Trading in my Prius

...finally had to accept that the Prius isn't big enough to cart around our 7-month old triplets. Well, it is, but sadly the three-seated stroller we recently purchased doesn't fit in the car unless the rear seats are folded down, and for obvious reasons that's a deal-breaker. Until now we've managed with a single-seat and a double-seat stroller, but my wife returns to work in December and I needed a three-seat stroller so I could deal with the girls alone.

We've spent the last couple of months checking out various possible alternatives, and decided on the Toyota Hilux, just about the polar opposite of the Prius in every way.

Saying goodbye to adaptive cruise control, the HUD, digital speedometers, reasonably good audio, excellent fuel economy, comfortable driving position and oodles of other (admittedly mostly useless) gadgets. Saying hello to much larger fuel bills

But needs must. And it's only temporary, I'm sure I'll be back in a Prius inside three years, as soon as the stroller is no longer needed and can be consigned to Ebay. I've driven a Prius for, well, forever and the car is almost like one of the family. I've been all over Europe in my trusty Barcelona Red 2005 model, and almost as far in my Emotional Red(!) 2016 upgrade.

I maintain that the Prius has coped admirably well lugging around three babies, two strollers and all the other crap necessary to deal with triplets, with plenty room to spare in the boot for shopping. Almost all cars on the European market cannot stow the triplet stroller we bought (or any triplet stroller on the market to be fair), so it's not really a failure of the model.

On the bright side, after initially offering only €18,000 trade-in value, I eventually talked the dealer up to €22,600 plus some free accessories which I think is pretty good considering I only paid a little over €27,000 for the Prius 18-months ago. Works out about €250/month depreciation. Not bad considering it was nearly written off following a crash shortly after purchase, and the dent on the front left wing after a bloody cyclist fell off his bike into me. Hell, for all I know I've been robbed blind, but I'm happy enough with the deal.

I hope you're all still here in approx. 3 years. Maybe by then the Prius will have evolved further still. I might even treat myself to a plug-in!

 

Aye, the Pruis+ was no good, cargo space was almost non-existent. We could have added a roof rack and box to our Prius but we'd have needed the largest one on the market, negating some (most?) of the fuel efficiency gained from the hybrid. And that's not to mention having to lift the 35kg stroller from to head height and back a couple of times a day. No, the Prius wasn't designed with three babies in mind. And for good reason, this slice of the market is so thin it might as well not exist.​

 

Can't edit the post above because priuschat is acting a bit funky, but I forgot to say our Hilux is indeed a crew cab. We purchased the 'hard top' which adds a high roof and windows to the cargo bed. You can get the Hilux in 3 cab different sizes - single, crew and one in between which comes with fold down seats but where the space is primarily used for storage.

 

Well, today was my last day with the Prius. Handed the keys over at about 4 o'clock. The dealer could tell I wasn't happy to be 'trading up' (they know about the triplets) but helpfully informed me it was too late to change my mind. "What about? The triplets or the car," is what I would have said had my wife not been present...

On a positive note, I've been really impressed with how the Prius has handled the snow in recent days which was always a nagging concern of mine as my last one (2007 Prius) didn't deal with it all that well.

Ah well. Time to find a Hilux forum