Time to Sell

Location? How many kids do you have?

 

With those choices, I'd not have the kids in day care.

You mentioned a teenager. How long until he/she is driving? We found that once the teens hit a certain age, we rarely had them all together in the vehicle, anyway.

Can you keep the Prius for regular trips, and pick up a used mini van or something for the occasional "everybody in the car, now!" trips? Just a thought.

 

Rae Vynn and I were on the same wavelength. See if you can pick up a reliable, used minivan for the times that you need to move all those bodies and keep the Prius for normal running about.

But it depends if it is economically feasible for you to do so. Knowing how many (and ages) of the kids would help with any advice. As far as resale value......not a clue..

 

That's what I was thinking. My parents owned a stationwagon when I was growing up. We weren't all in it at the same time very often.

And if your teenager is approaching license age, you're going to be shopping for another car very soon for them very soon.

 

Well, the Prius is not for everyone. It sounds like you've done some serious consideration, and for your life, it just doesn't work right now.

Hey, just think... by the time you are ready for a mid-sized sedan that uses nearly no gas, the next gen Prius will be out, and you'll love it even more!

 

Sorry that you feel that way. Most cars that don't have good snow tires in winter perform badly. I'm from Northern New Hampshire... White Mountain area... I swapped out my OEM tires for Nokian WR's and have had no problem at all in winter, and we get some real bad winters here.

 

I agree as I have the Nokian WR's and they have been great in the winter weather.

 

There really must be two kinds of Prius programming. :fencing:
(Just had to use that new smiley)

My Prius (with OEM tires having 20K miles on them) handles fine in the snow and slopes. It does move around sideways on thick rough ice (northern Chicago suburbs have had some really bad roads this winter), but I think any similarly sized car would do the same. Altogether, it handles winter conditions better than our other car, a 2003 Honda Accord. And the battery is almost never full, in fact it gets down to the 1/2 point on me occasionally in the winter. But I have short trips, so the heater doesn't kick in until halfway there. Still, the engine is cold, so it's running anyway, and I've also tested it's handling on longer trips ... hmm not sure.

Well, the good news is the resale value should be good, so you won't be out much money. Maybe you can report back how the sale went.

 

For a family that needs a vehicle that will seat 6 and still get decent fuel mileage I’d say look in to a Mazda 5. I wish they made a hybrid version…

 

Forgive me if you posted this earlier, but what tires are you using in winter for your Prius?

 

I am confused... until now, you have had 5 cars for two adults? I can see one for each of you and a truck but... 5 cars for two people is a lot. Even after selling two cars, (the Prius and the Crown Vic) and picking up a new one, you are still sitting on a lot of car.

You seem to not enjoy the Prius as much as many on this forum, but I can't fathom why you wil need four cars...

 

Many people complain about the Prius winter driving experience, but almost all of those complaints come from people who have the tires that came with the car. It seems that once you get a decent pair of tires on the car, it performs as well or better than many FWD cars.

Now, I should say that living in a moderate winter climate (western MA), I've had zero problems with driving this car on its original tires. To be fair, I live in a relatively developed area and they clear the roads fairly well; I'm willing to believe it would be much more severe if I were living in a more rural area. Now, it sounds like you have other issues with this car (i.e. I definitely believe that it can be hard to fit 3 kids in the back if one of them is in a full car seat), but the issues with winter driving seem to largely be due to crappy OEM tires and not something inherent with the car.

EDIT: Oh. And back to your original question: I think that the KBB numbers are relatively accurate, if not a little low. Of course, you'll always do better if you go the way of a private party sale.

 

When we purchased our `08, we also bought a set of spare wheels mounted with Hankook snow tires. Here in Colorado, you really need snow tires if you are going to negotiate the passes to go skiing. The Prius handles the snow and ice remarkably well - not as well as our Touareg, but pretty close. The only drawback to the Prius is the low clearance. Personally, I would not think of negotiating any winter weather on summer tires, even if you have a 4x4.

 

25,000 miles in a year??... not sure i would trade for something that will cost me an extra $200-300 a month just for gas. I KNOW i could not afford it...

recession coming... basic transportation costs for us 2 as it is, is pushing $65 a month now...

 

I'm going to jump on the good-in-snow bandwagon. My experience with our Prius is the polar opposite of yours: I've never driven a less-twitchy car for snow and ice driving. It can't wade through deep snow, since it sits fairly low (like most cars), but it tracks trough snow and ice like it is on rails. I have good tires, and VSC; both make a big difference.

Tom