Glad to help! The practical side of me prefers the Prius C but the emotional side just likes the "feel" of the Fit! Good luck with your decision, you should definitely test drive both.

 

Thanks for sharing! I'm hoping to get a blue one myself.

 

Great pics! I would be interested to see the Fit compared to the Prius C; those are the two cars I was interested in. I also want to get the Aegean Blue in an EX. Thanks.

 

@amy - Just saw your comparison and the pics for the Fit and Prius C. Many thanks. The other thing I found out about the 2014 Prius C is that it does not have a rear camera. I really want a rear camera, so I'm inclined toward the Fit. But I still look at the MPG of a hybrid 50 mpg vs. 35 mpg of the Fit. I wish they would come out with a hybrid Fit EX in the US with the Android Autolink! Then the car would have the styling and the MPG to boot!

 

The question is how much is 50MPG worth to you?

At $4.00/gallon it amounts to $340 per 10,000miles. If you drive only 10,000 miles a year, it will take you many, many years and probably more than one hybrid battery, before you will make back the cost difference between a Prius C and a comparably equipped Fit.

Then the question is, are you willing to sacrifice cargo room, passenger comfort, and driving performance all in the quest for 50MPG. For some achieving the number is more important than the costs.

 

These are important factors to look at. But if
You look at the MSRP of the Prius C, it's not as far off of the Fit's as maybe you're thinking. Not to mention that I didn't pay anywhere close to MSRP for the Prius C. So cost is almost a non-factor.

But good points to really look into. We considered the regular Prius in addition to the Fit, but the additional cost of the regular Prius broke even with the Fit's additional fuel cost. The Prius C is cheaper yearly than the Fit for us, even if we had gotten the fully loaded Prius C that would have costed the same or a little less than the fully loaded fit, so same or lower payment and way more mpg. But yep, less features.

 

Excellent point you've made!

I don't drive that many miles each year, nor do I tend to keep my cars for very long. I went over to Fuel Economy and ran my personalized numbers. Assuming about a $3000 difference between both cars equipped the way I'd like them (per the manufacturer's "build it yourself" websites), it would take me about 12 years to make up the difference in cost with the fuel savings of the Prius C over the Fit. If gas prices go up significantly that number comes down, but still... Wow!

 

Woah... where are you getting a 3k difference from similarly equipped? Also, you will NOT pay anywhere near MSRP for the Prius C. I payed a full ~$600 less than MSRP for my Prius C. And you can expect to pay full MSRP for the 2015 Fit as you already know.

2014 Prius C MSRPs
One- 19890 (similar to Fit LX 17115)
Two- 20840 (somewhere between Fit LX and EX 19025)
Three- 22575 (like Fit EX without moonroof, but it does have Navi)
Four- 24,170 (like Fit EX-L with Navi 21595 just SofTex instead of real leather. It feels cooler to the touch.)

Like I said, getting $500 or $600 off one of the upper trims should be no problem. I barely haggled at all and got that.

But yes, if you barely drive then I would be confused why anyone like that would be interested in a hybrid anyway. You buy a hybrid for the mpgs. It costs a little more but even if you commute at least a half hour each way in the city an inexpensive hybrid should pay off after a couple years.

Best way to see if the additional money is worth it for you is just literally look at your gas bills and figure out in a month what amount of gas you're averaging. then calculate how much you'll pay in gas for the 2 cars your considering and how much each one costs. Then compare. Voila, you can find out which one is cheaper for you!

 

Prius C Three with sunroof and alloy wheels, with delivery fees is $23,815
Honda Fit Ex with CVT, with delivery fees is $19,025.

That's almost a $5000 difference, but I also assumed a discount on the Prius...

 

Also keep in mind the Prius C Three has built in Navi, and in the Fit, that is "worth" 1k. If you don't add the optional sunroof then it is much more reasonable. We went no sunroof since really, most people who have one barely use it if at all. The navi I use all the time, at least once a week minimum. We did add the wheels. Also the Prius C three has auto A/C which is nice. But yes, you pay some more and lose some features.

But you mentioned before you don't drive that many miles, so probably a hybrid isn't for you since you buy a hybrid for mpgs- miles per gallon. You just need more miles in the equation for it to be worth it. We love having the Prius C and the Fit so we can choose based on the needs/wants that day!!

 

Now that would be the IDEAL solution!



For my driving I really don't need the navigation, but I do want both the sunroof and wheels on my next car.

I like both cars, but the it seems the Fit is going to make more sense for me from a logical perspective. I appreciate the insights I've gained from this thread - thoughts going in directions that I didn't anticipate.

BTW, I think BOTH your cars look great, Amy!

 

Hi Amy,
Have you compared Prius with Fit? Wondering how does Fit compares with regular Prius. I am also trying to understand hip room and shoulder room spec differences on Honda website for Fit.
Thanks

 

Hi,

I have not compared very deeply and will not, because the regular Prius starts at over $25,000. So it starts at almost $10,000 more than the Fit starts at. You can negotiate it down some though. Our driving is enough to justify the Prius C but not enough to justify the thousands more we'd pay for the Prius. And I would not be happy with the base model so the cost difference is just too great to be worth it for me.

I do like the Prius, though, and for a person who does extensive driving it would be well worth it! Might want to wait a bit if you can, all new design coming out in 2015.

 

Still several months away from purchasing a new car, but I keep coming back to the Prius C/Fit comparison...

I'm curious, Amy, what kind of gas mileage you're getting now that you've had the Fit for a while, and how it compares to what you get driving the Prius C?

Thanks!

 

I think a lot of people don't actually do the math when considering the difference in acquisition cost between a hybrid and normal car. I did the following analysis for a friend who was considering a Prius liftback.

Besides the obvious reasons (style, speed, comfort, practicality, environmental concern [Prius are actually terrible for the environment NiMh batteries come from where again?]) I went ahead and analyzed the cost to own a base model Prius from the prospect of someone who only values cost of operation and vehicle reliability vs a brand new top-of-the line Corolla (which are pretty damn nice now).

While the Prius does get an impressive 50 real-world MPG, the Corolla gets a still-impressive 33 mpg and costs $4,000 less. So how long does it take for the Prius to recap that difference in initial value? Assuming you have a 70 mile daily commute and 20 miles of weekend driving (far more than most people) it would take a shocking 70 months (that's nearly 6 years) for the Prius to EQUAL the Corolla in overall cost. What if you only drive 20 miles a day though, like a normal person? Well then it takes, wait for it, 215 months for the Corolla and Prius to equal out in terms of operational cost. Yes, that's 18 YEARS of driving a Prius just to recap your $4,000.

Bottom line, if you want a cheap reliable car, buy a cheap reliable car, not an expensive car pretending to be a cheap car.

 

For some it isn't so much about saving money as it is about conserving natural resources...