Sounds possible and I was also surprise that with synthetic oil that they still want a change every 5000 miles. I would have thought that pushing 10,000 would work and then it would actually be no real cost change and slightly more convenient.
BTW the extra $30 every 5000 miles for synthetic is more then offset I would say by the extremely long lasting brakes. I think all hybrids I know of have brakes rated for 100,000+.
I thought it was 10k - I’m driving a 2010 prius and I’ve been doing every 10k synthetic - my oil guy looked it up and said that is what they recommend (I assume he has an incentive to say 5 or 3, but he didn’t)
He indicated this was a change from Toyota - the tone of this thread seems to suggest 10k as well:
That makes more sense to me but the automatic dashboard alert goes on after 5k. I think I will go with 10k for now on. Especially as I am 80+% highway miles.
Here’s an alternative hybrid/nonhybrid comparer: Can a Hybrid Save Me Money?
Plug in options don’t appear to be a very good deal vs hybrid. Just a rough calculation: assuming gas at $3.3/gallon, zero electricity cost and a Prius at 50 mpg. For every $1000 additional price, that works out to 15,000 miles breakeven. Seems like quite a premium versus the hassle of always having to charge and/or range anxiety versus commuting to work for “free” if I’m in battery range. Or am I looking at this overly simplistically?
One can kinda do the same math on gas versus hybrid of course - thanks for the link Ludlow.
Plug-ins don’t appear to be a good deal yet economically even with the rebates. It would have to be social investment if you decide to go that way. I did that for solar panels on my house early on and I got lucky in an odd way. Electric cost went up as did the green credits for a while and my panels paid off in about 7 years instead of the 12 I expected.
The Prius though was easy, I crunched the numbers and found the payback was going to be pretty fast thanks to my long commute. I wouldn’t recommend the Prius as a good deal for anyone under 15k per year but at 15k miles and up it seems to be a good idea.
I would love to go plug-in but unlike solar panels that I expected to use for about 20 years, 10 years would be pushing it for a car. 8 is my own personnel record for a car.
Do you ever have 3 kids in the rear seat? This seems like the roomiest rear seat of the hybrids that I looked at.
Any other stuff you like? Dislikes beyond the My Ford Touch as you highlighted above?
The price difference between the comparably equipped C-Max hybrid and the plug-in version is, after the $3750 tax credit, under $900. I think your break even is overly optimistic but my own calculations (including electricity costs) still had it this side of 5 years. Soner if gas hikes up of course. The EPA site concurrs with my calculations. The C-Max Enegi net price is slightly cheaper than the Prius 4 and by pretty much all reviews a better appointed and better driving vehicle. It also, per the EPA calculations, saves $500 in fuel costs over the Prius over 5 years.
I don’t know what hassle you are talking about. I experience my plug-in as much less hassle. I rarely, RARELY, am having to stop off at a gas station. I hate wasting time at gas stations. All I do is plug my car in when I get home, something that takes me all of 30 seconds to do tops. Then it is ready to go fully charged in in the morning. It runs out of charge along the way because I went farther than the battery range? No problem, it works just fine as a regular hybrid. It works sweet in fact. I am displacing more gas use and saving more money if I actually just hit the range or a bit beyond each day. My road trip from Chicago to the Jersey shore to Maine and home again, and several other trips looking at colleges with my 18 year old earlier in the year? No problem doing that on gas with charging only while at my mother-in-law’s in Jersey. (Although to be sure travelling over 70 mph with a rooftop carrier full of a college boy’s stuff, a two bike rack on the back, and a carload of people my mpg was not the mid 40s I typically get on gas about town.) I have no hassle and no range anxiety. I have less time wasted at the gas station is all. I love that.
The Volt btw is, after the tax credit and its recent price drop, even cheaper than the C-Max Energi, and has substantially more EV only range. It just doesn’t fit 3 in the back and has a smallish gas tank that needs premium. The C-Max’s seating is spacious for 3 in the back and has a big tank that takes regular.
Not yet. Don’t have any kids, but the dogs seem happy back there!
I like the smooth and very quiet shifting between battery/EV and engine. So subtle. It rides very smoothly and accelerates well. No problem with fast merge onto a freeway. It handles like a sports car, especially compared to the sedan I drove previously. Feels very roomy inside. I don’t feel cramped at all.
The only thing I can think of as far as being less than thrilled, is the reduced trunk size. The battery takes up quite a bit of space and creates an oddly-shaped shelf. They did compensate for that somewhat by making the back seat flip down easily in case you need extra room.
It’s really a fun car to drive and quite comfortable.
The best part is being able to go a long way on a tank of gas!
What would the gas mileage be like for a round trip 76 mile commute? I understand only a short part would be on electric only, so any guess as to the overall mileage?
You can say that again - not about the heater, which I hardly use, but I drive mostly freeway and get 32 MPG (still better than the 24 I was getting on my non-hybrid Camry).
The only thing I don’t like about it is, because of the electric battery location, you can’t put anything in the trunk that sticks out into the rear seats of the car, so you’re limited in what you can put into the car.
The numbers make pretty much zero sense in my case. I bought it to basically stick it to the oil companies in a small way. The car is now between 2-3 years old and I think I have a total of 5,000 miles on it. My average speed between fill-ups is 12mph. 
When I do take it out on the freeway, I get something around 55mpg, however. The low speeds in town make for only about 35-37mpg, but it sure beats the SUV I traded in on it. I guess a vehicle that can run only on electric while in town would be a better bet for me, and I’ve considered the Focus, but I’m a bit leery of Ford products.
My Pruis is a 2008 with 83,000 miles. I think I paid $23,000 for it.
I get 47 MPG all the time and can get up to 54 if I drive nicely, which I usually don’t. I have driven it as fast as 110 out in west Texas, but mostly go about 72 on the highway. I have experienced the vibration problem mentioned above, but only when driving fast on the highway and rolling all the windows down, which I hardly ever do. I was trying to blow some dust out of the car.
Once my husband ran it out of gas (how he missed the alerts I will never know) but managed to use some hills to get just enough battery to get to town and then coast in to a gas station. The battery-only life is fairly short, but recharges quickly. The car is heavy and doesn’t coast much.
I have the oil changed every 5,000 miles, when the reminder light goes on. I go to my local Jiffy Lube and the oil change is $40.00. I usually spend more though because I get whatever filter change is recommended and have the tires rotated or/or the wiper blades replaced. I quit going to the dealer for these things because they just take too long. Jiffy Lube always forgets how to turn off the reminder light, so I printed the instructions out and put them in the glove box.
I have never looked under the hood of the car for any reason (except twice, once when I bought it and once when a guy asked me for a jump and I opened the hood to show him I didn’t have a battery, so couldn’t help him. I know where the battery is, I just didn’t want to give him a jump).
I’ve been very pleased with the car- low maintenance, low gas use, everything works as it should. It fits my spouse and three late teen-aged kids OK. I will also carry a full-sized upright bass in a soft case, plus the stool the player sits on, without difficulty once the back seats are laid down.
I had the car for about 2 months when it was swamped in a flash flood while I was on a trip out of town.
I had to open the doors to let the water out and scooped the foot well water out with the little cups from the hotel. The foot wells are surprisingly deep! After the water receded and the car was mostly drained, it started up just fine. I drove it to a car wash and sucked the rest of the water out. Since it seemed to run OK (although every error light was lit up), I decided to drive it to my home city for repair and clean up. The dealership fixed it right up and I have never had single a problem with it.
I like this car very much and am considering passing it down to one of my teens and buying a new one for myself.
There are a couple of things I don’t like:
the break in the view through the rear window caused by the rear/hatchback door. You do get used to this pretty quickly, though. Just kinda weird.
and that it lurches sometimes when shifting between gas and battery. I don’t notice this any more until someone points it out to me but for any other car, one might wonder if the transmission were slipping or something.
it makes a lot of strange noises- clicks, whirs, hums. I also ignore this now, but it did take some getting used to.
I don’t know much about cars and don’t really wish to. I don’t want to change my own oil or replace any parts. I’m not handy or mechanical and don’t enjoy fixing things. So far, this car has been perfect for me.
Gas mileage will depend on speed and outside temp. If you need to run the heater when you turn the car on (as it was explained to me, so grain of salt and all that) your mileage will suffer. Some people leave the heater off and warm up using the seat warmers until the engine is warm, then turn on the car heater.
At higher speeds (60-65 and over) you’re running mainly on engine. But it’s a 4 cylinder, so not a gas guzzler. When you’re cruising under 60 or so, the battery takes over and you aren’t burning gasoline. I’ve needed to do a lot of freeway driving lately, at around 70 MPH, so my MPG is a bit lower; around 36 MPG.
Thanks for the answer. That is about what I expected. It looks like those of us that put 15000+ per year on a car are still best off with the Prius family of cars. I do 20k annually and mostly average 74 mph on the highways. 51 miles per day highway and then another 19 on multi-lane local highways doing stop and go hitting 65 mph but averaging 50. The last bit is local roads and slower.
I do wish the driver’s area had just a little more leg room. That is my only real complaint with my Prius.
DSied, definitely going to test drive the c-max energi this weekend. I had somehow missed the federal tax rebate when comparing prices. I do like the idea of being able to commute, go to the store and the basics on electric only. The grade assist does look cool - just hit the button and no longer worry about going too fast.
Do you use a regular outlet and plug at home? Did you even notice a change in your electric bill? Note: I was thinking hassle in that I can park in a more remote garage at work and get free charging. Point taken on needing to fill the tank infrequently
Range anxiety was in reference to the Leaf. Obviously, don’t have that with a hybrid. 
One more question: what about your back seat experience? I’ve got 3 girls aged 13, 9 and 9, so that’s going to be a change from the mini van
Note that Consumer Reports released its reliability rankings for cars earlier this week. The Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid had the worst performance.
I use the regular outlet with the charging unit it came with. No change noticable in my electric bill. We though have crazy low rates in my town. Some bundling deal.
Free charging is nice when you can get it; I see no point in pay charging for this car. One neat bonus was parking at the lot inside Navy Pier here in Chicago … not only was there free charging available, it was in a prime for EV only parking spot on a day when the lot was otherwise jammed!
The back seat was what sold this car to me over the Volt: it is spacious for three. (I have three adult children, counting the in college kid and a 12 year old and the adult kids do visit town.) The storage behind the back seat takes a hit from the battery pack though. Fine for my needs and I would have needed to use the rooftop carriere for the college trip even if it was bigger. Getting the older brother back from his college with just the two of us driving was no problem with the rear seats down without the rooftop carrier, albeit I was filled to capacity. Back seats down has also been ample for taking my two greyhounds and whippet to the vet and the boarders. But still, the Prius V has more room behind those seats. For some that matters a lot.
My biggest gripe is the decreased EV only range in Chicago winters and that the ICE comes on if I need to defrost. And once the EV port cover froze over. Not an issue for your region.
And agreed with the analysis that the plug-in hybrids are best suited for those who have a majority of their typical daily commutes covered by the range. 100 miles a day typical? Many long road trips? Better off with a slightly more efficient hybrid sans the extra battery weight.
My electric rates aren’t any higher since I got my Volt (in fact, they’re lower, but I also got more efficient heat pumps and appliances last year)
SeaTac Airport gives us free charging and priority parking too!
My sense is that the CU reports are biased by the horrible record of the MyFordTouch. Otherwise there is not enough data to say anything on a car that is just out a year, if that.