Any Prius Company Car Owners Please?

[stephaniek]

Hi there,

I am looking at ordering the Prius (T-Spirit) as my next company ca and I was wondering if anyone already had a Prius as a company car and how you were getting on?

I do about 3000 miles a month 60/40 in favour of motorway miles.

I have two main concerns, that it won't have the 'grunt' when over taking on motorways and that as our compny car policy is for 4 years and I wonder how it will be at 100K+

Look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have.

Thanks

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Hi there,

I am looking at ordering the Prius (T-Spirit) as my next company ca and I was wondering if anyone already had a Prius as a company car and how you were getting on?

I do about 3000 miles a month 60/40 in favour of motorway miles.

I have two main concerns, that it won't have the 'grunt' when over taking on motorways and that as our compny car policy is for 4 years and I wonder how it will be at 100K+

Look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have.

Thanks

I am not a company car driver as such but I do a similar mileage but 90/10 split in favour of town driving. The latest gen3 2010 Prius has a 1800cc engine and is more than happy at motorway speeds (and above). Now it does have grunt if you need it but I find using the Power Mode if I need a quick boost such as pulling onto the motorway from a slip road or overtaking on A roads. It can get a little thrashy under acceleration up hills on motorways but it's not too bad as the smooth quiet cruising on normal driving makes up for it.

Regarding mileage, upon reading the American forums there are many drivers who have run their cars way past the 100k mile point and quite a few upto 200k and beyond! I am hoping to get at least 150k out of mine.

I was a little unsure whether the Prius would be for me so I took two extended test drives and drove my normal routes/roads to see how it performed. I was so impressed that I bought one. I would recommend you do a similar test drive and take the car on some motorway routes you frequent and see if it is suitable for you as four years with a car you hate is a long time.

Hope this helps.

[Dave R.]

Hi there,

I am looking at ordering the Prius (T-Spirit) as my next company ca and I was wondering if anyone already had a Prius as a company car and how you were getting on?

I do about 3000 miles a month 60/40 in favour of motorway miles.

I have two main concerns, that it won't have the 'grunt' when over taking on motorways and that as our compny car policy is for 4 years and I wonder how it will be at 100K+

Look forward to hearing any thoughts you may have.

Thanks

My Gen III T-Spirit is a company motor - I couldn't resist the savings in tax and fuel costs! I've done 11,000 miles since the end of September which, thanks to my current assignment, is on a daily 110 mile round-trip to the office on a mix of A roads, country lanes and some heavy traffic.

It cruises OK on the motorway (a bit noisy, and at 70mph doesn't give fantastic fuel consumption) - suggest you take a test drive to see what you think. My last car was a volvo, so the Prius seems a little bit "tinny" by comparison (perhaps due to making all the metal as thin as possible to get the weight down! whereas the volvo was built like a brick Sh*t house!) That said, the Prius is stable enough and holds its own on the motorway.

On the mix of non-motorway roads it is great. The automatic transmission takes a whole lot of effort out of driving, so despite a relatively long daily drive to/from work, it is not at all tiring.

Power is fine. Hit the "power" button and the car will steam up hills a treat with plenty of grunt. Same for overtaking on motorways.

Cruise control works OK (though won't give the best fuel consumption)

As per my other posts, there are some minor "toys" that would be nice to have - but then there are lots of other goodies on the car to play with! In particular, the Satnav is OK (never had one before, so don't have anything to compare it with!), the Hard Disk on the stereo saves carrying loads of CDs (AND you can stick a few 100 tracks on a DVD), though actually I now tend to listen to podcasts (ipod connected via the "aux" port). Love the head-up display.

Oh yes, and did I mention the massive tax savings in "benefit in kind" and lower fuel costs? :)

[johalareewi]

It cruises OK on the motorway (a bit noisy, and at 70mph doesn't give fantastic fuel consumption)

I can easily average 50mpg+ at 75mph* on motorways.

Is that not fantastic (for the size of car and engine)? :)

* Prius speedo reads 75mph when doing 70mph (GPS)

[flow]

I got my company Prius last Septenber.

The main reason for choosing was the tax/fuel savings.

Its always been powerful enough for me and never been on the motorway and thought hmm this is gutless. Average mpg on motorways is around 50 - at an indicated speed of 77mph (gps 70 - speedo set to over read by 10%)

Its not as refined as my previous Volvo V50 - abit noisier, more cheap plastic inside but as i said at the start, the tax savings make up for this.

[Jonathan Mason]

I got my company Prius last Septenber.

The main reason for choosing was the tax/fuel savings.

Its always been powerful enough for me and never been on the motorway and thought hmm this is gutless. Average mpg on motorways is around 50 - at an indicated speed of 77mph (gps 70 - speedo set to over read by 10%)

Its not as refined as my previous Volvo V50 - abit noisier, more cheap plastic inside but as i said at the start, the tax savings make up for this.

Same here, changed company car from Civic 1.8 to the Prius. Still getting same 14p per mile, but using less fuel and much lower car tax.

I do about 20,000 miles a year, with a mix of long motorway journeys and 15 mile congested commutes. Average MPG (according to the prius) is 55mpg over the first 2,500 miles.

Couldn't be happier with it, I know I've only had it a month but its the first car I would happily have another one of.

[Fujisan]

Couldn't be happier with it, I know I've only had it a month but its the first car I would happily have another one of.

Great to hear

EDIT: Sorry, and welcome to the TOC

[QS73]

Picked up the Gen3 T-Spirit new company car yesterday; 4 (yes FOUR !!) miles on the clock and Michelin tyres on the wheels (standard issue now I presume).

Now starting on the learning curve all slightly different from my Vectra SRI; but it is going to be very interesting.

Had a drive this morning from my home to Plymouth and back, mixture of Class A, B & C roads; the car performed well it was the driver causing the problems, need practice at using PWR mode especially on inclines.

The reason I chose the T-Spirit was:

1. BIK advantage

2. Lower fuel consumption

3. Its a new and exciting car ('drive by wire' I call it)

Not many around in Devon although one did overtake me on the A38 !!

Look forward to, I hope, three happy years driving.

[Jolly English Gentleman]

I have just purchased a 3 year old 2nd Gen T Spirit that was a Company Car owned by a Bank who kindly had it serviced in November and MOT'd in January before despatching it into the Auction system to end up on a General Motor dealer forecourt. It has got 63K on the clock. Having driven it to its new home over 200 miles I found no problems on a mixture of A roads and duel carriageway once I had got used to the start up routine. I had no problems overtaking but I tend not to overtake cars that are doing 70 anyway. The power was there to overtake a lorry doing 50 on a A road when needed, so the more powerful 1.8 3rd gen should be fine. I cannot say I noticed much engine noise - it is general road noise that if anything is a problem at high speeds - acceptable, but I would not want to be speaking to someone on a mobile phone with a poor signal at that speed.

It has got the odd minute stone chip on the bonnet that I noticed when cleaning it for the first time, but apart from that it is in good nick.

The consumption is the main obvious benefit as well as the low tax breaks in owning a Prius. I acheived an impressive average 57 mpg on my trip which included some hilly bits and urban driving.

There is a possible drawback with the Sat Nav though (I admit that I am still getting used to it). It gave me a choice of 3 routes for my return trip showing the width of the UK on the screen meaning that it was not clear where each of the three routes were taking me. Once I got to an area around 120 miles from home that I know how to get home from I ended up turning it off as the route I had selected was taking me away from the obvious faster route with dual carriageways. It does not seem to give you the option of drilling down onto the route shown so that you can check which roads the route option will take you on. A Garmin device does give you that option. Also it does not seem to have an option to warn of speed cameras, unlike a Garmin. This may be an option on the 3rd Gen - if not it ought to be!

Just a general alert to Company Car drivers who are about to hand their vehicle back - try to remember to clear your settings before doing so. The handbook tells you to do this. Your favourite destinations remain in the Sat Nav system until it is reset (more an irritation for the next owner) but more importantly any stored telephone numbers also stays in the system until it is reset which could be a concern if any of them are confidential. This probably applies to any vehicle with inbuilt handsfree telephone, but it does no harm to highlight this in this thread.

My Prius has now retired from a continuous life on the road, I probably cover as many miles in a year what many Company Car drivers do in a month, but I have to say I arrived home feeling far more relaxed after such a long journey than I would have done in my old Corolla, and I am almost looking forward to our next run to the airport as part of the annual holiday.

[Poupon]

Stephanie

I've had the GenII Prius for last four years - chose it for the low tax/high mileage and,mainly, for the Congestion Charge exemption in london.

I took delivery of the Gen III Prius yesterday. Since it was a company car, I picked every option available to upgrade it, which boosted the price by about £5k but only adds a few pounds a month to my tax bill. My initial reaction: don't bother with the solar roof (manual caveats its performance so much, not convinced it will do what the brochure claimed).

Some initial glitches which may well (despite being familiar/comfortable with old model) be numptie owner on day two.

If you don't have a pressing requirement (such as the Congestion Charge exemption) to get a Prius particularly, I'd suggest looking more widely - but it does depend on what your allowance/spend cap is. I'm certainly not the most "accelerator heavy" driver - and certainly not the best eco driver either - but I've always struggled to keep my old Prius in the 50+ MPG category. If you're doing a lot of motorway driving, I'd look at cars like the BMW 320d (the new - Jan 2009 - engine model is hugely economical and got great write ups in the press a couple of months ago) or the Volvo hatchbacks with the economy diesel engines.

I'm content - but no more than that - with the old model, new model has novelty value (but useless sodding storage space - what where they thinking with that poxy storage area under the console between the two front seats????). Just can't get excited - even though I was while I was waiting for it. It's sensible.

Think I'll go put my slippers on.

D

[Fluffy01016]

I've just covered 2000 in my 2 week old Gen3 and I'm averaging 60.2mpg (see fuelly.com sig below). So far I'm making about £40 a week in fuel (claim 14p a mile but using about 9p a mile)and saving £70 a month in company car tax. If you need the grunt, press the power mode button and the car is pretty brisk.

[Fujisan]

First of all, welcome to the TOC

If you don't have a pressing requirement (such as the Congestion Charge exemption) to get a Prius particularly, I'd suggest looking more widely - but it does depend on what your allowance/spend cap is. I'm certainly not the most "accelerator heavy" driver - and certainly not the best eco driver either - but I've always struggled to keep my old Prius in the 50+ MPG category. If you're doing a lot of motorway driving, I'd look at cars like the BMW 320d (the new - Jan 2009 - engine model is hugely economical and got great write ups in the press a couple of months ago) or the Volvo hatchbacks with the economy diesel engines.

Right, diesels? <_< Great if you like service reception coffee, while they dig out your EGR Valve (yet again), change your turbo or replace your DMF

No denying the 3 series is a great car but you see so many on the roads, especially 320d's they are frankly..... -_-

Hope you get your little niggles with Prius sorted

[Seamaster73]

Right, diesels? Great if you like service reception coffee, while they dig out your EGR Valve (yet again), change your turbo or replace your DMF

Filthy fuel. And if I wanted to clatter round in a tractor belching out black soot, I'd buy one.