85 mile commute + local driving - Prius?

Relatively new Prius Plug In owner here. The Prius will fit just about any scenario. Reliable and cheap to operate. Might want remove the word "spirited" from your driving experience. While the Prius is very popular, it's not for everyone. My wife and I recently sold our eight year old 2006 NewBeetle diesel. The regular Prius Hybrid gets much better fuel mileage and is cheaper to operate. While the ICE will operate most of the time, it's a fuel miser.

 

+1. And using advice here on PriusChat, you CAN modify the Prius to add some "spiritedness" in the suspension department, although not in the power department. Additionally, you'll simply not believe how much stuff a Prius can fit and carry. Best of Luck on your choice!

 

I bought my 2010 Prius for just that sort of commute here in the land of the real Ashes team. I drive a mixture of gravel country roads,
freeway and city back streets. Beyond an injector failure at 6000 KMs, repaired under warranty, I have not had an ounce of trouble and have just passed 200,000 kms without even a brake pad change. Sitting in a stalled peak hour commute is peaceful when your ICE is silent and you can actually hear the radio while others are drumming their fingers and lane hopping. I don't pretend the Prius is as sporty as the Audi but it can easily zoom along at 70 mph and still have enough grunt for overtaking. I only need to drive down to Melbourne once a week now but I still enjoy the journey and the amenity of the Prius technology.

 

Your situation is similar to mine. I previously had a Toyota Corolla, which averaged 25-30 mpg in the city, and up to 40 mpg on the highway. When I switched to the Prius, my fuel costs were halved immediately. I am routinely averaging 65-70 mpg, both in city and highway driving.

My Prius is a Plug-in, which gives me the additional equivalent benefit of 10-12 miles of EV range. If you can get power for free at work, it's like an extra quart of free fuel. If you pay for it at home, it's worth roughly half of that, depending on your rates.

 

I had my years with BMW and Mercedes, best car for luxury, suspension, and others, cost of repairs are outrageous. The Prius does not sound solid as what brands I have mentioned. The Prius is great commuter car and around town. If you want to stick to the European cars look at the Volkswagen Passat diesel. I heard it can get over 75o miles per gas tank.

 

I commute 80 miles per day, very silmilar roads/traffic situation.
The Prius does just fine at highway speed. If you need to cruise fast it is perfectly capable of that also.
The Prius replaced a 09 Corvette as a daily driver which was getting 23mpg on the commute. The Prius is getting around 49 so far.
Go to EPA website and compare vehicle fuel consumption.

 

We just bought our first Hybrid car, a Prius opt. pack 3. We were total Honda fans, for 20 years, but ran into problems with the 2010 Accord, so we sold it to buy a 2013 Dodge Dart 1.4L turbo. 1.4L was stated to get 40 mpg, and we saw 39 mpg once, otherwise it was in the 22-26 mpg range all the time due to constantly being in the turbo to get over our coastal hills. I considered diesel's when looking for the next car, but decided the high price for diesel fuel, and car (here in US) as a road block. Plus I have two friends with VW diesel's and both say they do get the good mpg, but the car is in the shop way too often with problems, and the body has more rattles than they can count. They also said "sure, it gets the mpg, and the motor will last a real long time, if you can put up with the rest of the car falling apart around you!" I wanted something with a rock solid track record, few repairs, and good MPG. So far, our Prius has been all of that!

 

There are several people on this forum from the UK.
I can't speak to the disadvantages in interior appointments in the Prius versus an Audi, but even if gas were as inexpensive there as it is here, you couldn't help but save significant amounts of money in the Prius.
Gasoline here is less than $1 a litre, and it's still no contest at all.

The Prius is cheaper by far to operate.

Good Luck!

 

Check out this website: Prius vs. A5 / S5 Reliability

 

Thanks for the report. It's nice to get a considered and independent review. At least if you did buy it you should have a relatively recent model for trade in on the gen IV.

 

Yeah, I was lucky small town, one dealer, demo model with 5000kms $12,000 below full price. Easy decision. Great car, glad I bought it. Might buy gen 5.

 

Definitely better. Not yet as bright as HID. If you want to save some money and go for the stock halogens, there are good after market solutions such as HID or 3rd gen LED.

 

Congrats! I have a T4 (gen2) and when I change I'll be going for the T-Spirit so that i have all the extras. Saying that, I'll be buying a 2/3 yr old used Gen 3 model. When you get used to driving it (takes a few months), you'll see 60+ mpg with the commute that you have .