2003 lifted JEEP Rubicon to a 2012 Prius C over night... wow talk about culture shock. I have owned JEEP's my whole life and after only clocking just over 200 miles on a 15 gallon tank at $4.29 a gallon and gas prices climbing it was time for a savings change. I live in Southern CA. and gas is about to increase again come July due to a recent State gas tax that just passed. My kids have grown into teenagers and no longer fit in the back seat of the JEEP so a double whammy. I found a 2012 Prius C for $17,500 with only 9,000 miles on it. I look forward to (I hate using this term) pimping it out. My first mod will be 18" wheels and sporty tires and tinting the entire car out. It's White so black rims are on the horizon. I look forward to getting to know everyone here and also taking advantage of the insane knowledge base that I've been able to read so far. My new car will be delivered tomorrow morning and I look forward to being a part of the Prius family. Nick M
Congrats and welcome. Since your first mod will be 18in wheels, make sure to get LRR 18in tires. Nice grippy tires will destroy your MPG. And when Prius owners say destroy that means you will never achieve 50mpg but probably mid-40's. It is a big drop in efficiency just for "bling" but others have done it and it is your choice. Just making sure you are aware that you should use LRR tires and not find out later after spending lots of money on other tires first.
Thanks for the tip. I think any dip in MPG will still be leaps and bounds above what I am used to getting in my JEEP. I'll drive it around for the first week and leave everything factory so I will at least have a benchmark to start from.
Definitely. 3-4 times the efficiency right off the bat. You can find nice handling 18in LRR tires, even very low profile. It is just something that you need to look for instead of anything off of the shelf. If you are upgrading the tires and actually care about handling, you really need to add a sway bar to get it to take corners at any kind of speed.
Rims, tires, sway bar and an air intake are first on the list. Would you recommend the front or rear sway bar or both?
Depends on how you are planning to drive it. Personally I am OK with the body roll since all my roads have pretty banked corners. So when I am cornering at higher speeds, I don't need it. And even on on-ramps that don't have it, I can floor it through any curve, you just need to know how to hit the apex.
I'm so stoked right now! I had 17" 8 spoke black Drag rims with Yokohama YK580 215/45R17 installed today and on the white Prius C they look way better than I thought they would!
This weekend we will be adding about 1400 watts through a Kenwood head unit and Polk speakers and amps.
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Had to blur out my neighbor who can't be ID'd on the web. Here is the first look at my Prius C with it's new 17" wheels and tires. I'll get better pics tomorrow.
Looks good and the tires seem to be a good compromise on handling and fuel efficiency. You definitely need dark tint now though. But in CA, I guess you can only dark tint the rears?
It's completely tinted out now and we're doing the windshield this weekend. What a difference the tint makes. Yes it is illegal to tint in CA but it's not what you know just who you know.
Awesome!! I tinted the windows (20%) and blacked the rims too on my Prius, it looks sweet. I have to ask - its been a few weeks now, do you miss the Jeep at all?
Of course I do! It was my fifth JEEP and it was set up perfect. It was very hard to walk away from that one. I'm loving the Prius don't get me wrong but JEEP will always be my fitst Love. Now you ask my family that and you'll get polarized answers!
