Any Prius owners here?

[grey]

Eventually my Jeep Cherokee of 17 years is going to die. For years I have had no idea what to replace her with, but haven't liked any of the cars I saw on the road.
Yesterday I test drove several cars. A lot of 'meh, it's ok' - nothing exciting even though at this point, I can't lock my jeep doors when it is cold, the buzzer to tell me I left my lights on is dead, there is no cupholder and my radio is also dead. You'd think something with a little better gas mileage and interior lights that work and integrated phone system and doesn't make you shout to carry on a conversation would be enough. I was happy to get back into my Heep. Not worth the expense to me.

Then yesterday, I tried a 3rd gen Prius. I am in LOVE. I suddenly understand how someone can spontaneously buy a car. I was tempted!

Does anyone have a prius? Can it be fitted with a roof rack, or what kind of trunk-style bike carrier is needed?

[OakLeaf]

I don't have a rack for my second-gen Prius, but I've seen all kinds of racks on them.

Hitch mount is probably the easiest for removal/installation - you definitely want to be able to take the rack off and on easily, because even without bikes loaded it will really eat into your gas mileage. Some racks flip down so you can open the hatch without removing them. But then you have the expense of installing a receiver that you won't be able to use for anything else.

Trunk mount is least expensive and I've seen a number of Saris Bones and similar racks. But they're a hassle to install and remove, potentially scratch the finish, and you can't get to the hatch while they're on.

Even rooftop racks might interfere with your ability to open the hatch, just because the roof area of a Prius is so short. I've seen people with roof racks with really long rails.

How many bikes might you be transporting, and how particular are you about how they're carried? One bike fits easily in the trunk area. Two can be stacked with a blanket between them and IMO they're just as safe that way as they are outside the car, exposed to rocks and debris thrown from your wheels or other vehicles.

[grey]

It looked like the cargo space was large enough for me to lay my baby down inside - I do that now with my Jeep and feel like it's pretty secure (since my bike is worth three times what my heep is worth LOL) but I wanted to bring the bike with me before signing on the dotted line to test that out. Thankfully the sales guy didn't look at me strange for saying that.

Now I just have to decide on when I should make the purchase. We never want two car payments - DH still has about 18 months to go on his Tundra (work vehicle) but at the same time, I shelled out $150 on gas for the Jeep this week. Thankfully that isn't every week but I do average about $300-400/month in gas - which might as well be a payment.

[ny biker]

I have a 2nd Gen Prius that I bought in 2007. I love it. It does everything I need a car to do. With the rear seats down (they fold flat), it holds a lot of stuff in back. Even with the seats up, there's good cargo space. And the Gen 3s are a little larger.

I keep my bike inside the car on it's side. You can leave the front wheel on, but it's easier to handle if you take the wheel off. Sometimes when my friend is visiting we'll put two bikes in the car, with a blanket in between as Oak said. We haven't had any problems doing that, and there's still enough room for the rest of our gear.

If you search the Priuschat.com forum I'm sure you'll find more comments on how people transport bikes (and various other things). In fact you'll find more information than you can possibly use.

BTW when I test drove my car, my biggest worry was acceleration on hills and highway on ramps, so before I went to the dealer I planned a route where I could really test it out. By the time I was done, I was telling the salesman who with me how much I loved the car. Of course that was not a good tactic for negotiating price, but I just couldn't help myself.

[Thorn]

I drive a 3rd gen Prius; DH drives a 2nd gen. As Oakleaf says, racks will eat your gas mileage. Wind tunnel testing doesn't just apply to cyclists.

We used the Saris bones without issue (well, except the 10% hit on gas mileage) for quite a while when we transported 2 bikes. Then we met a couple putting two bikes into the back of their Prius at a ride and watched them stack the bikes. It is quite doable and goes pretty quick.

That said, we discovered one major disadvantage of the Prius now that we're full-time bike commuters. The Prius is an electronic vehicle and it is always "on" looking for you to come back, open the doors and start it up. All that electronics is driven by the itty-bitty battery in the trunk.

The little battery also needs enough juice to start up all of the computerized components. Once the electronics are on, the big batteries take over. However, if you don't drive the car for a while, the little battery goes dead. And, despite having the big battery array, your car won't start.

Since we can go 2-3 weeks without driving either car in the summer, we've learned to trickle charge the cars and now keep a schedule as to which went out last so we reduce the problem.

But, really, it is a nice car. And your bike will fit in the hatch just fine.

[ny biker]

You can turn the smart key system off so that the car won't keep sending the signal "looking" for it. I did that when I left the car at the airport for a week in September. It's an easy button press, and you press the same button once you're in the car to turn the SKS back on.

[ScaldedCat]

My Dad has a 2009 Prius, he loves it. You get them quite a bit cheaper in the U.S the base price here is around £21,050 around $33,000.

[GLC1968]

I had a 2005 (I think that's a 2nd gen?) Prius for awhile. It was ok, but I didn't love it. That said, if you drove a car and loved it immediately, that's a really good sign that it's a good car for you! (kind of like bikes, right?)

I will say that YES, a hitch rack will destroy your mileage. We drove across the country in February in two cars a few years ago. I drove the Prius, my husband drove our Matrix and both were similarly loaded up. We put the hitch rack and bikes on the Prius figuring that it would only hurt the mileage enough to allow us to both fill up at about the same time. We were wrong. The Prius mileage with the rack (and two bikes on it) dropped from a winter hwy average of about 44 mpg to about 36 mpg. And I was terrified that it wouldn't make it over the continental divide past Denver! The battery was down to 1 bar even though it was running on the gas engine at the time and I'd never seen that before! What happens when that last bar disappears? Eek!

Anyway, we pulled over at an Ace hardware, bought a socket wrench and moved the bike rack to the Matrix. Matrix mileage dropped from an average of 33 mpg to about 30 mpg - even with the rack on it. We think it's because of the shape of the Matrix (it kicks up a bit in the rear where the Prius slopes down). This was a big reason why we eventually kept the Matrix and sold the Prius the following year.

Anyway, if you are buying a Prius for the gas mileage (particularly highway), then do NOT put a rack on it. If you are buying it because you love driving it, then don't worry about it. Even with a rack on it, mpg will be better than your Cherokee anyway.

[Thorn]

You can turn the smart key system off so that the car won't keep sending the signal "looking" for it. I did that when I left the car at the airport for a week in September. It's an easy button press, and you press the same button once you're in the car to turn the SKS back on.

Yep...that disables the primary drain, but not all. Turns out the only way to disable all of the draining apps is to unplug the battery. Normally, never an issue. Heck, I would never even have known there was more than just the key system if I didn't leave my car alone for so long.

Likewise, DH has a very short, freeway-less commute. Turns out that all short trips are also bad for the small battery. The Prius needs 20 minutes uninterrupted driving every 2-3 weeks to fully recharge the little battery.

Hmmm...on the one hand, doing short-haul trips by bike is compatibile with the Prius, but not doing any long haul trips is incompatibile....ah...really we should just get rid of one of the cars, but I can't yet.

[smilingcat]

I like my Prius. I have no clue as to which generation it is. I think its 2010 model. I like the fact that when I pull into a gas station "filler up" only takes few minutes and less than 9 gallons later, the tank is filled. I pull into the station after some SUV is in filling up and I leave before the SUV has filled up.

Yes, the little battery drained to a point where the electronics didn't work. Dash boards blinked. radio didn't work, the electronic transmission blinking and did funny thing. Never did engage so that was good. I was horrified when it happened. OMG, I hate all this electronic stuff. The car is literally dead and I thought OMG $$$ to repair a low milage Prius... Luckily, the little battery needed a recharge.

My bicycle fits in easily inside. And I try to drive like one of those super milage people. I normally get over 50MPG.

Interior noise on freeway is tad loud. But then again, I'm comparing to my previous car which was an Audi A6 Avante Quattro. Prius doesn't feel any cheaper than the A6 with the exception of noise.

[ny biker]

I haven't had any unusual problems with either battery. The one that's part of the hybrid system (with the charge shown on the display) is managed by the car. It just runs on 100% gas engine if it's low.

The other battery, which is like the one every car has, died on me last May. But I think I left the lights on in the car, and it was a couple of days before I used it again so they were on for a while in very hot weather. It was easy enough to recharge.

There are something like 16 different computers in the car that are maintained by the battery while the ignition is off. But they're not related to they hybrid transmission -- they work things like the lights and smart key. I assume more and more cars will have that many computers as time goes on.

The thing I like least is probably the gas tank. It's a flexible bladder (part of a design to prevent gas fumes from escaping while you're filling the tank). In cold temps the bladder is less flexible so it doesn't take as many gallons when you fill it up. This hasn't caused any real problems for me, because gas stations are common enough around here, but it makes it hard to estimate how far you can go on a tank of gas.

Also the gas gauge is not linear. It's 10 LCD rectangles on the dashboard, but each one does not represent 1/10 of the tank. In the summer I might go 100 miles before the first pip disappears, but in winter it's more like 30-50 miles. And you don't really know how much gas is left when you're down to one pip.

But I would still buy another Prius in a heartbeat.

[grey]

Thanks everyone! Looks like I found my next car. Now I just have to decide when to go get her :-)
And then she'll need a name.