too use small cars (Subaru's) as my own family grew up during the 70's and 80's. They too proved adequate. The C can serve you as a family car if you want it to.

 

My wife and I use the C on long trips with our 3 and 8 year old constantly. Its a small car but hey.... As far as safety, obviously a bigger car with a better safety rating will be better, but you have to make your choices...

 

drove to the airport with a full C. 2 adults up front and 2 petite adult females in back with a baby in carseat in between them, and a weeks worth of luggage in back for 2 adults and baby stuff... was a 2hr Highway trip @mostly 70mph and got 45mpg and no one in back complained... so I guess it's a pretty good family car in my book

 

We don't have kids but my guess would be the C would be fine until they started getting big. The back seat is not huge but it is good enough.

As for the winter thing, we just drove ours through the worst winter in Manitoba in 115 years on Michelin X Ice 3s and had no problems at all.

Nexus 5 ?

 

My only concern would be if the size would work for you. Since you have already owned a same-sized Yaris, you can answer your own question better than anyone!

 

It works fine as a family car as long as you pack well and pack light.
With two kids and two adults its perfectly comfortable for us. Occasionally we use it with 3 adults and 2 kids and that can be a bit tight.

As far as winters, the car handles very well in a few inches of snow. However at some point you may run into issues with traction control, especially right after a snow storm. I would recommend winter tires if you plan to drive through a lot of snow.