This seems to have become a battle between Diesel and Prius.
I don't own a Prius but i like them for how they drive, silent silky smooth take off which is very controllable making tight manoeuvering and traffic a pleasure..you have to feel carefully for the engine to fire up such is the refinement of the drive, the most economical Diesel auto's have some form of automated clutch hell box and in traffic/manoeuver are quite unpleasant.
I wouldn't buy one to belt up the motorway, and comparing them with Diesels purely on motorway or main road thrashing is not realistic for the majority of people who buy them (as against company car thrashers).
I've been keeping an eye on various Toyota forums and one Prius specific forum and some of them in taxi use have attained huge mileages without serious problems, so far the batteries seem to be holding their own.
To be honest i don't know how much a set of batteries would cost (does anyone, can you get aftermarket?), but if they last 7 or 8 years which they seem to do then should a set cost £2k, that compares quite well with likely repair costs for the average Diesel over the same period...DMF/clutch/DSG repair and any other costs...the Diesel may not need them however, indeed some here cover hundreds of thousands of miles without ever encountering a problem, but some don't and the costs to fix modern Diesels can be eye watering.
I will seriously consider a Prius 3, but i shall be researching further the whole life costs of running one.
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