Quote Originally Posted by OakLeaf View Post
No answers (don't want to let my Prius snobbery show y'know ), but some more questions that you didn't mention -

:: you don't want to put the seat down to transport the PDs if you don't have to. Why not? Do you usually have more than two people in the car? The back seat on my Prius (and on the two Subarus I owned before it) basically stays down permanently. Can your dogs stand comfortably in the Prius? If they're crated in the car, do their crates fit equally well in both cars?

:: you say the MPG advantage of the Prius "disappears" when you put bikes on top, but if you get 30 mpg out of the Prius with bikes on top, that's still got to be better than you get in the Matrix with bikes on top. Last I put bikes on top of a small car was quite a while ago, but it would normally take 25-30% out of the gas mileage on my '87 Duster.

:: gas prices aren't going anywhere but up. They're not making any more of it.

:: If the Matrix is a 49 state car, then there's emissions to consider as well, since the Prius is a 50 stater.

:: what do you tow, and how often? Is it worth keeping a car just for its towing capacity, or might you rent a truck when you need one?

I wouldn't be concerned about "unknown battery issues." It's just a NiMH battery, that's old tech, and it's got a 10 year warranty on it. Worst case, if the hybrid battery should die, you're not stranded, because you've still got the gas engine.
To answer your questions -

Both crates will not fit in the Prius. When we travel, the dogs are not crated, but it's much easier to keep them in the far back allowing for luggage on the seats and us in the front. This is not possible in the Prius (I wish it were!)

Actually, the bikes go on the back of the car (hitch rack) not on top. When we put them there on the Prius, milage dropped 18 mpg highway. When we put them there on the Matrix, which has less of a sloping back, it only drops about 3 mpg highway. That's a huge discrepancy.

I agree about the gas prices! Of course, the plan is to drive either car we keep very little...

I'm not sure what a 49 state car means, but we have no more plans to move. We've done enough of that in our lifetimes already!

The only towing we'll do is when we have to pick up or move large loads for the house (we do a lot of work ourselves). So far, we've been able to fit everything we've ever needed into the Matrix - so it may not be an issue anyway. Oh, that's another benefit to the Matrix - the rear window opens so if we do have to pick up something (like a 15 ft ladder) we can stick it out the window for a short trip. This is also not possible on the Prius.

Yeah, the battery is no big deal. My only concern is that we know the history of the Matrix and every single mile on it, we put there. The Prius we've only had for the last 10K of the total 60K, so that's a lot of unknown history. No big deal when it's the second car but it makes me a little bit wary being our only car. Plus, heaven forbid we have to work on the car ourselves - we can do that on a Matrix...not so much on a Prius.


I totally hear you and I'd rather keep the Prius. My stomach turns when I think about not having my own car for 'emergencies'....but more and more, I feel like it's just not the logical choice. If we were choosing between a Jeep that gets 20 mpg and the Prius, it would make sense. The difference between the two in mpg is just not enough to justify keeping it when the Matrix fits our uses better. Ugh...I hate admitting that.