LeftieBiker said:
Just remember: no heated steering wheel, and NO ELECTRIC HEAT AT ALL. I don't drive ours in Winter. The A/C is electric in all of them, so you do have that in the (short ~10 mile range) EV mode, and can start it from the key fob. The PIP is best at getting amazing MPG in Hybrid mode, and it's also good for hauling things, with no liftover barrier in the rear.
My theory is that a PIP or Prime would work better for us for our mountains. There are decents with as much as a 2,000 or perhaps 3,000ft change. So if I had a way to assorb some of that energy and use it to go up the next hill, that should really help with fuel mileage.
I noticed that the Leaf was good at that. Every mountain we went down the SOC would go up. On the highway, I view the non-plug-in Prii like regular ICE vehicles. The hybrid system won't really be of much use. And I drive mostly on the highway, about 125 miles highway and 10 to 25 miles city. For that reason I have thought about getting just a regular non-hybrid. But oddly the Prii seem to get better fuel mileage even on the highway than anything else, except maybe a diesel Cruze. But the Cruze isn't nearly as reliable as a Prius, according to Consumer Reports. Then there's the Mitsubishi Mirage, Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, etc., which still don't get as good of fuel mileage on the highway as a Prius. But we've decided we want a family sized car like our Leaf. So we have decided to stop looking at Prius C's and stick with the normal sized Prius lineup.