Thinking about buying a prius

Welcome aboard! As to your questions:
1. I fine the seat adequate even on long drives, but I have no problems with my back. There is an lumbar option with the leather seats I believe.
2. It is noisy but a lot of that has to do with the lrr tires. That could be changed but you would loose a little in the fuel-economy area.
3. Snows a lot of here an I have not had one problem. But I do not have any mnt passes to deal with. The prius is low to the ground with minimal clearance. You will want to look into this closely.
4. No input on this.

In general, your situation seems close to ideal for the Prius. If you did fine with your current car, you should be golden with the prius.

 

15k miles per year is a fair amount of driving.

Just keep in mind there are other Toyota hybrids besides the Prius. Prius is built for maximum fuel economy but along with that comes some compromises. Maybe Michelin brand Energy Saver tires will make my car have less road noise on freeway, but at this point, the cabin fills with a little too much tire noise due to the Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max's or minimal sound insulation, not sure.

I would not count out Camry Hybrid. Do the math for refill with gas after 450 miles. it's about 9 gallons for Prius, but is 11 gallons to refill a Camry Hybrid LE, 66 extra gallons or $240 per year worth it to you to have 66 more horsepower, a quieter and larger vehicle that handles freeway bumps better?

 

with a bad back, you should rent any car you are considering, and take it for one of your 200 mile drives. all the best!

 

First time I drove a prius, I thought it was going to completely fall apart on the freeway. Has any one else had issues going fasther than 60?? I like the gas mileage yes, but the lack of power and stability... really hard to swallow.

 

I agree you should rent a Prius for a few days.

 

I hit 70-80 mph all the time with no problems.

?

 

Yeah, I am in the over-70 club (74 mph) and it is nice and stable. Perhaps you should have your alignment checked.

 

1) Definitely rent one. You can do a weekly rental from most places, and some Toyota dealerships actually rent their cars out. Some models of the GenIII have lumbar support seats. Personally I find the seats in my GenII just fine over thousands of miles in 24 hour spans. The GenII is considered to have worse seats than the GenIII, and my back is not that great.

2) They are very quiet in the city. The noise comes from road and wind noise. Again tires make a huge difference. I don't find the Prius loud, but it is much louder than say our RX450h which is built to be super quiet. Even when the engine is on in the Lexus, you can't hear a thing outside the cabin. With the Prius, you can hear things but I wouldn't say it is any worse than other low to mid priced vehicles. In the city though when things are slow going and you are stopping all the time, the peace and quiet of having no engine and no rumble is sublime.

3) I take my Prius on the Rocky Mountain passes all the time. It is my ski vehicle of choice. I use Michelin X-ICE2 tires which are great. I am a strong believer in that the driver makes more of a difference than the car in winter weather. There are limitations to the machine, but usually the driver's limitations make the losing move first. I carry chains with me at all times in the back under the false floor just in case. I drive lots of back roads to avoid the 2-3 hour traffic jams caused by tourists going to the slopes, but that means much less traffic on roads that are not plowed as often and not packed down with other traffic as much. The Prius does great in all sorts of snow and ice, but you do have to know what you are doing. It is not as effortless as say a Subaru. In a Subaru you can drive like an idiot and it wouldn't get stuck. In a Prius you have to drive well to keep in moving. I also live on a mountain so a couple thousand vertical feet between home and the city. Every time I go out in the winter I am driving up and down a very large "hill" usually covered in snow and ice.

4) The solar roof will keep the inside of the car near ambient. So with a 80F day, the inside won't climb to 100F, it will stay near 80F. On a 100F day instead of getting to 120F inside or more, the inside will be 100F. The remote AC is different. That actually starts the AC compressor and actively cools the cabin. The solar roof is more of a gimmick than anything else, but it is pretty cool. I wouldn't get it if you want the inside to be comfortable when you get in, just if you don't want the inside to bake more than normal. A sunshade and good tint (not necessarily dark, but a UV tint) will have a similar effect for most shorter parking trips. Only if parked outside all day (work maybe?) would the solar be worth it. Also it makes it more inconvenient to install roof racks or something if that's what you want.

I have the Prius up at 80mph routinely for interstate traffic. Less often during cross country driving 90-105mph cruising maintained speeds is not uncommon. No problems at all. Alignment, tire type, and tire pressures do make a difference. Any car improperly maintained will not be fun at higher speeds. A FWD car even more so. Especially with the deep concrete grooving on many of today's newer highways versus the smooth asphalt.

 

1) Comfort - safest bet is to get power adjustable seat found in 2012 and later 4,5 trims. It is '8 way adjustable' plus power lumbar adjust, so 10 way total. The mechanical 6-way seat only has '60%' the adjustment capability of the power seat. The 2010/11 4,5 had no power, except for power lumbar, so they would 80% adjustable comparatively.

If you're sure the mechanical 2,3, Persona seat works for you, can save money.

2) Road noise varies. On highway that has rain groves in path of travel, Prius is quiet. On rough, gritty pavement, noise gets through. So, sometimes it's a bit noisy. Not luxury car quiet, but those cost a bunch more.

3) live in Bay Area, don't know.

4) tried solar roof in rental and I liked it. Got back in car and was just about as cool as outside the car, then again, it was only like 67 F that day, sunny but breezy.

Toyota has a corporate policy 'Toyota Rent a Car' to rent many models at many dealerships. I've rented many times.
Honda? No policy to rent virtually anywhere. But, they say, 'that's to keep resale values up'. Whateva.

I don't like doing over 60 up steep freeway grades, but I just prefer to go easier on the gas engine. That said I've looked down to see about 80 on speedo not knowing was going that fast. That's called smooth.

 

a good set of tyres can solve the stability problem. power is what it is (assuming there is nothing wrong with your car) and sometimes relative to the car you last drove.