Trying to learn more about Prius

The difference between the Touring and the Regular Prius is the Touring has
a) Tuned Suspension
b) 16" wheels.

If you are looking for a Touring model, the price is not very negotiable because they sell quickly.

The JBL system is adequate for me, but I added a 10" JL Audio Sub. If you are a true audiophile, then no factory system is very good. The problem with the Prius is the lack of sound dampening. A car is already a hard place for acoustics with all the road noise, wind noise, speaker placement, and etc. The Prius is just a little bit more difficult because the engineers were trying to keep the weight down.

Is it possible to upgrade the factory system? Of course. There are plenty of professional installers that are ready and willing to take your money. What you lose is the integration to the rest of the system, ie steering wheel controls, blue tooth, navigation, etc.

 

Touring vs. Base. Touring has 16 inch wheels with slightly lower profile tires and different alloy wheels and a little better Bridgestone tires with full wheel covers. Base has 15 inch alloy rims with crappy tires. In either case, I would probably negotiate a tire upgrade off the dealers floor so you get credit for the bad tires. Nokian WR are excellent if you have any snow to drive on, have Low Rolling Resistance and maintain the same MPG as the original tires. Available in same diameter as well.

Look at the wheels for both options with and without trim rings/wheel covers.

Touring has a slightly bigger rear spoiler between the upper and lower rear liftback windows.

Touring comes standard with HID headlights, but when you need to replace them, I think they may run as much as $200 each bulb.

Touring has tuned suspension, but I am not sure what that means. Someone might know better than me but I suspect they use the same suspension parts and they just pick the ones that happen to have tighter tolerances and put them in a touring. I drove both, and didn't feel a huge difference, but many people do, and my test drives didn't include a winding mountain road. With either, there are basic after market improvements for less than $500 that make a huge difference in stiffening the frame of the car so it handles better.

If you are going to upgrade the sterio and you don't care about leather, HID headlights and the larger wheels, I think you would do well with a Base Package 2. Many here think the Toyota NAV is not that user friendly, the voice miss-recognition sucks, and you can get a much more intuitive interface on an aftermarket Garmin Nuvi with Blue tooth hands free phone.

1. I've drive 50/50 in highway and local street. Good combination. Once you drive for about 5 minutes around town, you will start to get good economy. The first five minutes of warming the car up are less efficient so several short less than five minute trips where the car cools down completely in between will yeild somewhere around 25 MPG. Group short trips together as much as possible.

2. I general don't need fast acceleration or such (if it's like my current
4 cylinder Camry, I'm happy. You should be very pleased with Prius. I would imagine it will feel quicker than you four cylinder Camry because the electric Motor Generator has high starting torque. Not wheel squeeling quick, but fast tire conserving takeoff.

3. The main upgrade I'm interested in is a nice stereo system. I noticed that they charge over $2000 to upgrade to a JBL system. Is it possible to
upgrade to other stereo system from other places at a cheaper price? You might consider looking at threads where members here discuss their upgrades to the amplifier and speakers only and putting sound acoustic improvement insulation in the door panels.

4. Generally, how negotiable are the prices on the Prius? Unless you hit a time or region with supply and demand issues, most people get one for fairly close to MSRP.

 

"No", and, "very little, and then only by playing one dealer off another".

If you like the Camry's performance I think you will be pleased with the Prius. It does well at launch and at passing speeds, and has no shift lag at all.

 

True, however, using internet quotes I was able to get 1k off MSRP on a touring with no haggling

Dave

 

You definitely need to be driving a Prius (like, yesterday!!).

I got the Touring because when I was car shopping, I was comparing the Honda Hybrid and the Prius. Rumors on the Internets told me that the Prius was a better car but handled like crap.

So, I hedged my bets a little. Got the Touring just in case.

Like all rumors, they turned out the be mostly untrue.

I would have been just fine with the standard given the way I drive.

 

It's only a guess, of course, but I'd expect not, because all of the '08s will already have been sold, and gas will be more expensive than it is now.

 

I agree with what Richard said regarding price vis a vis availability/demand.

And, yes, the Smart key is a lovely thing!!!!!

 

I purchased the touring version of the 2008 Prius in October 2007. So far, I'm completely thrilled with the car except I can't get more than 42 MPG. Has anyone heard of the touring version getting less MPG than the regular version? Also, I live in a hilly area (not very high) and I do make short trips fairly regularly. Could this be the cause of the poorer gas mileage?
Thanks.

 

Yes, short trips kill FE, more so in cold weather, but always bad.

No, the touring is identical mpg to base model.

If you post what you've done on tire pressure, speed, etc, viewers might have advice. If you've gotten to 42/40-ish psi and are not driving like a teenage boy after the cheer bus, then you are likely seeing about what those short drives will yield.

Get her out on off roads and see what she does in pulse & glide and in warp stealth and at steady cruise while in stage 4 operation. If mpg good there, then its likely the short trip penalty.

 

My credit union loan officer called two different dealers for me. One offered $300 off MSRP and the other offered $500 off.

I didn't haggle. I just went and picked it up. It took about an hour for the paperwork.

I probably could have gotten more off the MSRP, but I didn't feel like playing the two dealers off each other. The $500 off dealer had the exact car I was looking for (minus the color, which wasn't real important to me).

Of course, there weren't many to choose from anyway. The $300 off dealer had 3(!) Prius total. The $500 off dealer had 10 but only one with my exact specifications (Touring Pkg 5).

Hope this helps.

 

<<Rumors on the Internets >>

Patrick must be a Republican ound:

 

You surely didn't mean "off road" here, right? A Prius will get stuck real fast off road.