rough roads, low ground clearance

How is the Prime on rough roads, really?

As I try to settle on a new car, I keep bumping the Prime down my list, because its 4.8" ground clearance just doesn't seem like enough, compared to the 6.5", give or take, that I am used to, and have appreciated on rough roads.

4.8" may not sound hugely different from 6.5", but that hump of dirt, grass, and maybe rocks, in the middle of a dirt road is often 3.5" high, give or take. So the difference between 4.8" and 6.5" is often actually the difference between 1.3" and 3" - 3 times the clearance for unexpected rocks, bump-bouncing, mysteries in the grass, etc.

Consider roads such as these - Bird and Hike.com Glossary - 2WD Dirt Roads

Or closer to my heart (though still not my picture) - Lower Crab Creek Road | Mapio.net - Along those cliffs, and around the curve in the background, can be larger rocks. I was riding with a friend once, in a vehicle with 8" or more of ground clearance, when we slammed over one there. Ouch.

It's certainly not "off-road" or "4WD only" territory, but it just doesn't seem like a place for a Prime. I've been happy driving Volvos there, but I'd really rather not get another Volvo.

I want a plug-in, but the Volt is even a snit worse that the Prime; the Bolt was a delight to drive, is okay for ground clearance, but lacks adaptive cruise control, among other issues; the Kia Niro plug-in is likely to be too long a wait. Other BEV or PHEV options fall by the wayside, on range or lacking ACC.

Anyone have any experience taking the Prime beyond its usual boundaries?

 

Float planes? Cool :} My brother-in-law flies for Kenmore Air - Seaplane & Land Plane Flights - Scenic Flight Tours - Charters | Kenmore Air

 

Aha! - but your Prime is full-scale, right? ;}

 

Yep. I've been scanning the areas around nearby Toyota and Chevy dealerships on maps' satellite view, looking for someplace suitable. I've already had salesfolk fretting that my test drive was turning a new car into a used car, so I'm trying to be reasonable about distance. There are actually better tests in my urban residential neighborhood (a few unpaved alleys) than there are further out toward or in suburbia, where there aren't alleys, just paved streets and parking lots. Lotsa places I remember bouncing around ten to fifty years ago are now developed. Sigh.

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Update - I found a test location not far from a dealer. The residential street has a high-voltage power line right-of-way along one side, with several moderately large gravel areas on that side and gravel shoulder below the paved street level on the other. Minor and major bumps and holes. I experimented a bit in the borrowed none-too-new car I was driving, which iirc has at least 5.5" of ground clearance, and I just didn't feel comfortable about doing some of it - no point in going back on a test drive with less that 6" of ground clearance. And this was well shy of what I have driven and enjoyed in Volvos and a Volkswagen Vanagon. So the Prime and Volt are now completely out of contention. :{

 

:}

Seriously lacking in ground clearance.

 

Heck, blame him for all of them - he's a really nice guy, and I'm sure he'd be very happy to apologize.