Cannot Decide - please input your 2$

I suggest you load your family, drums, and sound gear up in your wife's van and take it down to the dealer. Try loading all of it into a Prius and a V and see where it fits better -- or at all.

Now consider how much of the time you would be needing to haul either your family or the other stuff, vs how much of the time you will be commuting alone.

Drive both cars and see which you like better. Drive them for the weekend if you can. I don't think that the seats show their true colors in a 15 minute drive. The Gen 2 seats were way more comfy than Gen 3, in my opinion. I'm glad to have the power seats on my 4.

I also really like having auto headlights, auto-dimming mirror, and HUD.

But those were the things that were important to me. Your mileage may vary.

 

With Prius (V and III) it's the uncomfortable (for many) seats. Same seats in both cars but the Prius III/4 offers power seats which fix the problem.

You are driving 100 miles a day so that would be a make or break issue you'd need to resolve. Tell the dealer you want to drive it to work and back. If it is comfortable for you, get the cheapest Prius out there and get a Garmin GPS and you are saving big bucks coming and going. If the seats are uncomfortable, then you know you need to spend big bucks going in to get the PriusIII/4 but you'll still save them going with higher mpg of the Prius III over the Prius V.

 

Me too! Change my vote to a Prius Liftback. You've got the van to take care of the full crew. You won't be happy with the Prius V because if you get 40 mpg with it, you'll wonder if you could have gotten 55 mpg with the liftback.

 

I bought the level one Prius C and commute by myself. On weekends I have the Honda Odd Van. I now find all five family members in the prius on weekends. You just cannot beat the 50 plus MPG. The Van gets to rest up alot. I even went to Home Depot and put my 8 foot boards in the back of the Prius running between the seats and into the passenger floor area, Closed the hatch and said "who needs a Mom Van!" On a single family income I would look at used gen 2 and drive the wheels off it. Best of luck.

 

Compared to a Blazer either the V or the standard would more than double your MPGs! Since the van is the people mover most of the time, go with the liftback. Try the 3 to see if standard seats are comfy enough, you can get nice leather installed either through the dealer or aftermarket covers to save some $.

 

I was in the same position as you. I have a 6mnth old and plan on having another soon too. I wanted the space but the mileage hit was pretty big to me. The wife hates cloth and hated the fact that the V doesnt come with power seats. We ended up getting the hatch 4. More mileage, leather, and power seats and Im a big guy due to the seat angle we are able to put the baby seat rear facing in the center. Theres not much space on the two rear window seats but since you have kids Id say go for the hatch. I plan on trading in the camry once the wagon gets power seats. I love driving the prius either way getting good mileage is a new video game that no one knows I play.

 

If there's a plan to put any car seat in the center, then it should be tried out first.

In all the latest Toyotas that I've tried (haven't tried any other manufacturer but I'd hazard it's the same) the latch connections were only provided for the left and the right read seats, not the center.

 

Carseats don't need LATCH, although it is easier. Is your baby in an infant carrier or a convertible carseat? I'd venture to say she's in an infant carrier. Once she sizes out of that and is in a rear facing (recommended till 2 yrs old) convertible, I doubt it will fit in that middle section. She'll probably need to be behind the passenger seat. We have our daughter in a rear facing convertible and it fits just find behind my 5'10" husband although he does have to move the seat up a bit. He's still comfortable. This is in a Prius 4. So... my vote is the III.

 

Although, you're going to love either of them! I have a 100 mile commute everyday and I was driving a Pathfinder. I filled up with gas every 3 days. That's about $70 every 3 days. Ugh. It COST me $20 a day just to get to work. Awful. Now I fill up about every 5 days and it cost me like $35. HUGE difference! HUGE! We can spend $35 on lunch (the adult kind with drinks and actual food)!!!

 

My wive works, her commute is just a hair more than yours; she does 30,000 miles/year.

We got the standard Prius gen-3.

She loves it. When we go on trips we love it.

We recently drove cross-country, 4100 miles round trip with four large adults and luggage, for a wedding [our eldest son's]. The trip was great! Big people fit nicely. There is room for car seats too.

I suggest that you buy a stripped down Prius hatchback.

You will love it.

 

We are in a similar position, though one less kid.

We found that two kids and luggage did just fine in either of our 2005 and 2007 Priuses.

We just purchased a PiP basic, and found it works well too, we have a 5 year old, and a 2 year old (rear facing) both in car seats. Just did a trip Tucson to Disneyland with the PiP without issues.

I would recommend the Gen 3 package 4 over the V, if you pack well, it works great, and it sounds like the van would be used for larger stuff anyway even if you had the Prius V.

The Gen 3 has more space then our PiP due to the extra battery area in the PiP.

We use the Sunshine kids car seats, and you can even put 3 across (though your 11 year old is either out of car seats entirely or in a booster), and don't see any problems when another child is added to the mix with our PiP.

If you have to take everything with you on a trip, you will take the van anyway, and not the Prius V.

 

I have three kids, ages. 10, 10 and 12, and the three fit in the back of our Prius hatchback just fine. In your case, you've got a carseat to deal with, and they vary tremendously in size; I'd try to find a moderately narrow one and take it to the dealer and put that seat in along with your older kids.

However, under no circumstances should you or anyone buy a new car with a wife and three kids in the dealership. They'll get your kids all excited, then jerk you around at the last minute with some added expense, and they'll basically wear you down because the kid will be crying and your wife will want to get out of there... It's the classic car salesman ripoff scenario. No matter what he promises you, go back to buy the car alone, willing to give up and go to another dealer.

For new cars, the best way to shop is:
1) Get qualified for a loan from a credit union at an interest rate you know. Toyota Financial Services is an excellent outfit to work with, but the only way to know you're paying the lowest rate is to pre-qualify. Car salesmen profit from the lazy.
2) Shop for the car price over the Internet by emailing the fleet manager at every dealership within 300 miles. Take the lowest price to your closest dealer to match and if he doesn't, go with the guy with the best price. The sales and service departments are separate
3) If you want extended warranty, do not buy it from the dealer with the car. There are dealers on PriusChat who can sell you the genuine Toyota warranty at a much lower price, without sales tax, any time before 3 years/36,000 miles

 

I like "v" a whole lot in theory, but it is more expensive given your budget concerns.
You can get a whale of a lot in a Prius with a roof rack and roof top box.
I always have a minivan too but Prius with roof rack substituted quite well when my minivan was too old to trust for long trips.

 

Lot of good suggestions here, I'll confuse u some more, lol. If I were in your situation, I would buy the V wagon simply because of your family size & the extra cargo space which you'll definitely need. I know u have the larger vehicle for the weekends but trust me, you'll be looking to drive the prius more & more even on weekends & that extra room will be a huge difference IMHO. As for the mpg, yes you're not getting as much as the hatchback but compared to what you're used to & the reality that 40-45 mpg is still darn good, you'll be whisling dixie. In the end, it's your decision so weigh in what's most important to u & decide.

 

As I said, I'm happy with the roominess of the hatchback, especially since we have a minivan when needed.

I got 48 MPG actual on my 2010. Let's take that for 100,000 miles at $4/gallon: $8,333

Now let's drive that same 100,000 at 40 MPG: $10,000

So the 100k cost difference is $1,666. But the 100k fuel cost of a 20 MPG car: $20,000

 

Short answer: Yes, you'll get 48-52 MPG.

Long answer: It depends how you drive, particularly:
1) Top Cruising Speed: 55 or 60 very good; 65-70 reduces mileage noticeably

2) Acceleration: Slowly and gradually accelerating, using the HSI, helps mileage tremendously. If you expect to stomp on the accelerator, you might not get 48-52 MPG.

3) Deceleration: Prius regenerative brakes use the transmission. Instead of engine braking, this force is transferred to the motors, which become generators. The more gradually you brake, the more energy you'll conserve. But if you just slam on the brakes, of course, you'll lose this mileage benefit.

It's just like riding a bicycle, really. When you bike, you know that sprinting wears you out, that stopping wasted energy, that gradually accelerating is a lot asker, that downhill is where you speed up to build energy and you go uphill slowly. Same with a car, energy is energy.