User 4621

Time to get rid of the wife's Prius while the resale and demand are still crazy-high.

She has the following demands for a car, in roughly this order:
New car with warranty only. Yes, I know a 20 year old POS is cheaper. I don't care.
Good gas mileage around town, short trips, under 30 miles a day.
Carry 4 people and still do a Costco run. Also fold down the rear seats to carry bigger stuff.
Bluetooth, auto climate, heated seats, GPS, decent tunes
Nice interior
Decent perf.

The Prius has been a good car for her as it's large and practical, but because her trips are often only 5 miles round trip, her mileage has been ~40mpg as the engine runs the whole time to warm up thus no hybrid advantage.

My plan was to talk her into the Jetta Sportwagon TDI. We also drove the Volt, Leaf and CT200h.

Leaf: Surprisingly, a LOT of fun to drive, but the 90 mile range is a deal breaker because maybe a half dozen times a year she needs to take a longer drive. Also too small.

CT200h: Nice looking but why would I trade my Prius for a smaller Prius that gets less mpg and has worse performance?

JSW TDI: Love the interior and overall driving experience. Price is good. Overall capacity and practicality almost at Prius level. However, no auto climate? last gen GPS? No HID or Xenons? No freakin' Homelink??? I don't even know where my original garage door openers are. Where's the AWD or Audi version? Also, diesel averages 55 cents per gallon more than gas out here, and around town the mileage is meh. Biodiesel is cheaper here than regular diesel, but not sure I can use it?

Volt: Very surprisingly (to me) the best quality interior materials. Nice dash and center stack layout. All the bells and whistles for electronics, climate, GPS, stereo, etc. Only seats 4 and rear seats require <6ft. Cargo area is small compared to Prius. Drives really well by econobox standards, pretty much the same as the JSW overall. Kinda ugly from some angles, but not as bad as the Prius and less boring than the VW.

But the cost is the kicker for the Volt. $42K becomes $32K after state and federal credits, so about the same as the Prius or JSW. PG&E will install the 4 hour charger for free and put me on a special EV rate plan of $0.06/kwh. Doing the math works out to costing the same as it getting just under 200 mpg.

Jetta would be better for road trips but we have my BMW for that which slays all these cars for driving enjoyment.

I feel a bit dirty taking all the tax incentives but I figure I'm just getting a small fraction of my own money back. I wish they weren't there, but it's stupid to not take advantage of them. I haven't bought an American car since my '67 Caddy Convertible DeVille, which picked econoboxes out of it's 8 mpg ***. Hope I won't regret it.

SeanR

Good luck and be sure to show us lots of pictures.

No HTwo O

How long does it take to recharge?

Bart

You're welcome (for the tax credit that is.)

User 4621

Will do. I''l practice for ownership by forcing this sloth to rape a tree.


4 hours with the 240v charger, 10-12 hours with the 120v.

Thanks, but since I'm getting back <1% of my own tax dollars, don't think I'll be dipping into your share anytime soon.

Ed Scherer

That's going to make programming HomeLink in whatever car you do get quite a challenge.

Riad

The CT200h (I have one) is so much more of a car than the Prius. Much better materials, look, feel, and they have the same powerplant so not sure how much of a blazing performance difference the Prius has.

I can't see spending that kind of money on a Chevy.

hacker-pschorr

+1 - I think they hit a home run with the interior. For the style of car, it's the best looking externally with that "shape" - if that makes any sense.

Just remember, don't shuffle your feat on any **** carpet before driving it

T951

Chevy's feel good for 20k miles, then they simply dissolve. I had a 2007 Vette, Chevy's premium car. Car felt good for 20k miles, then a rattle trap. This has been the case for every chevy ever. There is a reason they are considered a low end car.

Toyota's are built to last.

We went the 2011 Jetta TDI route. I have had it 6 months and have almost 30k on it. Never get less than 40mpg and it is practical. (Huge trunk, etc). Because my wife and I share it as our highway vehicle we were able to justify the diesel premium.

The torque is great too.

We just couldn't go with another GM product. The quality is just not there.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear, I am just voicing my experience.

I would also keep in mind its a first year product...maybe if they had been making them for a few years and gotten the kinks out...

Good luck with what ever your choice.

Oh, and the Jetta came with bluetooth and satellite radio.

I added a homelink mirror ($200), a nice radio ($200) and a Garmin ($120) that are all superior to factory equipment.

User 4621

Well, I just got done driving one. Definitely prettier inside and out, but the handling feel and acceleration is worse, probably because it's heavier. This is borne out in road tests as well as subjectively when I drove it. Not that either one is anything other than depressingly bad.

Also, the interior and cargo area is significantly smaller. I wanted to like it but all things considered I'd probably get another Prius before the Lexus.

I hear you on the Chevy, I'm nervous as hell. Might lease it just so I can dump it with no hassles if it's a POS. I will say the interior build quality and materials is about the same level as the Lexus, surprisingly enough. Better than the Corvette LS1 with a $7K interior upgrade, which squeaked as soon as I sat down.

Riad

Did you put the Lexus in Sport mode? It has three modes, and sport mode will actually spin the tires... although this defeats the purpose of the car. - Either way, not that it matters either way it is pretty subjective.

We have 220,000 miles on our other Lexus RX-330 so we're confident this car will last us for years.

I would have a hard time thinking I could get that out of a Chevy.

dime1622

Dude. This is totally not metal. I am not happy with you.

User 4621

Yes, Prius has a sport mode too. They spin the tires because the tires are hard, brittle blobs of low rolling resistance eco-****. I can see the appeal of both cars, the Lexus if you're in denial about owning a hybrid and still have some fight left in you, the Prius if you just don't give a **** anymore and go to Walmart in your sweatpants, Crocs and Winger t-shirt.

I try not to generalize by marque too much. My Land Cruiser was like a Rolls Royce compared to a Corolla in build quality, a Nissan GT-R has nothing in common with a Sentra. I'm hoping that with the Volt they accidentally forgot their long tradition of ball gargling.

User 4621

I know bro, I hang my head in shame. My only defense is that it's for my wife, so here's a couple of pictures of my car to cleanse some of the eco-gay out of this thread.

CPR

How do you feel about having to turn in your ***** as part of the ownership experience?