Prius as a functioning family vehicle

How old are your kids and how many are there? What activites do you routinely do?

 

Hey there - I think the Prius is an awesome family car! I have 3 kids - an 8 y/o daughter (sits in the middle), a 6 y/o daughter (in a Britax booster behind front passenger) and a 19 mo old son (in a Britax Roundabout behind driver). We sold our 7 seat Land Rover Discovery and bought the Prius.
It is working out beautifully! I fill up about every 7-9 days @ $21.00 a pop ($2.59/gal) and average about 42-44 mpg. This is in contrast to $65 a fill-up every 6-8 days for the Rover ($2.79/gal premium). While I miss the "bigness" of the Rover; I sure don't miss the huge fuel bill.
I do a majority of the kid shuttling... to school, soccer, etc. We brought the kids to the dealership and fit them and the carseats before we sat down to talk about pricing, etc. After 3 weeks of use, the kids say its not cramped in the back and they actually have better leg room in the Prius vs the Rover. Better yet, my son can't kick my seat anymore. The stroller fits well in the hatchback and we can store gear next to it without difficulty. I think it would suit just about any family pursuit except skiing. I hope this helps!

 

We have a 10 and a 5 year old. Works well for us. Can even get one of their buddies in the back. We are considering taking the kids out to MN this summer in it.

 

This is a great question, one I've wondered myself. Right now our Prius is a commuter and shares the garage with a seven-seater SUV that pulls family duty. However, I've often said I wish we could just have two Prii and be done with it. We have two kids under 3 yrs old and sometimes a nanny. The longest trip we take is 3 hours to the coast. Has anyone fitted a Thule or similar cargo carrier to the roof? How does that work, and more importantly, how does it affect mileage?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Prius The First @ Jan 24 2007, 08:50 AM) [snapback]379991[/snapback]</div>

Children 12 and 7 here, pretty much ditto. For a two-week trip to the beach, I have to pack the trunk pretty closely and we don't take every possible toy. No problem getting a strap-on bike rack to fit. Hatchback adds a lot of utility. Taking one more child is OK. Taking one more adult is too cramped. That's the only limitation for me -- if we need to take grandma with us, it's a squeeze. Reluctantly bought a Mazda5 "micro van" to cover that contingency. But I prefer to drive the Prius.

 

We have a 9 y/o son and 5 y/o daughter in booster seat behind the passenger in my 2002 Prius. It works well. I haven't tried a long trip with everybody yet. Usually use my wives warners bros. venture for those. For normal running around it is fine. Strollers do present a problem, but luckily we're beyond that stage.

 

Well all i can say is that my sons, ages 15 and 16, LOVE the Prius backseat compared with my old Saab 900. More legroom, more headroom, back reading lights and they are especially psyched about the IPOD input to the audio system.

 

No problems here with our 3 yr. old and 5 month old.
The real key is the stroller. We have a big one that fits perfectly in the back. This stroller would not fit in most other cars (Acura Legend, Pontiac Grand Am, HyCam.) When we test drove the car, we went home and pulled the stroller out of the Jeep and tested it in the Prius. Like a glove back there!
Our only problem is the dog. Any other dog would fit back there no problem. But our Weimeraner is bigger and taller than most (105 lbs.), so he can't stand up back there.

We're debating a 2nd Prius now. For trips to the cabin (2 hrs), we might need to drive both. However, 2 Prii would use less gas than the Jeep anyways!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Darwood @ Jan 24 2007, 09:54 AM) [snapback]380016[/snapback]</div>

This is my dilemma too! With two german shepherds and probably a kid in the future I wonder if we can fit them all in a prius. It might work! Two dogs with the seats down work great (more space then they need!). But I wonder if two dogs with only one seat down would work.

My wife needs another car soon and we're trying to figure out a working alternative to a Volvo, or rather, I sure wish Volvo will do hybrids soon! What's needed is a hybrid station wagon, and/or small minivan.

Great potential hybrids:

Volvo v50
Volvo v70
Mazda 5 (This would be great!)
Ford Freestyle (a little large)
Ford Edge (Haven't seen it yet)

And the are all from a company that have existing good hybrid technology. If only they would read this!
Oh! and toyota! Bring the escrima (sp?) mini-van from japan here!

Let me know what you decide on!

/Robert

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(CEguru @ Jan 24 2007, 06:02 AM) [snapback]379999[/snapback]</div>

Ug. You're wasting the Prius by leaving it home when you take the SUV... and you're wasting gas at the same time. I have just one child and one dog. We fill all four seats as a family of five would (you know - that horizontal dog thing). And the Prius is our BIG (and gas-guzzling) vehicle. We moved up to the Prius from the Civic - not for more room though - that was just a bonus.

How about a 16 cu ft cargo box AND a 16' kayak on top of a car loaded with food and drink for 16 people for four days AND three people?


Poke around my site and you'll find:
http://evnut.com/prius_racks.htm

http://evnut.com/prius_rack_pads.htm

And even this:
http://evnut.com/prius_hitch.htm

For ways to carry mor crap.

You ask the "more important question" of how it affects mileage. Before I answer, I'm compelled to mention that even fully loaded with a kayak and cargo box on the roof, there isn't a full-size SUV ever made that will come close to the mileage I get in the Prius. And then when you realize that I only load crap on the roof about 4x a year, and get 50mpg the rest of the time, there's really no reason to even consider the question of the mileage hit. So after all that, I get about 42mpg when I have the worst crap loaded on the top.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(suzcruizn @ Jan 23 2007, 10:20 PM) [snapback]379906[/snapback]</div>

My first concern is crash safety in a realistic crash scenario, i.e. not a 40mph offset crash simulation. The Prius will not serve you well in a highway speed head-on crash with an SUV, sad to say. I use it as a commuter for me and a city car for the family, but would not take a cross country trip with the family in it.

Aside from that, insurance rates are good on it, gas mileage is excellent, has plenty of power, good reliability, easy back seat access, plenty of space although nothing like a minivan. If you feel you can handle the space difference, I think it's just fine as a family car.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Display Name @ Jan 24 2007, 07:12 PM) [snapback]380430[/snapback]</div>

Ouch. You're kidding me?! It is the SUVs causing the most danger to life here, not the Prius. Crash two Prii, and you're likely to do better than crashing two SUV's head on. Change all the SUVs into Prii, and the roads are safer. Change all the small sedans into SUVs and the roads are far more dangerous. In single-vehicle crashes, you're gonna be WAY better off in a Prius. Oh, and then there's all the death caused by the extra gasoline consumption to consider - that has nothing to do with crashing, but still has EVERYTHING to do with "safety." So if everybody drives an SUV for safety, we're screwed.

Please reconsider all this "safety" for your family. If everybody thinks of making their own family safer at the *expense* of others, we all lose. What happens when your neighbor gets a bigger SUV than yours?

 

I don't have a Prius, but I do have a Mazda Protege5 I daily put three kids into, ages 4, 6, 7. My wife has a PT Cruiser, which is a bit roomier fore-aft, but narrower.

So a Prius should do fine. Americans have odd ideas of how large a vehicle a family requires. They have families in Europe and Japan, too, and yet not many large vehicles.

Worst comes to worst, you can always rent something large for a trip. How many of those do you take? If just a couple times a year, why own something huge just for those two times.

Must say, the photo of the Prius with the kayak and cargo carrier cracked me up. Excellent.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dylandog @ Jan 23 2007, 10:09 PM) [snapback]379930[/snapback]</div>

That's pretty impressive. Someone at my work has only himself, the wife and a child (~2 years old), and they "needed" (seemed like the wife was pushing for it) a Chevy Tahoe (aka gas guzzling overweight danger to others on the road) because they "needed" the space.

 

I think a Prius works just as well for a "Functioning Family" as a Non-functioning one!

Seriously, the car is very comfortable and really uses its space very well. The back seat is very comfortable and roomy for 2 grown men. I definitely would not hesitate to use this car for a smaller family ( 1 or 2 kids and a dog... ). Long or short trips.

The car does have a weight limit and is relatively tall. So, I would hesitate to do things like put half the garage on the roof or overload it beyond design specs. I can definitely feel the difference in handling and braking when I have the car fully loaded versus driving by myself.

 

For all of you will stroller concerns... Just stay away from those huge Graco all-terrain monster strollers. Trust me, you'll be much happier with the smaller ones, and they fit just fine in the Prius.

We had one that folded up to be just a little larger than an umbrella stroller. However, it wasn't one of the cheap umbrella strollers. I can't remember the brand, but it cost over $100, was well made and sturdy, had a canopy, a reclining seat back, and a modest size net basket underneath.

Best of all, it was light enough to be operated completely with one hand. You could lift it out of the trunk, flip a release, and unfold it with one hand. When you got back to the car, you could kick two levers, fold it up with one hand, and then lift it into the car with one hand.

And since it was smaller, it navigated through crowds easily, slipped comfortably between clothes racks, and down crowded isles.

You could fit three of the strollers we had in the space of one of those behemoth Graco strollers. All you are really giving up is by going with the smaller ones is the food tray, but really, how often to things really stay on that tray? And you gain so much more in ease of use.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cwerdna @ Jan 25 2007, 02:59 AM) [snapback]380517[/snapback]</div>

I had a friend trade in a 4Runner on a Ford Expedition when they had their first and still only child. At one point they were a two Expedition family!