I like my Prius, but bells and whistles it does not have. But, I would buy another again. The RAV 4 does not the fuel mileage the Prius does. It is significantly lower, by about 20%. The Kia though is comparable.
Hyundai also has a plug in hybrid. Hyundai has made great strides in their cars and the one we had was very reliable.
This is just my opinion but all cars have become much more reliable. Toyota and Honda sell for a premium because of their reputation but there are others brands out there that are very, very reliable and cheap to fix. Our Hyundai was incredibly reliable and when it did need work, it was not expensive. We drove our last one 200,000 miles.
Even American brand cars (seeing as most import brand cars are now made in the USA) are much more reliable and can be driven for miles that were unattainable in years past.
@HImom drives 5000 miles a year…or less. Crunching the numbers…it’s going to take a long time for a ROI buying an electric or hybrid car.
The car mileage has really increased in the last couple of years…which is also worth considering if you drive a low number of miles per year.
My H has agreed that it will become our primary car so probably increase to about 10k miles/yr, most within the electric range so we will fill up the tiny tank once every 2 months or so instead if his car’s larger tank every week. Thanks for your observation and calculations!
It sounds like the company that controls the car prices on Toyota also controls the prices on replacement parts. I would avoid that. Honda, Subaru, and Hyunda all make nice reliable cars.
I’ve been very happy with my Toyota these past 20 years. The same company owns Suburu in our state. I’m more a Toyota person than a Honda person but thanks for those thoughts.
Isn’t the Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid? I mentioned that Hyundai also has a plug in hybrid because it is a similar car.
Personally I wouldn’t buy a hybrid if I drove less than 10,000/year. It just wouldn’t be cost effective for ME. But it’s not my car.
We had to buy a car, my H drives 30,000/year. He decided he didn’t want a hybrid so he went with something different. That’s our choice.
Sorry, I am super cranky. The dealership has messed up this purchase at every step. I hate buying a car so so much.
^^Deb, what are you trying to buy (brand?)???
The 2019 RAV4 only has an $800 premium for the hybrid. That will be much easier to justify the price premium. I remember several years ago it was more like $4000.
We bought a Volkswagen Passat. We are aware that it is possibly not the best choice reliability wise. But he loved the ride, the features for the price. His entire family are big Volkswagen fans. They’ve owned them for years and have been happy.
The Prius Prime doesn’t have a very high miles range on just the electric.
For driving of less than 10k a month, I would not pick a combo plug/in/gas engine. It has zero advantages of an EV and all the disadvantages of gas-powered engines. Still need to go to the gas station and do oil and fluid changes etc. I would buy either an EV or a conventional one (or a hybrid but not a plug in).
We have range anxiety on purely electric vehicles and think this is a step in helping reduce pollution.
I was behind a very nicely detailed newer RAV4 today and thought it looked great! I wish they would change the name of the RAV4 - I feel like the name was chosen to attract a young audience back in it’s early days - with the big spare tire thing on the back and all - like very offroad…but with the body changes it is now just a very nice looking car - I feel like the name doesn’t fit!
The 2019 redesigned Rav4 should hit dealerships in December. It would be worth a look: https://www.carsdirect.com/2019/toyota/rav4
I weighed the pros and cons of getting a Prius vs Prius Prime - I really wanted to want the Prius Prime, but in the end the very short EV range just didn’t make sense for me.
I drive ~70mi in my work commute and there’s no EV plug-in there, so with the Prius Prime, I would only be able to go EV for 1/3 of my daily commute. It gets very cold where I am and even though electric cars are pretty good now, I’m not confident I can make it 35mi in -30 weather. And the only electricity in my city comes from natural gas.
Because my commute is 98% highway, I don’t get the best fuel economy on my Prius, but it’s still better than my Corolla, and that’s good enough for me. It’s enough of a difference that I can fill up my tank every 5-6 days instead of every 3-4 days as I would need to on a very fuel efficient gas-only sedan. And on weekends when I’m only doing city driving, I can get well below the listed mpg.
If you’re doing city driving only in a warm climate I think the plug-in hybrid can make sense especially if you also want the option of taking a longer trip spontaneously. But if you’re doing it for the environment, then make sure your electricity comes from a green source.
We have PV panels on our roof for our power, so pretty green.
Our friend has a 2012 Prius plug in and says she only had to fill her tiny tank once every two months instead of her big regular tank in prior car weekly. I think we will be similar. H folks weekly, I fill maybe monthly now. We will use my car more and his less going forward.
Isn’t the longest possible road trip where you live about 100 miles round trip?
If so, then perhaps a used inexpensive electric vehicle with more than that range could avoid range anxiety while letting you “refuel” at home, never having to visit the fuel station. However, it may be a year or two before supplies of used 125 mile electric vehicles (e.g. 2017 Hyundai Ioniq EV and 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf) become plentiful, so maybe you can keep this idea in your back pocket for when your other car needs to be replaced.
As long as we have a hybrid, H is OK. He’s not comfortable in old Leaf (borrowed from relative) — kept expecting to be stranded as battery was old and predicted mileage dropped quickly.
Nissan Leafs started with only 73 mile range in 2011-2012, eventually increasing to 84 miles in 2014-2016 with the 24kWh battery (2016 had a 30kWh battery option for 107 miles). However, range degradation was a significant problem in Leafs (particularly pre-2015) used in hot weather.