What car did you look at before you bought C?

Oh, look, another country where gas is a liquid

 

I looked at the Prius Liftback. After getting 18-30 mpg for over 10 years with my Tacoma, I was ready for a hybrid.

I got the C because it was cheaper at $16500 on July 4th, and it has enough room, and it handles really well. And I've gotten 65 mpg lots of times. And it's a head-turner.

My only regret has been the audio system :-( I'll upgrade the speakers later.

 

Prius Plugin,
Accord Plugin ('14),
Jetta TDI Sedan,
Mercedes-Benz GLA,
Nissan Leaf,
Chevy Volt,
(Tesla Model III, but can't wait that long).

 

corolla
civic

bought the c...about the same pricetag after incentives, same room give or take, but the selling point is that it's much lighter at the gas station

 

I test drove a 2015 chevy spark. Interior felt way too cheap (it is the cheapest car chevy has), didn't like the ride in city and highway. Test drove the 2015 hyundai accent hatchback. Again cheap interior and staring at 20mpg in the test drive really bothered me although the dealer was willing to sell it 16,900 out the door. Couldn't find a 2015 Fit at all 4 dealers that I went to. Come on Honda!

Went to Toyota as my last resort because I liked the 2010 Yaris I rented out to travel 2000 miles around New Mexico. Loved the 2015 Yaris I tested. Then i saw a Prius C, drove that. Loved it even more! Bought a handheld vac, interior cleaner, and some microfiber cloths to keep this bad boy clean and I drove a 2000 mustang GT before that. What a difference. It's not as fast but then again I'll never have to see the gas gauge literally moving anymore when I go to work. Prius C is my dream car (next to the 2015 Honda Fit).

 

We had a 2004 Scion xA that we loved, but it 'died' (totaled by the ins. co.) in an accident. We really loved that car but Scion didn't have anything like it anymore so we looked at Yaris, Corolla and Prius C. Yaris didn't do it for us. Corolla was really nice, kids loved the multiple rear seat cup holders, I liked the paddle shifter (because commuter car so couldn't consider 6-speed), loved the LED headlights and 17" wheels but one thing we both HATED was the cheesy '80s looking digital clock on the dash. Come on Toyota! Can't the clock be on the radio or at least not the ancient 7-element design that reminds me of my first Casio watch in grade school. Just saying. For such a nice car that seemed like a real bone-head design failure. So anyway, after settling on the Prius C we decided on the Four because we liked the fog lights (that apparently you can't upgrade to later), rear view camera (which I still forget to look at when I reverse) and the 16" wheel upgrade which makes a huge difference in handling. So far so good!

 

We looked at nothing else. Prius C was the only choice.
Our choice was: buy 2015 now or wait for 2016 and colour.

 

For me?

Fit
Yaris
Sonic
Fiesta (3cyl)
Fiat 500

What decided? The manual transmission availability on most of these cars was horrible. The Fiesta was manual only, but I couldn't even find a 3 cylinder one to drive at the time. The Fiat seemed like a reliability question, and I really wanted 4 doors. The Fit was at the end of it's model cycle. The Yaris was winning, but the 4 door model I wanted wasn't available with a stick - and the 4 speed auto seems awful. My 93 camry has a 4 speed auto. The Prius C is like a Yaris in size, but with a much more advanced drivetrain.

I waited a full YEAR after deciding. I saw a Magnetic Gray Metallic Prius C in a parking lot, with the side body trim - it looked great, and I took it as an omen. I bought my car the next day.

 

A lexus 200h, but they wouldn't budge on the price even slightly.

 

In June, 2014 I decided I wanted to get back to a Prius and liked the look of the C. My wife has a Kia Optima that she loves and we do use it as a road car for trips so I was looking more for a smaller, second car for local trips. I went to the salesman at our local Toyota dealer who I bought my last Prius from and was looking at a '14 C3 with moon roof at about $24,000. I wanted to trade in my 2010 Corolla and had looked up pricing for it on NADA so had an idea what I wanted on trade-in. They offered me less than the low blue book price even though I wasn't asking for a discount on the price of the new C! I left, checking in my car mirror to see if I had "Sucker" printed on my forehead.

At home I looked online and found the Toyota dealer in the next town north of us had a 2013 C3, new and at a bit over $18,000. I called, talked with their internet guy, explained my trade-in and what I wanted for it. He said if it looked good and the tires were good they should be able to go with that price. I immediately left, drove to their store in Bellingham and bought the car. It was one year old at that point but still a "new" car with the new car warantee, Toyota Care, etc. No moon roof but I really don't need that.

 

Here's my list I had when I went to shop:

Prius C
Corolla iM (auto)
Yaris / Yaris iA (auto)
Spark Activ (manual)
Fiat 500x (pop manual)

I liked the C the best for many reasons, one it was named "Most Relible Subcompact" by Consumer Reports and I also have known a great many Prii to be great cars.

 

Touch wood, the Lil Red Prius was 80,000 miles old precisely 2 years 2 months 2 weeks and 2 days after I brought it home, all the way back Feb 17, 2015. Apart from its on-going Bluetooth disastah, it's a great car. I am glad that the Subaru and Honda dealers didn't make be a reasonable deal, so I didn't end up with an Insight or an Impreza

 

A renault zoe and an nissan leaf, only the zoe was capable of doing my regular comute to work but it was on the limit of the battery capacity. I opted for an yaris hsd converted into LPG.

 

I looked at quite a few cars, but the main contenders were:
-3rd Gen Prius Liftback
-2nd Gen Honda Fit (not good enough gas mileage and I would have wanted to modify it too much)
-2nd Gen Honda Insight

I ended up deciding on the C for a lot of reasons, but mainly because it pretty much checks off all the things I need from a daily driver car.

 

This is gonna sound weird:
Top 3:
2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid
2008 Ford F-350
1994 Wrangler YJ


I didn't really NEED a car before I got the C, was juggling whether or not to get something to make commuting cheaper, tow my flatbed, or just have fun in the mountains off-road.
I decided the C would be the most prudent. The smaller size and better economy made me choose it over the Sonata.
So far have loved it. What it lacks in acceleration it makes up for in turning and stopping.

 

Considered the Toyota IM, Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Niro as I was further down the funnel.

Using the Costco Auto Program made it a breeze to decide! Nixed the Ioniq due to the dealerships we dealt with and the Kia Niro was a crossover. The IM was nearly the same size but didn't beat my Prius C Three as far as mileage & economy!

 

Interesting... I was also looking at a yellow Fit and went for the green Prius c instead.

When my manual 2001 Rav4 died, I looked at:
Yaris
Rav4
Honda Fit
Corolla
Civic

In case you couldn't tell, I'm a Toyota/Honda person. I was looking to buy used with under 100K miles. I researched cars and dealerships around me for two weeks. I have a whole spreadsheet of where I compared every car I found.

I really wanted another manual, and there was a yellow Fit available that was at the top of my list. I hadn't even considered Prius at first because they were out of my price range. I happened upon my Prius at a local dealership. The mileage was a little high for a 2016 (around 27K miles) because it had previously been a rental. I didn't even know that Prii Cs existed. The dealership had just recently knocked down the price a bit because no one (but me, apparently) was interested in a bright lime green car. Test drove it, loved it.

Next stop was to test drive a manual Fit so I could compare and decide if we wanted to make the trek to check out the yellow Fit I adored. I drove the Fit for 10 minutes and absolutely hated it. Something about it just didn't feel great, and the price was comparable to my C but 4 years older. By that point, I fell in love with the Prius.

We went back to the dealership and bought the Prius a few days later and I have 0 regrets. It was a little more than I originally wanted to spend, but to be honest it was 100% worth it. I thought I'd miss all the cargo space going from a Rav4 to this tiny hatchback but to be honest, I haven't noticed a difference! I work farmers markets in the summer where I have to load a lot of boxes and equipment in there, and everything fits no problem. My commute is short, so I only need to fill up maybe once a month. I also have a much clearer conscience driving a hybrid in a very crowded metro area. I'm never going back.