Looking to buy a hybrid for a second car

That's what "unless you mostly do city driving" means.

 

When shopping for a Prius for my daughter, I looked real hard at the Prius Prime. Based on what the salesman told me, it’s a joke. 25 miles on EV on a good day. Other factors can even reduce that. He stated that it had to be plugged in regularly and could not be used like a normal hybrid without plugging in. Ended up getting g the Prius 4 which is the Non Prime version. She consistently gets 55 - 58 mpg. She is grateful she did not get the Prime for her apartment complex does not have charging stations

 

there is a 2008 matrix and a 2019 rav hybrid in our household. Only real advantage is city driving for the hybrid, but it does make spurising good power on the hwy, so that is an advantage. It will go full ev on downhills on the hwy as well so there should be some savings.
matrix is such a solid car, I love it to bits.

 

Don't know if this is part of the answer you're looking for or even how true it is but I would think some of the advantages the hybrid would pose (depending on % of when hybrid battery was active) would be things like less wear and tear and your maintenance intervals would be longer i.e. oil changes, brakes due to regenerative braking.

I don't know if you're exactly comparing apples to apples here either as I don't know what a hybrid Matrix could do since they never made one or I don't believe they use an atkinsons cycle transmission.

Obligatory, I am not an expert in hybrid systems or mechanic.

 

The hybrid Camry gets 9mpg better on the highway than the regular gas Camry, and 16mpg better in city driving. So while the advantages are magnified with city driving, Toyota hybrids are also more efficient on the highway than the gas equivalents.

 

I have a newer Rav4 Hybrid, it's been great and I average 45mpg. I can get 50 around town if I work at it a little bit.

 

obviously stirred the pot, lucky it wasn't rice. Meant to point out that there are costs to the Highbred that may not be factored into the total costs. Highbreds are probably the only choice of the future, improving daily. Just not the answer for us yet. The Chinese have EV stations that you just pull into and they change the battery pack and never have to charge with improved and updated packs but you have to subscribe to them. Most of Europe has EV and they have made it work. It is a matter of time before it happens to us. Will have to live with the future. Again buy what you want and deal with the future later.