My wife had a 2010 Prius until June of this year. She had plenty of opportunities to change (upgrade?) vehicles, but she loved that car and literally wept when it had a disagreement with a FedEx truck at 140k miles. She used it mostly for local driving (within 25 miles or so of home), and she got a very consistent 50mpg.
We took it on a 700-mile trip back to the East coast one Christmas, however, and we hit snow and ice. Even through it had winter tires, it was a nightmare trip as it was buffeted by the wind and had difficulty tracking slippery conditions. After that, we were always nervous about driving a vehicle with such a focus on weight-savings, and we avoided using it on any high-speed, high-traffic roads where car-to-car contact could be deadly. That said, the passenger cell survived intact during the FedEx truck collision, and no one was hurt.
She insisted on another hybrid as a replacement, but she wanted one that was a little taller and heavier, and that could be a practical solution for road trips.
We started out looking at Mazda CX-90 plug-in hybrids because I've had a CX-9 since 2018 and it's been very reliable as well as good-looking inside and out, practical, and one of the best-handling 3-row SUVs. It's beautiful inside, and a relative bargain. We researched the PHEV version's well-documented reliability challenges thoroughly, and became comfortable with the warranty coverage. Even the preowned versions that had a year or two and 25k on them seemed to have gotten past the reliability hurdles. We liked the plug-in fuel efficiency, which would accommodate better than 50% of my wife's "running around," and the long-distance mpg, while not outstanding, was adequate. In the end, she decided against it simply because she thought it was a bit too big for 90% of her needs.
We looked at and drove small-to-midsize hybrids from Mazda, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Kia, Hyundai, Lexus, Acura, and Subaru. We did not drive Volvo.
She ended up buying a Kia Sportage hybrid with the "Prestige" trim package because she decided that, for her, the most important factors were pragmatism, ownership costs, mpg, and comfort. The Sportage traditional hybrid was acceptable in terms of appearance inside and out and reasonably comfortable. It is absolutely loaded with convenience and safety features, and it claimed 38 mpg overall. Above all, it is a bargain, coming in at 65%-80% of some of the alternatives, with equally economical maintenance costs. I did not (and do not) feel that its ride and handling was on the level of the Mazdas or BMWs, but it didn't seem to bother her and it's her car. In the six weeks she has had the car, it has averaged 38.4 mpg over 1,400 miles.
All that said, I would have chosen the Volvo XC60. While I don't think that Consumer Reports does a good job of capturing the "soul" and other intangibles of products, I do trust their analysis of the "nuts-and-bolts." Their summary of the XC60 PHEV is as follows: "Volvo's most popular model is the XC60, a five-passenger luxury SUV with an elegant, well-finished interior. The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) version, badged “Recharge,” elevates the experience considerably, thanks to the ability to drive on electric power for an EPA-estimated 35 miles. And, because the whopping 455 horsepower it has on tap provides tremendously quick acceleration. Unfortunately, like the rest of the XC60 line, the Recharge suffers from super distracting, convoluted controls and a stiff ride." She wanted a plusher ride, so we didn't put it on her list. Consumer Reports also lists the XC60's reliability as "about average."
