You keep shoes for a long time! Mine tend to get holes and fall apart after a few years. From what I've seen written from car dealers, the majority of early Prius buyers were trying to make a statement about how they were saving the environment by purchasing a "green" car. As time went on, there were still folks who bought Prii to make a statement, but people also started buying them because they get really good fuel economy. And by now, they have a solid reliability history too, so they attract the environmental buyers, the MPG buyers, and the daily drivers. I think it's rather unlikely that Toyota would extend the battery warranty to encourage used car buyers. Their 8-10 year warranty has become industry standard for traction batteries and there's no reason to give themselves more liability if their competition isn't doing so. However, I do hope we'll see advances in battery technology and testing that will lead the industry to provide longer battery warrantees in general. My guess is such advances will primarily be driven by Tesla & Toyota.
While I have yet to get my Prime (Come on Toyota and start shipping to the Midwest!), I'm 33. Been wanting a Prius for over 10 years and have been saving to get one for nearly that long. Really, if there were more hyrdogen stations around the USA, not just in California, I would continue saving to get a Mirai for the environmental factor but for now it's "wait and see" if hydrogen takes off like Toyota hopes it will. I have noticed more people in the 50+ range driving a Prius while the people closer to my age are joy riding in Jeeps or wasting money on huge diesel trucks (even tho they have no reason for such a big truck as they don't haul or pull anything but I guess living in Texas is a good enough reason for them to do such a thing).
Toyota tried that with the Scion brand. I hope they do better this time around. Me, as a retired person I'm well over that demographic.
Just inside the marketing age demographic. Due to a climate change class I took that hit home, having family help purchase the Prime since my tuition is covered by scholarships, and considering I've never felt the need to drive fast I jumped on the Prime.
53, because I don't need to worry about the employees seeing it and asking for a raise, and then give it to my daughter when gets old enough.
I'm 25, looking to take advantage of the tax credit (while still available, hopefully) who needed a newer car, has high-interest student loans (but good credit) looking to take advantage of 0.9% financing and who works in manufacturing and appreciates Toyota's philosophy and build quality.
Your age will decide if you can figure out my age without looking it up. I was born almost exactly 9 months after Neil took "one small step".
Nice approach! I was born almost exactly 11 years before he took that step (within a couple days). So I'm way beyond Toyota's demographic.
I bought mine at 26. It's odd to me that Toyota has such trouble attracting younger buyers, and that Scion folded. Perhaps it just fits into the trend of younger people not buying as many cars or driving as much generally.
Just as long is they don't get their stick fingers all over the car and I don't want to find fries under the seats.
I'm approaching the completion of my 64th trip around the sun, so pretty far outside the target group. I would LOVE a Prime, but they need to come down about $20,000 first. And they will. My PiP sold new for a little over $33,000. I just bought it for a little under $13,000. So, in four years, I should be in a Prime. The reasons I drive this car are that I'm a cheapskate and an efficiency nut engineer.