2012 Prius v Starts at $26,400; Coming late October

Re: New Prius v info & pricing

Is there any sort of info on a specified release date on these?

 

Re: New Prius v info & pricing

He told me they'd be getting vehicles Nov 1. No guarantee of which one or accessories, but slowly streaming in starting then.

 

With interest (0%) the Mazda 5 will cost about $21k. With interest (5.99%) the Prius v will cost about $31k.

At 15k miles per year and $3.65/ga it will take him 10 years to make up the difference in cost excluding inflation.

Unless Toyota does 0% financing or the government provides incentives, this is a miss for a large number of families that will keep guzzling gas and buying older generation products. The pricing is a big miss in my opinion.

 

Excluding inflation, opportunity cost and resale value.

However, sadly, Mazda only sell 2,000 mazda5s per month. But, I don't think they'll take many sales from that anyway because the people buying it in the USA will be using the utility it offers.

I think they're really going after the crossover market and small SUV market, where Toyota's RAV4 and Venza are doing nothing. They'll also put a serious dent in the SportWagen TDI (which sells about 1,000 per month), if only because of VW's reliability record.

 

rav4 is doing nothing? heh, rav4 is one of the best selling toyota's worldwide... and it sells great in usa, pre-quake where they were left without cars due to shortage of rollover chips.

Prius v seems to be priced quite well compared to prius.

 

My wife and I will probably end up buying a Honda fit instead ($15,000 msrp vs $26.4k). $11,000 is a lot of money to make up in gas. Actually in real world driving the 5 speed Fit averages about 35 mpg. Assuming I average about 45 with the Prius v I wonder how long it would take to make up the price difference in gas. lol.

 

Or you could buy a used Fit for $9k and pocket $6k. $6k buys a lot of gas and maintenance.

Going Prius to Prius v, it seems like there is a pretty small bump in price. A Prius Three with nav is $27,200. The v Three (with nav) is $27,100 (before destination, I expect). That seems completely reasonable to me.

 

The v and the Fit are very different. The regular Prius is closer to the Fit. The upcoming C may be even closer (and it should be much cheaper).

 

I agree. You cannot compare the v to the Fit. They are entirely two different cars. The v is MUCH MUCH larger and better equipped with comfort and technology features. If all you care about is fuel economy and price then you are better off with a Fit or a Ford Fiesta. If you want cargo and seating room plus a more plush interior then look at the Prius II or III.

 

As F8L says above (and put another way . . . )
You can call the Honda Fit's mileage "35mpg real world" 'till the cows come home. EPA blended mpg between highway and city for the (stick shift) Fit is 31mpg & 29mpg for the automatic. And the Fit a compact. Even the regular Gen III is bigger ... being a mid sized sedan ... heck ... even the Gen II is bigger. So the Prius v is bigger still. But if you want to save even more $$ and get high mpg's you can get a used Honda 750 . . . . . ok it's a weird comparison . . . . but no weirder then comparing the Prius v to the Fit. Nothing wrong with buying a compact. Just sayin' ... you're comparing well equipped mid sized sedan-apples to compact stick shift-oranges.

 

That doesn't make any sense. You understand that the V is not in the same size class, don't you? Why would anyone cross shop a Prius V with a Fit instead of another similar sized vehicle?
Kind of like cross shopping an Avalon with a Corolla.
It doesn't make sense to get a Prius V even compared to a standard Prius unless you need the extra cargo space and rear leg room.

 

Yea, get the $15k Fit and save yourself $13k instead of getting the $28k Odyssey.

 

BTW, did anyone catch the model designation on the Prius v? Is it still a ZVW something?

I totally forgot to check on all the cars. I'd imagine that the regular 2012 Prius should remain ZVW30 since it was just a minor refresh...

 

Fit should actually be a sub-compact.

We have a Fiesta and a Prius and there is no way we could go smaller than the Prius for our "family" car. The Fiesta is an excellent commuter car and I consistently beat EPA city for a pretty much all city commute. My last tank was 38mpg with a 90mi highway trip and the other 300 miles local commuting.

Again though...lack of space. When we take a trip the Prius trunk is fully loaded, if we take a day trip the Fiesta trunk is fully loaded. We are a family of 3.

 

... yes, I didn't want to sound too adversarial (one of my rare moments ) . . . so I didn't go there. But now that you've gone and oiled my chain - ok then . . . there's the whole Toyota vs Honda reliability thing:
Honda to recall 97,000 Fit subcompact cars - Feb. 17, 2011
I'm not saying the Prius v won't have any recalls . . . but heck it WOULD be a whole lot easier to push the Fit off to the side of the road.


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I haven't had the luxury of seeing a V in person, but based on the pics, I am disappointed in the rear hatch size. One of the major pluses in the Prius is the hatchback-style opening and the access it provides to what cargo space is available. It makes that limited cargo space considerably more usable (and, for me, is one of the main reasons our second prius was purchased). Volume is volume, but that hatch increases considerably "available volume", if you will. (I have the same beef with the 200h, but that's a different thread.)

Will the V offer/support any kind of towing package? Perhaps it is unrealistic, but it would provide true competition with SUV/Crossovers.

 

In addition to what Tideland posted, the added height of the hatchback area is a very important plus. There are many times that I couldn't fit an object into my car because the height of the object would conflict with the rear window. This includes carrying medium to large dogs.

The rear seating area is much more spacious and creates even greater cargo volume when the seats are folded down. I was pretty impressed when viewing it this last weekend.