What car did you look at before you bought C?

Too bad indeed. This is a pretty neat car, at least as far as the looks are concerned.

Back to the original subject: I was considering quite a few cars, but I specifically looked at:

New:

• Insight (that would have been my first choice, but I couldn't get through to "someone" at the dealership who would have given me a discount, appropriate for a discontinued car that had sat on the lot for a year - until after I bought the 'c' .. timing is everything)
• Veloster (the spec was great, the price was fantastic, but didn't like it overall)
• Golf TDI (well above budget)

Young second-hand:

• Impreza hatchback (the asking price was too high, and I disliked the trunk and the odious color .. that car is still sitting on the lot)
• Sonata (couldn't find an appropriate specimen at the local dealer)

 

I was looking for the best compact gas mileage and stumbled upon the C. I had no clue they made the small sized Prius!

 

Just about everything in the compact class. Chevy Cruze, Hyundai Elantra ( which I was real dead set on but I couldn't find the color combo I wanted ) Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, Honda Insight, Kia Forte. I then drove my grandfathers regular Prius and I loved it. I was highly impressed. This was right as the C was being launched. Once I found about that it was all over from there.

I chose the C because of MPG ( of course ), in cabin tech ( USB, Navi etc ), and the fact it came with a sunroof, superb safety and typical Toyota reliability and resale.

 

Current Elantra would have been very nice. The trunk is huge, but its lid doesn't open wide enough for my gear to be put in gracefully.

 

I didn't consider any other car. We went to the Toyota dealership for the free hot dogs and came home with a new car.

 

Free hot dog promotion, forget the cash back stuff

 

Dang! I didn't even get a free hot dog...

 

I owned a 2012 Chevrolet Sonic 1.8L 5 Speed HB, bought it new and sold it after 16,000 miles because it developed a transmission leak and the dealer made an attempt to fix it and didn't. I was interested in the Nissan Versa Note, however I remembered the Prius C and prior to looking at the Versa I found a C and bought it.

 

Hey, more power to you

 

I went to the lot looking for a used Jetta GLI I had seen a few days earlier... it was gone, as I was driving a lap around the lot I saw a black hatchback out of the corner of my eye.

I didn't know what it was, but I was interested in a hatch, so I stopped to check out the first Prius C I ever saw...and that's the one I bought.

 

I test drove the Toyota Prius, Kia Soul, Volkswagen Beatle, Ford Focus, Dodge Dart and the Subaru Impreza hb but i had my mind set on the Prius C!!

 

"The McKinsey report says the average buyer visits just 1.6 auto dealerships while car shopping, down from 10 years ago when buyers visited an average of five dealerships".

Does this have to do with the abundance of information, available on the Internet these days? You can not only look up a range of cars you may be potentially interested in, but also to research specifications, peer reviews, cost of ownership over X years, available discounts etc.

Besides, many people are wary of the unnecessary pressure some car sales people can mount on a customer. I must have visited 4 dealerships (including the Toyota one), and two visits were rather unproductive, as I found myself having to muddle through the spiel instead of actually finding out more about the car I was interested in.

 

I was looking at used all the way, just because of budget. I looked seriously at a Kia Forte (didn't like the color), Kia Optima (bigger than I wanted), a Subaru Impreza hatchback (more than I wanted to spend and mediocre gas mileage). Then I saw a Prius in my price range at a fairly local dealer. It was a 2010 hatchback, and it was the first time I ever even sat in a Prius. Didn't like the style that much, it didn't even have Bluetooth. But I figured I'd drive it anyway, and it was a turtle, especially compared to my old Forester. I left, undecided and then remembered they had a C there. I originally dismissed it because I thought it was so small. But I went back and drove it and really liked it. Plus, it was well equipped (trim level 4). I then had it narrowed down to a brand new 2015 Kia Forte hatchback at a great price, or this C at an even better price. Then I thought about my daily commute and compared the Forte's 30 mpg (if I'm lucky), to the C's 50+ mpg. Also, cheaper excise tax, sales tax, insurance, etc. And they gave me a lot more for my trade toward the Prius than the Kia dealer would on the Forte.

So here I am. No regrets...so far.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The Subaru was at a Honda dealership, so the salesman asked if I'd considered a Fit. I told him I'd be willing to check it out, as I thought I liked the looks of it okay. Well, I sat in one in the showroom and my knees were practically up under my chin. I went to move the seat back, but it was as far back as it would go. I'm only 6"1", so that made that decision really easy. I just didn't fit in the Fit.

 

^ cutter 44: I am wondering about Subaru in general. Apart from their "symmetric 4-wheel drive", I found the Impreza I was looking at .. well .. un-Imprezive? For a reason I do not quite understand Subaru cars tend to come in deliberately drab colors. Sitting inside didn't feel right, to the point I didn't even feel like taking it for a test drive. The trunk looks larger from outside than it really is. The exterior reminds me of the 1990s sensibilities. The manual gearbox is 5-speed .. in 2014 ... and the fuel efficiency was mediocre. And, the price was too high even for a "young" second-hand car. I asked for a modest discount (less than 10%), to which the salesman gave me a car magazine, saying that Subaru had the best re-selling value ... good to know

C was exactly the other way around. It's larger inside than the outer size suggests, and it's very comfortable to sit in (6'2" and 240 lbs). I wouldn't call its trunk cavernous, but it swallows more stuff fits than I thought. The color was pretty, and the overall appearance is kind of fresh, cute and original. The best thing, however, was the price - something like 4K below sticker.

I do not necessarily like everything in c, but I was very impressed by its traction and road-holding capability. I do not miss 4-wheel drive.

 

I really really liked my '06 Forester. Heck, I put 220k miles on it. I might still have it if it didn't need a new catalytic converter. I just couldn't justify spending nearly $1000 on a car with that many miles. Plus, it was due for new tires, and who knows what else. And I must admit, I feel a lot more comfortable driving a 6 year newer vehicle that gets more than twice the gas mileage as my previous one. As I said, no regrets.

 

We were on our way to the Honda dealership to buy a used FIT(I really liked the paddle shifters after driving a civic(meh), accord(it was ok, just didn't appeal) and a used Yaris when we drove by the Toyota dealership. I figured since we had such good experiences with our Tacoma then Tundra(which we traded in for our C), let's try the yaris. We drove a new yaris and a new corolla before the C. Drove the C and bought it straight away. It is a great car and 3.7-4.5 litres per 100 km is fantastic.

 

Per the ECO Monitor or at the gas (sorry, petrol) pump?

 

That is per ECO monitor. I'm Canadian, we say gas too lol