Prospect Prius Owner

[TwinTop]

Considering buying a 3rd Gen Prius. Currently do around 20k to and from work where 50% is motorway and 50% is typical South London traffic. I currently get around 42-54 mpg from my 1.9 cdti Astra Twintop.

What can I realistically expect to achieve from a new Prius?

Also as owners yourselves how would you sell this car to me?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

All depends how you drive it. I guess if you get 54 mpg out of a diesel you must be fairly steady so should probably get between 50-65 mpg out of the Prius easily. Higher mpg's are possible if you take it steady. I can get 75-85 mpg if I sit at a constant 50 mph such as through motorway construction zones with the average speed camera. Depending where in London you go depends if you would benefit from the congestion charge exemption too.

Is it for you? Who knows. Is it a relaxing, smooth drive with an auto box? - yes. Will it beat a convertible on a sunny day? - no. lol.

The engine switches off when you let off the gas and doesn't switch on until you get going again (about 10-20 mph or more depending on speed). Ideal for smooth and QUIET city driving when in traffic. The a/c will continue to cool even when the engine is off unlike all other cars that have this new engine stop/stop feature.

Go give one a test drive - its the only way to see if the Prius suits you and vice versa. Ring the dealer before hand so they can arrange a car for you and take id and both parts of your driving licence. Just let us all know how you get on with it.

[kithmo]

When considering mpg, bear in mind the Prius is an Automatic.

Real world mpg (minimum): Motorway at 70 mph, low to mid 50s, city, anything between 55 to 65 mpg, depending how cold it is, use of heater etc. These are the minimum figures.

A-road cruising at 45-55 mph you can easily achieve the magic 70+ mpg.

The prius is the easiest car in the world to drive, especially in trafic, with it being an Automatic and very relaxing. Group 7 insurance, £0 VED, low maintenance costs (cheap servicing) & currently a 5 year warranty.

[TwinTop]

I have test driven a T Spirit and was impressed. The main reason for change is higher mpg. Now on the test drive it was showing barely 50 mpg around town which would not justify me spending £20k on a year old 3rd Gen where as 60mpg+ plus would. Yes it was a nice relaxed drive and I was impressed by the build quality and smoothness. Around town approximately how much time percentage wise would it run on electric alone?

[Jan&tone]

I have test driven a T Spirit and was impressed. The main reason for change is higher mpg. Now on the test drive it was showing barely 50 mpg around town which would not justify me spending £20k on a year old 3rd Gen where as 60mpg+ plus would. Yes it was a nice relaxed drive and I was impressed by the build quality and smoothness. Around town approximately how much time percentage wise would it run on electric alone?

How far realistically on electric only? I've driven from Folkestone to Sandgate along the coast on electric all the way, max speed 28 mph, starting with a full Battery. Very gently on the gas pedal and no other traffic around. In normal London traffic you would have the ECO button depressed and probably get between 65 and 70 mph id you are very gentle.

No congestion charge, no RFL, cheap insurance. No brainer!

[noisyhen]

quote name='TwinTop' timestamp='1299580624' post='1098161']

I've driven a T Spirit and was impressed but have yet to find a "deal". Most seem to be sticking to list price so if you can give me some guidance as to a good deal I'd be grateful. I'd be after a T Spirit but don't want leather or the solar roof.

Continued from intro page.

First off I got deal from dealer on full list price of T Spirit and for my part ex.

Then asked if they could provide discount as stated in 'What Car' mag, which they did but reduced part ex offer. Selling p/x through 'we buy any car' gave similar offer.

Next looked on web car deals and came across one by Broadspeed which was much cheaper, including 11% off paint and options.

Contacted them who put me in touch with a main Toyota dealer offering this deal.

They contacted me and I provided details of my P/ex, they came back with an amazing deal.

Asked about finance to receive free 3 years servicing and £500 from Toyota, the finance can be paid off after 3 months without any penalty (just pay interest on the 3 months loan).

Local dealer approached and asked if they could come anywhere near this deal, they couldn't so bought the car from the other dealer even though it was 2 1/2 hours drive away it save me loads of money.

Drive home in busy traffic managed 53.9 mpg. Saved nearly £3k on initial deal!

[TwinTop]

You guys are doing a great sales job on me... are you dealers? ;)

[Grumpy Cabbie]

.... The main reason for change is higher mpg. Now on the test drive it was showing barely 50 mpg around town which would not justify me spending £20k on a year old 3rd Gen where as 60mpg+ plus would.

Seriously what money do you hope to save going from a car that you say you can get 54 mpg to a car that can do 55 - 75 mpg? It's good to get 65 mpg but it isn't really going to save you enough to justify a new car. The difference between 55 & 65 mpg is peanuts unless you're doing 50k miles a year. Saying that, the Prius wins for geek points! It's fun to drive in a different way. Apart from relaxing it is quite nippy, esp in power mode and I still haven't got bored of using the EV Stealth mode button.

It's a different kind of fun to a sports car (which lets face it you can't really use to their benefit anymore :( ).

Regarding only getting 53 mpg on a test drive - have you heard yourself! lol. I remember I got about 52 mpg and thought it fantastic and little did I know then that I could get that even higher. I would say that there are a lot of people out there that have overly high expectations of the Prius in that they think they can jump in, drive like a nutter and get 90 mpg. It won't happen. Drive it normally and I'd be very surprised if you ever get less than 50 mpg and drive it steady and you will get much much more. But engage the Power mode for fun and you will see the mpg's drop to mid 30's. Still not bad for a petrol automatic and it is surprisingly quick for an 'eco' car. Also, remember that a cold start will affect your mpg's significantly which is probably why you only got low 50's mpg.

Try and get a longer test drive and hang around here a little more. Maybe check out some of the earlier posts too. Oh and don't worry about asking questions.

[TwinTop]

Seriously what money do you hope to save going from a car that you say you can get 54 mpg to a car that can do 55 - 75 mpg?

That 54 is achieved by driving like a neutered vicar on a long run at a constant 60!! With diesel at 1.37 litre now and set to rise, I need a decent sized car with reasonable performance so I guess this ticks all the boxes...

If only they did a convertible! :)

[dwilson]

You guys are doing a great sales job on me... are you dealers? ;)

I am not!

As GC says the fuel saving from 50 mpg to 60 mpg is unlikely to justify you spending more than 20k on a new car.

I bought a Gen 2 last August and my fuel costs have dropped from about £2400 to £1200 per annum - but I went from a car that was only doing 25 mpg! My RFL has also dropped from over £400 to £10, and servicing and tyres are both cheaper. But I haven't saved money overall as it cost me more to buy than my trade in was worth.

David

[johalareewi]

For real life fuel figures check out Fuelly stats for the 2010 Prius

http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/prius/2010

Make sure you click the UK option at the top left of the page to get UK mpg (it defaults to USA).

[johalareewi]

That 54 is achieved by driving like a neutered vicar on a long run at a constant 60!!

At that speed, you can get 70mpg out of a Prius.

It seems to like cruising at 60.

At 70mph you are more likely to get around 60mpg.

Did we say it's an automatic?

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Or click on the fuelly banner on my profile! In the first 12 months my car got an average of 49 mpg over 111 fill ups. Might not sound too great but this is an average where most of my driving (95%) is start stop town driving.

Or put it another way - you've seen how taxi drivers drive!

Or you can look at the link above. As he said though, remember to select UK mpg as the US gallon is much smaller than ours (3.7 litres to our 4.5 litres) so American figures will be lower (49 uk mpg is about 42 us mpg).

[gobiman]

TwinTop,

I too am a prospective new Prius buyer. I've spent quite some time researching MPG on-line as, as well as it being a school bus, I would intend using the Prius for some replacement mileage for my BMW X5 4.8iS (currently averaging just over 20 mpg!!) and I was keen to do a calculation based on likely fuel saving.From this forum and elsewhere, it seems reasonable to expect 50 mpg - a bit less (down to 40) if all in town/heavy right foot and a bit more (up to 60 mpg) if you try hard with steady speeds.

For me, the main journey is a school run of 6 miles round trip twice daily into central London so need less than 100g CO2. This limits it to about 20 cars. However, in my experience diesels (small or large) work best when warmed up and driving steady speed which is precisely what I will not be doing. Also for a diesel, company car BIK is a 3% premium. The only petrol cars I considered were the Fiat 500 Twin- Air(ironically heavily criticised for "fixed" official figures - tests showing 35-40 mpg) and the Hyundai i10 which I just didn't like. Prius also seems to be consistently economical which cars like the Fiat are not. Final clincher for me was wife wanting 4 doors and automatic!

I'm sure in a few years time, I'll be an ideal candidate for a Leaf or Ampera but the technology/residuals are not quite there yet.

As per the previous posts, you should be getting just over 10% off list. I too have been down the Broadspeed route and was impressed. Unless someone seriously betters it, I'll be ordering at the end of the month.

Good luck

[TwinTop]

gobiman! Can't believe you don't like the i10! Just bought one for the Mrs and we love it. Amazing mpg and very lively. Not the prettiest car on the road but for value for money its fab... Its time to be practical especially with the Middle East situation, fuel is going nowhere nut up. Time to be a "tree hugger".

[gobiman]

You're quite right and if it was purely for school runs I'd buy an i10. I have fond memories of thrashing my mother's 3 cylinder Daihatsu Charade learning to drive in the mid-80s and it looks very similar. However I am also need to be able to do 300-500 mile trips comfortably (my replacement mileage point) so that's why I'm keen on the greater size and versatility of the Prius albeit at twice the price! Wife also quite keen on auto.

[johalareewi]

The prius is not a fan of short journeys so you might find that the 6 mile school run doesn't get you the high mpgs. On a cold morning start, it takes up to 5 minutes to warm up (using the petrol engine) during which time, you are burning fuel. The prius is basically a petrol car with electrical assistance. As a pure EV vehicle it can do about a mile on the batteries on a good day. Maybe you can wait for the plug in Prius (next year?) which will have a better EV range?

For your longer journeys, not a problem.

[gobiman]

Spot-on.I'd be a keen buyer of a plug-in. Unfortunately need the car in August so will go with the current Prius and re-assess in a couple of years. By mid-2012, I expect to be looking at proper reviews of plug-in Prius, Ampera and Leaf.

[DrCez]

The prius is not a fan of short journeys so you might find that the 6 mile school run doesn't get you the high mpgs.

To elaborate on this point: my daily commute is about 6 miles each way, 30-40 minutes of stop-start traffic. Indicated fuel consumption for the morning leg last year varied from 42 mpg (Feb average, lots of snow) to 62 mpg (August average, average morning temperature in Aberdeen a balmy 13 degrees) (note the Prius overestimates mpg, so in reality this is a range of about 40-high 50's mpg, but the return leg consumption is better). It's true that this isn't its favourite environment for high mpgs but the Prius is stuffed with design features to optimise fuel consumption (and don't forget emissions) in heavy traffic with a cold engine and I wonder if any other (non-plugin/EV) car can compete (even the tiny ones). Plus it's an automatic, so the driving is much more relaxing. And the best bit is that my highly economical commuter is also a suprisingly spacious family car which is perfectly at home on the motorways for longer journeys.

Spot-on.I'd be a keen buyer of a plug-in. Unfortunately need the car in August so will go with the current Prius and re-assess in a couple of years. By mid-2012, I expect to be looking at proper reviews of plug-in Prius, Ampera and Leaf.

Agree completely, gobiman. The Prius makes a lot of sense for me and I don't benefit from the London factor. I'm looking forward to the next generation of PHEV/EV cars but I'll be interested to read the reviews (and the pricing) once they arrive. In the meantime the Prius is proven technology and as such a pretty safe bet.

[DrCez]

I have test driven a T Spirit and was impressed. The main reason for change is higher mpg. Now on the test drive it was showing barely 50 mpg around town which would not justify me spending £20k on a year old 3rd Gen where as 60mpg+ plus would. Yes it was a nice relaxed drive and I was impressed by the build quality and smoothness. Around town approximately how much time percentage wise would it run on electric alone?

One other thing to bear in mind is that the mpg will improve in the summer (and drop in the winter). I think 60 mpg+ is achievable (although it does depend on your driving patterns) once the weather has warmed up, and there are plenty of tricks that will improve economy (for example ECO mode, avoiding use of cabin heater in stationary traffic, driving style, tyre pressures). If you're driving for any length of time a warm engine will help of course. In my last post I quoted approx. 40-60 mpg for a 6 mile commute from a cold start, but on one day in September with a warm engine the car indicated 84.9 mpg for one leg! If you're prepared to drive like a "neutered vicar" in your Astra then I would have thought you'll be able to achieve the higher end mpgs in a Prius.

Running time on electric alone is a bit of a red herring: ultimately the charge in the Battery has come from the petrol engine and there is energy lost in the petrol->engine->motor->battery energy conversions. This means that in many circumstances it is better to accelerate using the petrol and coast rather than try to keep up a steady speed on electric only. Electric range is typically quoted as 1-2 miles but is affected by a number of factors.

As others have said, financially I would be suprised if the Prius pays for itself on mpg alone (even with the current increase in fuel prices), so I'd recommend considering the package as a whole.

[TwinTop]

I'm within a mile of the motorway for my daily commute so as I see it that mile would be electric mainly then straight up to 60mph for 13 miles, then 10 miles South London traffic. Therefoer the car would rapidly warm once on the M23.

[DrCez]

I'm within a mile of the motorway for my daily commute so as I see it that mile would be electric mainly then straight up to 60mph for 13 miles, then 10 miles South London traffic. Therefoer the car would rapidly warm once on the M23.

That sounds ideal for the Prius. You would probably find that the drive to the motorway would be on petrol while it warms the engine up, but if it is a gentle start that is good because accelerating hard when cold really pulls down the mpgs. Coming home, however, I would expect you could coast all the way from leaving the motorway (plus any deceleration on the motorway itself) under electric only. 60 mph on the motorway will be great for economy (even better if that is 60 mph from the speedo = about 55 mph real life!) and arriving in London with a warm engine is also ideal for your mpg.

[TwinTop]

Just seen the video on the PHV version... should I wait? Decisions, decisions...

[cbcdesign]

The prius is not a fan of short journeys...

For your longer journeys, not a problem.

In reality no car is a fan of short journeys. I drive a Jaguar S type at the moment on short journeys and I am willing to put money on it that a Prius will do rather better on the exact same duty cycle than my Jag currenty does. My 3 litre gas guzzler still manages an average of 17MPG even with the very short journey I make!

[RobMagpie]

I too had a twintop (1.8 petrol manual) until October. In fact I always had vauxhalls as I had a relation who worked for them so could get discount. Earlier in the year went to Torquay from Nottingham via London, picking up another passenger, and as my wife also has a convertible (peugeot) decided to hire a car. This turned out to be a Toyota Avensis.

I had been thinking of changing my car as I had problems with the roof (covered under warranty) but likely to happen again and with this probably my last change before retirement I wanted a reliable comfortable car with the ability to handle unusual and sometimes larger items which a hatchback style can(two kids grown up!). I had never looked at other makes due to the relationship but was so impressed with the Toyota decided to look at their range.

The thought of £0 road tax, 50-70 mpg and automatic (commute 7.5 miles into town for work - stop/start all the way) drew me to the Prius and after a test drive was hooked. I wanted the sunroof option as I'd had a convertible and the dealer had an ex demonstrator which I got a good deal on.

It was the best move I ever made. Thoroughly enjoy driving it and did even in the bad weather although wasn't bad round here. Can't wait for summer and even better mph.