Awesome. Thanks. I was thinking I would be spending about 6000 on the lease and then I can buy the car for about 15000 plus tax and license after. So it may be worth the while to do that.
However, the C is sometimes not considered a “real” prius? BEcause of its smaller engine and the battery is now next to the engine. Is that a plus or a minus? I don’t know.
And yes, its basically a YARIS.
They are pushing the C here on a cheap lease, maybe because it isn’t sellling as well as they hoped?
Or Toyota doesn’t want Fiat to have all the fun with the very successful 500 here in Calif. And the C seems to be able to compete wiht the Fiat (by exceeding it in value), where the Yaris was unable. The Yaris couldnt compete wiht the very successful Honda Fit either. I would’ve gotten the Fit but it didnt have a cheap lease program. Because I figured the Fit would last 15 years and be cheap to run and fix being a Honda, and not have a giant cost of a hybrid battery replacement in its future.
Well I got two years to make up my mind if i want to keep the thing
Surprising it drives pretty good. Enjoyable to drive. And powerful enough. Need to kick it in the butt to get it up to freeway speeds, but once up there it can cruise fairly quietly and efficiently at 75 to 80mph. I dont drive much faster then 70 to 75 anyway so thats fine.
And it can take our steep hills so far with only two people.
So its surprisingly good. I actually enjoy driving it now over my 12 year old Acura RSX. Course thats probably because the Acura is a stick and i hate stick shift now. And a new car is a new car !!
edit: The battery is under the rear seat, not in the engine bay as I thought. The drive motor is in the engine bay next to the gas engine. Good place for it ! Its not lithium (whew), but apparently Toyota wants to start using Lithium batteries. To save space and get more power. But I don’t trust those things. They have tended to catch fire. Pretty bad if its under your butt in the rear seat and it catches fire!
Apparently the current battery lasts for 10 plus years and costs in todays dollars about 3000 plus installation (not sure how much installation costs, maybe not much).
Can be had for less then a 1000 from “some” sources apparently.
So its not like a Tesla battery , which apparently can costs as much as 30,000 dollars !