Prius Prime vs Rav4 Hybrid

Going from published stats, I regularly get between 70 and 80mpg from a ticket on an A321.

 

Get the Rav4, for all of the reasons @Tideland Prius mentioned, but also add resale value and crash survivability to the list. All other things being equal, a larger, heavier car will do better in an accident.

On the same topic, there's a reason many college students drive a cheap used car/truck during college - it's cheaper and easier to replace when (not if) you total it. If you look at the statistics, odds are very high that you'll be in a serious car accident at least once during your first five years of driving, and even higher within the first 8-10 years. Insurance rates reflect this - and it's not just your driving that's a concern, it's all the idiots around you, too.

I'd suggest doing as much driving as you can in a cheap vehicle that you can wreck with minimal anxiety, but If you do wind up getting a new car, please invest in advanced driver training classes, particularly those for driving on snow/ice.

 

what does prepaid maintenance involve?

 

Short version, we prepay for routine maintenance, for the initial ... I think it’s 60K miles, IIRC.

The advantage to us is that we get that maintenance performed at 2017 prices, in return for always letting that particular dealer perform the maintenance. For me at least, letting them do the maintenance is not an issue.

 

Good point. Just stay safe, OK? Teenage traffic fatalities are an all-too-common tragedy.

 

I've done the cross country drive twice (once East-to-West and once West-to-East, in a Honda Civic Hybrid no less!) and I can confirm the uncomfortable part of equation, but as long as you take appropriate precautions (make sure to get a good night sleeps every night, take regular rest stops, stick to interstates, etc) its no more dangerous than a trip to the grocery store.

However, unless your planning regular Boise to Boston trips, I wouldn't give it much influence on your decision. The truth is that you can do a cross-country trip in pretty much any well-maintained vehicle. Though if your doing a "drive vs fly" cost calculation, you do need to take into consideration that you're probably going to do worse than the nameplate mpg driving interstate speeds in a fully-loaded vehicle.

I was able to get my Honda Civic Hybrid mpg down to 15mpg in my first cross-country trip while driving 80+mph across Montana on a windy day with a fully loaded car + roof rack.

 

This has not been my experience. I live in Nebraska and we get plenty of snow here. The Prime gets around well on the eco-squealer tires - the limitation is not traction, it's ground clearance. Anything more than about 5" of snow and you're driving a snowplow. The big advantage of the RAV4 in snowy areas is the ground clearance, not the tires or AWD.

Really? How is this dangerous? I can comfortably do 12 hours a day in my Prime, with the stereo on and the heat/AC keeping me comfortable.

I routinely take 5,000 mile road trips with no ill effects, and have never slept in my car.

 

OTR driving skills have little to do with the 2 choices the OP has presented.

 

Perhaps if you have a roof rack or other high-drag item attached. These things will kill your mileage quickly.

My experience has been with a clean exterior, regardless of internal load, steady state cruising mpg is not significantly impacted. Last road trip, going across Iowa on I-80, west to east, at 73 mph actual, 55.6 mpg in a Prime with two people and luggage, with a slight headwind off the front quarter.

 

Indeed they do: Added weight and compromised aerodynamics... Not so good.

An engineer on the gen-2 Volt made a careful point that aerodynamics are more important than weight (at least as long as you have good regenerative braking). Weight does ultimately cut down rolling resistance some too — wider tire to hold up the weight means larger contact area, or potentially more friction due to tire flexing.

Good info! That’s probably a little better than I’m seeing, which is 50MPG (or slightly higher) at 77, with two people in the car.

 

At highway speeds this is almost always the case. Power to propel the car varies with the cube of speed, primarily due to aero drag. Rolling resistance is small in comparison, so any extra rolling resistance due to extra weight is similarly small.

 

Indeed. Rolling resistance is, proportionally, more significant at moderate speeds though, which is why tire inflation matters.

 

Unless you're on channel with the truck ...don't draft. They need to be able to see you...and if they can...barely, you are likely in dirtier air than holding back at normal distance.

 

Hopefully you’re at least half joking when you say that.

As the Mythbusters measured fairly precisely, drafting can indeed drastically reduce fuel consumption, but it’s *just* *not* *worth* taking the risk.

 

Let's say you like to draft and do it for 10k miles over the life of the car at $2.50 gas.
10,000÷40×2.5−10,000÷50×2.5=$125 savings

$125 savings will not pay your insurance deductible when you hit something the truck was able to drive over that you were not. Also when truck tires shred they send crap everywhere that can do more damage than your savings. And if things go real wrong you wreck.

Drafting math might work in the short term, but it's not a smart gamble long term.