5 adults for a long trip

Advil.

 

hycam. let's face it, we love our cars, but you can only fit so many clowns in a phonebooth.

 

my wife and 2 adult daughters find it comfortableon long trips. my son tends to spread out a bit though, we keep him in front.

 

Take the van old sport and spring for the extra petrol.

 

If I had a van, I would take that for any long trip with 5 people - even if some were small kids.

 

Toyota has a Rent a Car program. See if there are any participating dealership near your area. In a nearby dealership in NC, the RAV4 starts $44.99 per day, the Highlander starts at $54.99 a day, the Sienna at $71.99 per day. If you have comprehensive insurance on your Prius, your auto insurance will cover your rental period. I always rent a SUV or a minivan for longer Interstate highway trips for safety reasons. If budget is a concern and you are willing to deal with rental car companies , Hotwire offers lower prices than Toyota dealerships.

 

The other option is have your kin drive to you.

 

I think you might need 2 prius's for that. My family wouldn't have made it

 

Take the van. If you mostly drive your Prius alone on daily basis, you are getting 50 mpg per person. On long trips when you drive the van with 5 people, assuming 20 mpg, you are getting 100 mpg per person.

 

Another factor needed to be taken into consideration is reliability. When making selection decisions on rental cars for family road trips, I prefer to drive compact or midsize SUVs over minivans for reliability reasons.

Minivans are known to have reliability problems according to CR surveys. Hopefully, you do not have those POS minivans from Dodge or Chrysler. Even minivan models from Honda and Toyota, the Odyssey and the Sienna, only scored "Average" reliability. It would be a nightmare to have a vehicle breakdown during a road trip.

 

I don't think I'd take the Prius on a long trip with more than 3-4 people. Even then, that's a bit much. I'm 6'4 so to be comfortable, my seat is pretty far back, I have to move it up if anyone sits behind me.

95% of the time, it's just me in the Prius as I use it mostly for work. If I'm not using it, my wife takes it to work with our 5 month old in the back so it works just fine.

 

I'm thinking of driving from San Diego to San Francisco in a 2012 Prius in December. It is 500 Miles and about an 8 hour drive give or take. Probaly be a few stops for eating, coffee and stretching the legs. It will be 2 adults in the front seats. That should be an interesting test of human endurance. There is only so much XM radio and small talk I can endure.

 

You'll be fine with just the 2 of you. But sounds like you haven't made a long trip like this before? I would plan on taking more than 8 hours though. Depending on time of day, the drive through Orange County and then LA will slow you down, and if you make a couple stops, you might be in for a 10 hour trip.

 

check the books on dvd at the library. we do that to florida and back.

 

That is a good idea. Thanks.

 

I have taken a few from SD to SF, PHX or LV but few and far inbetween. I agree escaping Los Angeles can make or break the trip. Thanks for the reminder. I like getting an early AM start.

 

I load up my iPhone with music and assign the co-pilot to be DJ. My girlfriend likes to listen to Rush (not the band) so that's usually good for a few hours. We also spend a lot of time on the road talking because we seldom get extended time together that isn't interrupted by jobs, families, chores, etc.

 

Of course I don't know your family but with (5) adults (and luggage?) you just might exceed the vehicle's allowable load -- 820 or 860 lbs.?