Exclusive: 2012 MY Prius - Changes and Additions

What does that mean and did it apply to the Gen 2 Prius?

 

I ran across the following on Wiki page about hybrid vehicles. Didn't look further, but this is what's claimed ...


"A 2009 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report examined HEV accidents that involved pedestrians and cyclists and compared them to accidents involving combustion-engine vehicles. The findings showed that, in certain road situations, HEVs are more dangerous for those on foot or bicycle. For accidents where a vehicle was slowing or stopping, backing up, entering or leaving a parking space (when the sound difference between HEVs and CEVs is most pronounced), HEVs were twice as likely to be involved in a pedestrian crash than CEVs. For crashes involving cyclists or pedestrians, there was a higher incident rate for HEVs than CEVs when a vehicle was turning a corner. But there was no statistically significant difference between the types of vehicles when they were driving straight"

Hybrid vehicle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Middle to late December would be a great time to buy car. Dealers move a ton of cars during that time and people are in a buying mood.

I remember last year Toyota Sunnyvale sold like 100 Prius' in a week last of December. I was selling my 2009 the weekend of New Years. I went looking for another car Jan 4th and it was like all the dealers were partyed out. Deals cooled somewhat in early January.

 

I think 2016 will be first year for 4th Gen regualr Prius. the 2nd gen Prius got a little refresh for 2006, its 3rd year. Just like the 2012, refresh on the 3rd Gen.

Toyota will likely start ramping up work on the 4th gen in 2012 to drive it undercover mid 2014 and intro it at the Auto show Jan 2015 then sell it mid 2015. Something like that.

 

Just spoke on the phone with a dealer I had placed an inquiry with about a 2012 Prius Five w/ ATP, and they were saying early-mid November and listing the colors they had coming in with that package (which I assume means they aren't just guessing). About to head over to talk in person and maybe put down a deposit...

It'll be nice to rejoin the Prius family after a couple year gap when my 2005 Prius was T-boned by a Tahoe and totaled...

Edit: hey, a dealership confused about a Prius V vs Prius Five. Who would have guessed? They have no idea when the new hatchback is coming in.

 

As i am reading about the Prius V here in Canada, i just saw the price, do you guys think they will put the normal 2012 Prius lower now? Since for the same price ive paid my Touring 2010 with the V you get a lot more ( softex, navigation, leather steering wheel heated seat...) but no JBL on those model!

What do you think? i know for Canada it would probably be again a very small amount of market compare to corolla and Camry.

 

Well i forgot that those price doesnt include shipping and preparation, but still i would mine heated seat and leather wrapped steering on mine But softex, i will pass my turn!

 

Haven't heard much feedback from anybody about the 2012 Prius Four and Five getting a power driver's seat. I'll be quite interested to see how well that works.

 

I think it's funny how he's shortened his first name to 'Jony.'

 

I just chatted with a dealer about pricing and availability for the forthcoming 2012 models. (The dealer was Rohrich Toyota in Pittsburgh.) Salesman said that he hadn't heard about shipments of 2012s yet, so it is very unlikely any would arrive in November, since they usually have a few week lead time. As for pricing, he was confident that the prices would remain essentially unchanged. But again, he didn't have any numbers from Toyota to confirm such things.

It's an interesting conundrum, since dealers are starting to offer pretty attractive deals on the remaining 2011s. I'm seeing about ~$1500 off through zag, so it'll be really interesting to see where the pricing comes in on the 2012s - considering that they have about $1000+ in added stuff. If pricing actually does remain the same, the 2012 Prius III might be a better deal than even a heavily discounted 2011.

 

Very unlikely they will give away $1000 of features for free. Either the cost is not really $1000 or they will raise the price to cover the added equipment or they will add enough incentives and discounts on the 2011s to make sure the 2011s will have a significant price advantage.
I cannot imagine they are dumb enough at marketing to allow for a pricing scenario where the 2012 is a better value than a year end deal on a 2011.
Regardless of MSRPs, discounts on 2011 vs lack of similar discounts on the 2012s will make the street pricing difference wider. You will not be able to just compare MSRP to MSRP and base everything on that.

 

Very true - although the "cost" of the stuff added to the 2012's sure isn't that much - that's just the price that they put on the options for 2011. (I'm sure that it costs them very, very little on a component basis.) Personally I'd expect to see a price bump of a few hundred bucks, but not much more. They don't really have a lot of room to push the price, considering the rapidly encroaching competition of cheaper, very efficient cars. Time will tell.

 

So far there still is not a really good alternative for someone who wants a hybrid hatchback that gets well over 40 mpg. Only the Insight and it is weak competition.
If they only care about getting 40+ on the highway, then there is some new competition in the last couple years.

 

So is leather gone for 2012? The synthetic leather (vinyl) has to be hot vs perforated leather. We drove a V with the vinyl and it's sort of grabby. The new Nav seems like the main upgrade. HUD seems redundant with the dash design as it is.

 

HUD is kind of nice for the navigation system. I suppose they could have put the same HUD turn arrows in the instrument panel up by the speedometer for less cost than HUD though.
No reason they cannot perforate the Softex material or make it breathable by some other method. Leather is not the only material in the world that's possible to breathable. Even cloth is breathable.

 

Does anyone know if the 2012 Prius MJ will also get the new Exaust Heat Recirculation System used in the new Prius V ?
Apparently it warms up the car one minute faster than the system used now and would sure be nice to have !