buying Prius for wife, confused on what to get

Until I fell in love with the Prime, I was considering a Four Touring myself! 46K for a well-maintained Prius really isn't much... make sure to get the CarFax, though, and maybe a pre-purchase inspection (mine had 60K when I purchased and the PPI reassured me). I understand that Texas is the area to be concerned about hidden flood damage. I do wish that my trim level had BSM....

I believe the Four Touring will come with driver's power seat and heated seats? Those are nice features I enjoy in my Prime. The drive of the Gen 4s is also much improved. It's not a luxury car but I find it plenty comfortable.

 

There are almost NO "deals" on any kind of vehicles right now.....not anything decent anyway......because the major manufacturers of computer parts (chips) used in almost all cars these days have been shut down due to COVID and you can't make cars without the "brain" to run it.
SO.....new cars are getting scarce and the price on good used is going UP, not down.

Anyone who thinks they really need a new (or used) car NOW had better not hesitate much.
I heard an "industry analyst" yesterday who predicted that the supply of cars might not get back anywhere near to normal until the end of 2021. And prices might stay up longer than that.

 

Hybrids don't perform optimally in both the short and long term when the vehicle is used primarily for short trip driving. Short term: poor mpg due to ICE warmup cycle. Long term: the HV battery works harder.

The best overall hybrid (HEV) experiences come from those who drive their cars frequently and longer distances.

I suggest you look into used PHEV's. Many bargains out there as so many were leased and those have been hitting the market in larger numbers over the past few years. Use the plug-in EV mode for those around town errands (perfect for that) and the ICE for the longer trips around DFW.

Also, you have a great resource in your backyard with Matt @ Texas Prius Battery Replacement over in Weatherford.

GOOD LUCK!

 

Just in case you haven't looked at "new", Toyota is giving away major discounts and rebates when I recently bought my '21 XLE. I got $7k below MSRP.

 

Are you REALLY stuck on a hybrid......and specifically a Prius ?
If so, why ??
Have you considered a C ?

 

Unhappy Prius owners do not help the car's reputation. Making it clear what the Prius's weaknesses and strengths are and how that meshes with your goals before you buy is a valuable service. As such I questioned you as to how short 'only short trips' really was. This is not a dig at the Prius, but warning a potential owner about the weaknesses of the car. You clarified how short 'short' was and I have no fear of that. I also worry that you are buying a focused frugal car for a driver who does not value frugality, and you have not settled that worry. We are not anti Prius, but we hate it when we get unhappy Prius users.

I drove on a 55 MPH road about 125 miles a day (82 to 198 frequently) 240 days a year 30,000 miles annually, all at sensible speeds while carrying a great deal of computer and network gear. As such, I am a happy Prius v owner. My needs match my car

 

I cring at the new owner who just bought a 150k mile gen3 for $10k on payments and wonders what that cold start rattle means? After spending money and time on egr coolers, plugs, coils and injectors with results lasting two weeks, they find out about the gens fatal flaws.

 

congratulations

 

Congrats!

This thread reminded me of when we were looking for my wife's Prius last year just before everything shut down.

My wife wanted "a Prius" (she has already had a couple of them) and although I wasn't crazy about the idea at first, I drove her grandma's Prius and was absolutely amazed at the MPGs considering I was not trying to do anything to help the MPGs, and it wasn't that slow or uncomfortable to me. I think it was a 2017 Prius 4 and it had enough toys to make me happy with it, as I wanted something that would make both of us happy.

Because of our specific situation, I was the one looking for the car, and after reading about the 3rd gen issues, decided to just look at 4th gens. I ordered my Jeep, and so its equipped the way that I want it. So my search for her Prius began. I went over things that she wanted, (good MPGs, bluetooth, safe, etc) and that I wanted (ACC, heated seats, power driver seat, BSM, etc) so I ended up ignoring the vast majority of listings. For kicks, I started to look at other vehicles as well, as I wasn't entirely comfortable with owning a hybrid long term, so we looked at a Corolla hatchback too, but the Prius won out, since it's bigger inside, and the price difference wasn't worth the Corolla "savings" to me. I went and looked at a few different Prius' here but a lot of them were pretty rough or missing features that we wanted.

Eventually, I found one that I thought would work, and it is identical to the Prius that her grandma has. The mileage was a little higher than I wanted, and it was white instead of my preferred colour of silver. Otherwise, it was in decent shape. We took it for a test drive, I checked it over, and plugged in my AutoEnginuity to it, and checked the battery with the Dr.Prius app on my phone and we agreed to pick it up a couple days later. And it came with a set of winter tires that weren't mounted...which is a story in itself with TPMS

The only thing I would watch is the 12v battery, as our original battery died twice last summer. The second time I went and bought a new battery for it, and then that replacement drained while it was at the shop this past summer getting the windows tinted, so I'm a little leary about that, but I keep a little battery booster inside incase she's ever out and it happens when I'm not around.

 

Congratulations! (and yes, never use any electricity in your Prius unless it is in Ready)

 

congrats! barely broken in, nicely done.

 

oh yea, that should be easy to fix and cheap I would think.

 

Nice color, but I'm biased- ha.I like that interior, really pops.