What (if any) other cars did you consider before you bought your Prius?

For us it was the civic hybrid as well, but it just didn't click with us... LOVE the Prius.
I haven't seen hummer yet?? hmmmmm....

 

No other...just wish they'd had a plug-in, but I'll wait til the price comes down and my warranty goes away....

Hot RED Prius chicks rule.

 

Looked at the HCH to the point where I carried around a spreadsheet with all the stats, including fuel costs savings, feature comparisons, insurance rate differences, and monthly payment estimates. If I'd decided on the Prius pkg 7 with GPS, I'd have gone with the HCH w/ GPS instead as it has a MUCH lower price. Decided I didn't need GPS after all, picked the pkg 3, and the extra features won me over. Besides, didn't want a hybrid that didn't LOOK like a hybrid. I love giving bystanders "the tour" before I pull out.

 

HCH
It was a very distant 2nd for me as to me it wasn't nearly as neat a car and an inferior to the Prius as well in many respects.

 

back in '03 we were seriously looking into the Camry, but we heard the new Prius was coming out, and the price was comparable to the Camry we wanted, we opted to put in an order for a car that hadn't even been released! we're happy with our decision, we got a comparably priced midsize, with a nice cargo area, nice features like the SKS, and oh yeah.. it's a hybrid too !

 

I considered getting a really nice Corolla, because you can buy a lot of gas with the thousands you save and the Corolla gets excellent mileage. I'm really not sure what made me decide to get the Prius instead.

 

I considered a million lb thrust rocket based car used in a James Bond movie but settled for a Prius. Dang, the Prius really does much better in the MPG over the rocket based one. I think I made a good decision.

Seriously, I researched the Prius for about a year before my purchase. PriusChat was a great resource for that. My friends were trying convince me to stay with a Saab 9-5, which I had leased, but after finding out what the maintenance costs were I ditched that idea faster than that rocket above.

 

Honda Civic Hybrid
Scion xb
Toyota Corolla
Toyota Echo
Ford Focus
Saturn Ion

Basically in that order, most to least

 

Most of you guys were looking at some pretty small cars...

07 Toyota Camry
07 Toyota Camry Hybrid
06 Honda Accord
06 Honda Civic Hybrid
06 Hyundai Sonata


I loved the Camry.... But my brain made me get the Prius. 1500 miles later and 0 regrets. I still think that 07 Camry is one bad nice person looking car!

The Civic was not impressive at all. I don't like having my nice person drag on the pavement, and the visibility was piss poor. The 1.3 cylinder engine was not impressive when getting onto the freeway either! Yuck.

 

Honda Civic hybrid
Toyota Highlander hybrid
Subaru Forester (a while back)

But Prius was always way out ahead of the rest. Can't wait to for one of my deposits to turn into a car!

 

My wife liked the Mazda5. Odd looking, so-so mileage. But seats 6 without being a minivan. I won the coin toss

 

With my new commute, 40 miles each way, I needed a car with good gas mileage. We looked at many small cars, but I narrowed it down to the Corrolla Matrix, Chevy HHR and the Prius. The Prius got on that list only because a salesman had one I could test drive ... and I loved the low end power and relatively quiet ride.

Later I rented a HHR and drove it a few hundred miles on vacation. The Prius and the HHR had about the same ride, just a bit more comfortable than the Matrix, which was a close third. None of the other small cars were nearly as comfortable. The HHR almost won out due to much cheaper price ($17k rather than $24k), but Toyota's reputation for quality and the tax credit pushed me in favor of the Prius. We waited until the first of the year to take delivery (and then had to wait some more).

I think the Prius is a much better car than any of the others I was considering.

 

My wife:
-- Time for a new car
-- The Lexus 330 is beautiful
-- I want to ride 'high'

Me:
-- At least 40 mg, more is better !
-- Hybrid tech is ****so**** cool !
-- Hatchback !
-- The smaller, the better

We did check out the HCH Gen 1, but didn't even bother to take it out for a test drive. It felt small and cramped, interior felt cheap, it didn't have a hatch, was low to the ground, and the EPA mpg ratings were not that much better than straight ICE. The Gen 1 Prius failed the 'cannot be ugly' test, in addition to not being a hatchback.

I wanted an Insight, but that was a lost cause.

The day pictures were posted of Gen 2 Prius in summer of 2003, all other contenders dropped off the map.

Nowadays, both of us think the Honda Fit is brilliant. I've promised to buy one when it is hybridized and VSC included. Right around the time our Prius goes PHEV one way or another, and the kids head off to college with our '96 Subaru.

 

lexus SUV
porsche boxter
miata

 

Lexus IS350
Camry Hybrid

 

Civic Hybrid
and if it had been out Honda Fit
VW TDI (probably a used wagon)

 

Civic Hybrid
Escape Hybrid
Camry Hybrid

 

It was a very odd journey which led me to the Prius, which I've gone into great detail in a past post. However...

Murano
Pacifica
Tahoe
Highlander
Lexus RX
Lexus ES
Lexus GX
Lexus GS (Can you guess I really had my heart set on a Lexus?)
BMW X5
Audi Q7

There were a few others but I can't remember them off hand.

The Prius was the only car that fit all my needs perfectly.

 

I wanted a Honda Insight. I went to two Honda dealers and one of them didn't act like they wanted to talk to me when I told them I was interested in a hybrid; the other promised to get answers to some of my questions about the car but never bothered to contact me with answers.

I went to a couple of Toyota dealers who had better attitudes than Honda and one of them actually had a Prius in stock. I discovered it fit my needs and was a more interesting car (technically) than the Insight. If I were going to buy a car now I would order either a Prius Touring edition or a Civic Hybrid.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cagemo @ Aug 6 2006, 12:34 AM) [snapback]298538[/snapback]</div>

I really like the Mazda 5 as well, as the versatility and low price were quite attractive! But the fuel efficiency was pretty horrendous (for a 4-cyl) mainly due to the weight. I do a lot of driving(~ 40K KM/year) so this is a significant factor for me.

Other cars that interested me were the Camry SE 4-cyl 5-speed (and the hybrid after that), and also the Mazda 6 Sport GT 4-cyl 5-speed. I like manual transmissions, and especially like hatchbacks.

However, I never actually test-drove those cars, as my heart was pretty much set on the Prius. The inner-geek in me won out. B) The only 'concession' I had to make was the manual transmission, but since this is not a conventional 'slushbox' (and much more reliable), I do not mind.

No regrets!

Kevin