I bought my wife a cheap 2010 Prius IV to commute in since she was putting too many miles on her F80 BMW M3. She rarely drives the M3 anymore since the baby mostly rides in her car. I've been thinking about selling the M3 and the Gen 3 and getting her a new 2017 Prius Prime. Obviously the tech features and interior are a lot more modern in the 2017 Prime. MPG seems to be marginally better (low 50's vs mid 40's). Gas is so cheap that's not really a factor to me. I'm more curious about improvements in the following areas: 1. Comfort - Does the 2017 Prime ride a lot better, smoother, quieter than a Gen 3? 2. Reliability- Did they fix the oil burning, EGR clogging issues with the Gen 4 Prime, any known expensive potential repairs or failure points yet? 3. Interior Room- I know the Prime has 1 less seat in the back but how is the trunk space compared to a regular Gen 3 Prius? What about seating room? Our car seat is a pretty tight fit in the Gen 3 and nearly touches the back of the driver's seat. 4. Acceleration- Is it any better? I realize it's about as far from a performance car as you can get but the Gen 3 feel REALLY slow, almost to the point of being dangerous when merging onto a freeway and it struggles to get up to speed. Does the Prime with the extra battery power feel more like a 'normal' car? Any advice former/current Gen 3 and Prime owners can give would be awesome.
1) most say yes, some say no. 2) we won't know for 4 or 5 years. 3) a little more comfy in front and back, can you put a baby seat on one side instead of middle? hatch is 3" shallower, there is no spare, and under hatch storage is tiny compared to gen 3. 4) about the same. 5) disclaimer: i don't own one, just a test drive.
Thanks, doesn't sound like a great proposition for potentially 5X the cost of my Gen 3 unless I just wanted a 'new' car. I guess I'll wait for my Model 3 reservation to come up, at least that will have a party trick of being fully electric.
Regarding item 2, it should be possible to find out if they change the engineering/design of the common failure points on the gen 3 even if we won't know how reliable it will be long term. Any thoughts? For example (not apples to apples), Porsche completely did away with the intermediate shaft bearing design (IMS) in the 996/early 997 generation cars after seeing some failures. Wondering if Toyota revised the whole EGR, PCV system.
Compared to the gen 2 which is in some ways superior to the gen 3. It rides and handles like a much more expensive car, but acceleration is the same which is painfully slow. The car feels more substantial and premium with more attention to cabin materials and layout. My main complaint is that the trunk space is really impacted because Toyota took the lazy route with packaging.
I switched from Gen3 to Prime recently. My Gen3 trim was Two, so naturally this was a huge upgrade. For me, Prime Premium is far more comfortable, better smoother ride and much quieter. It is virtually soundless with EV. Reliability, I wouldn't know, but Prime and maybe Gen4 Prius may have windshield that is prone to crack. Less than two weeks of owning Prime, I had windshield crack. Unless you have zero deductible glass coverage, it can be very expensive. The replacement of windshield requires recalibration of sensors that can be performed only at dealership with right equipment, which can be again very costly if not covered by your insurance. Also, currently there is a shortage of windshield right now, so if you need to replace it there is a long waiting period. Primes cargo space is tiny by comparison to Gen3. If you need to haul a lot of stuff, this is not a car for you. I find Prime's acceleration is far, far better than Gen3. I had to put Gen3 in Power Mode to get quick enough acceleration for safe merging onto busy highway. With Prime, I can easily accelerate into lanes even with Eco Mode. I have not switched into Power Mode with Prime yet.
Affordable was the priority. Keep in mind that C-HR uses a lifted Prius platform. So, it's not like they didn't develop that next step.
Good info, the gen 3 feels like a cheap econobox. The handling is sloppy, doors feel like they are made from aluminum cans, lots of wind noise. The lack of cargo room on the prime may be a deal breaker though. With the kid's stroller and and crap the trunk is nearly already full on the gen 3 with not much room for anything else. Good info on the acceleration. The numbers 0-30, 0-60 looked about the same on car magazine reviews, glad to hear it's noticeably better in real life. I think I could live with the acceleration with how it feels in PWR mode on the gen 3 if that was the 'normal' mode.
i don't have any info on the egr or other parts of the engine, but i'll take @Trollbait 's word for it. no doubt they've updated most everything. but then again, they updated everything from gen 2 to gen 3, and some things got worse, but didn't show up immediately.
Yes. Fully independent suspension (double wishbone rear... but some say it's more like a multilink), better weight distribution (56/44 on the Prime vs. 61/59 for the Gen 3) and lower centre of gravity (ground clearance is 4.7" vs. 5.1" for Gen 3. Height of the car is lower as well as the height of the hood and the cowl). Definitely corners better than the Gen 3 (no comparison). Don't know yet (seems like the 2011-2015s are ok.. that or no one's complained yet) Smaller (The floor is 3" higher and a very small bin) Depends. 0-60 is a touch slower (it is a heavier car after all) but they've improved 0-30. It feels more lively in city-type driving. The "ECO" mode in the Gen 4/Prime is similar to the "normal" mode in the Gen 3 in terms of responsiveness.
PWR mode stays on if you restart the car. It doesn't revert to Normal mode. I agree with everything you said about the gen 3 for my gen 2. I'm pretty much agreeing with everyone here. It does feel very cheap. The numbers on the Prime/gen 4 are similar or the same as the gen 3, but it is a huge difference. The doors are actually solid-feeling now. Tire noise is a problem if you have the Toyo tires. For reliability problems, the windshields on the gen 4 are cracking like crazy. That's it and I doubt much will go wrong during ownership. The new rear suspension setup is night and day difference from my gen 2 when going around a tight corner fast. PWR mode makes the car feel fast in the city, but on the highway it's still pretty slow, not dangerous. If you drive in the city often, the Prime is worth it, but if you do mostly highway driving you might be better off with the gen 4. The EV mode in the Prime is more efficient in the city. Plus, the gen 4 has the middle seat and a large trunk. Coming from an M3, you'd like the Touring trims. I do think you should make the upgrade.
Strange. There is no correlation between those features and driving fast. Were you thinking long distance travel?
Definitely for me, but my 2010 Prius was a 5, so it had 17" wheels, which are definitely louder and rougher ride. I would expect that with even 15's there would be some difference though. For instance, all the dash and cup holder rattles are gone in my Prime. I think we need to wait and find out on that, but <knock on wood>, I haven't needed any repairs yet. fwiw, I have a 70+ miles a day commute and can only charge at home, and I got 89MPG (calculated) last tank full. I get 2 weeks and 2 days between fillups, or close to 900 miles. It really does feel better driving in EV mode, but even if I don't charge, I get well over 50MPG and that is why I went with the Prime, no EV range anxiety. Trunk space is a bit less in the vertical direction, but I think the back seat might be a bit more roomy. Not sure though... From a standing stop, the Prime is better, but overall 0-60, about the same, the low end torque advantage goes away pretty fast. (when in EV Mode, in HV, it's pretty much the same all around.)