Prius v wagon puzzle finally complete; Here's what we know

Oh, great. So the car I want is made but not sold in the US. Just like the Estima, but only sold in Japan. I guess I'll continue to keep my money and my current cars.

 

Those wheels on Yaris HSD look really nice!

 

other people have already countered this argument. here's another: the Mazda5 comes with a third row standard with seating for 6 "Americans". How is that model selling? Surely if there was no market for a station-wagon-size MPV, then Mazda would have taken it off the market long ago, no?

 

Interestingly, C-Max hybrid is only a 5 seater.

 

Unfortunately I cannot argue with "Prius Team". He has the power of their studying demographics and reality. The Mazda 5 is the ONLY small vehicle with a third row. I personally would like a 3rd. I almost bought a 3rd row Rav4 this year, but obviously others don't care. The only way this will change is if gas prices get so high people shed their suvs and vans and are forced to smaller vehicles.

 

Mazda sold just over 1,500 units of the Mazda5 last month. There's a market, it's just not a big one - at least not yet.

Sometimes manufacturers keep products selling in small volumes because all their fixed costs are paid for, so selling one more is just gravy.

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

 

In Canada Mazda sold 545 units, Prius 95

 

Also how much THC was sold?

 

http://media.toyota.ca/pr/tci/en/document/TCI_Month_End_Sales_Results_for_January_2011.pdf

 

If the new Prius v comes out with a 7 seat option I will definitely buy it. Without it though, right now it doesn't seem worth the extra cost and loss of MPG. Please Toyota, put in 7 seats!

 

Agreed, need 7. What demographic studies do not take into account are Prius geeks or fanatics that would replace their family car with a Prius 7 seater (or even a 6). To see the analogy of the RAV not selling well with the 7 seater is discouraging. It's not the same target market as a hybrid.

 

If Honda had a hybrid version of their best selling minivan, the Odyssey, that can get 30-35mpg avg, I would seriously consider it.

 

Is there any way to get the Prius Alpha or (+) that is over in Europe/Japan? Would the costs be ridiculous or does the US not support the different battery type?

 

CR rated Prius v excellent.

 

does anyone seriously still put any stock into CR?

 

yes


the 4 people that actually buy it

 

i have to say, i am in the .... options crowd

i can only think of maybe 4-5 times in past 4-5 years where a 7 seater would have been nice but can think of plenty of times that extra storage would have been nice.

i guess my preference would be to have the option of getting the 3rd row that is removable but how that would work, i havent a clue.

When i was a kid we had a Suburban that had the 3 row but we took it out several times to make room to haul stuff, but with anything the size of a bus, flexibility is much easier

 

The 3-row may eventually make it here, but right now they're not going to bring it. To add to the issue of limited demand it's using a lithium battery (higher cost) and for the moment they're going to prioritize the allocation of lithium batteries where it matters: for the Plug-in Prius and the Prius Alpha and +.