The Prius c is Official: > 50 MPG City, 1.5-liter Engine, Pretty Colors

I am gonna weigh in at just under 10 seconds like the standard Prius. From both the marketing and technical perspective that is most likely. It is going to be hard to get anything faster out of the 1.5 engine on that weight car.

 

Why do we need anything under 10 seconds anyway? Family sedans are now as fast as yesteryear's muscle cars. Except for using more gas, does that extra power actually get put to use?

 

Its going to be between 10 and 11.

I don't know if anyone needs faster than 10, but many of us want it, and much better acceleration was on our previous cars. Don't think the prius c is really meant to be a family sedan, but they could have dropped the 1.8l prius engine in there, and likely improved fuel economy and acceleration. This may have cannibalized other prius sales with lower asp, and raised costs.

 

Do most people buy something because they want it or because the need it? American's want fast cars. If Toyota's marketing and design staff is making decisions based on needs instead of what people want - then I think we know how that's going to turn out. A lot of unwanted cars piling up in dealer lots. Plus you can just imagine the reviews of a >10 sec Prius C from the mainstream automotive press. Dead slow. Can't get out of it's own way. My grandmother in her walker can outrun this thing. Although possibly Toyota is doing it's best to make certain that the Prius C isn't compared to the loser fake sports car Honda CRZ hybrid (i.e., make it clear that the C is not a pretend sports car).

Personally, I'm getting pretty tired of my boring to drive and dead slow gen II Prius. I was (or am) hoping that Toyota would recognize that some buyers want a fun (i.e, reasonably fast) car to drive and would recognize this obvious glaring deficiency in the Prius brand and attempt to remedy it. Yes, I should know that Toyota doesn't do fun anymore and I should give up and buy a MINI. But I was hoping that Toyota would come through on the Prius C. Plus fast doesn't have to be sub 6 sec (0 to 60). A little better than 9 sec isn't bad.

 

Toyota has an excitement brand, it is Scion, Prius is the Buick of Toyota, not the Pontiac.

 

Sorry, Pontiac's are long gone and Buick has risen from the dead and has started to make some pretty decent cars that aren't just for your Grandparents.

Also, ask GM (or Ford) if they think the secret to brand success is to only sell to little old ladys that drive their car to church on Sundays?

Toyota as well as Honda have been slipping recently simply because they've forgotten how to or decided not to make 'fun' or interesting cars. It seems like the accountants have taken over and they've been milking the brand name and brand loyalty that was built up when Japan built great cars. Now just about all you get from Japan are boring beige boxes. Granted, they still sell plenty of them - but sales are clearly in decline. I'm only pointing out the obvious and nothing that hasn't been said plenty other times. Obviously, with the upcoming FR-S, Toyota has decided to fight back and make at least one fun car again and I was hoping the Prius C would be another one (fun car). Honda, who knows.

 

do not know about other parts of the country, but in California, there's plenty of on-ramps where you NEED faster than 10 seconds of acceleration time if you want to merge safely. I'm talking about 3-4 car lengths to go from 25 to 65 and merge.

 

I find it interesting that the FR-S is mentioned as a fun car in posts that are all about fun equals acceleration when the FR-S is Toyota's way to show that you don't need fast acceleration and high top speed in order to have fun.

Just my $0.02.

 

10 seconds is fine if your a safe driver. Merrit Parkway (CT) has plenty of short onramps, never had a problem.

Ask your parents how they do it in there prii.

 

I am attracted to fun cars too, but what does that have to do with 0-60 times ?

 

Funny how you should mention the Merritt.

Used to be that all of the Robert Moses era (built for 35 MPH speed limit) parkways around NYC were fun to drive because of the curves (they tamed most of the Hutch, though)........ you get the zing while driving 60, and would kill yourself at 80.

My favorite is the lower Sawmill......I'm from Northern Westchester originally.

Those hwys are a high Prius environment, too

 

Lol I don't need to ask anyone anything, I've driven both cars quite a bit and have rented GenIII Priuses a number of times for long-distance trips. Hell, with the muffler leak on the Accord, the GenI Prius feels like it's a sports car in comparison. With that said, there's a difference between "doable", "safe", and "comfortable". It's doable if you don't care about how other drivers on the road feel, or if there's no traffic, or if the timing is right. But if any of those factors are awry, the safety and comfort levels drop, potentially significantly. Add in a random donkey who won't let you merge and you're set.

 

i have lived around the world and I can tell you right now that only in america people think you need 6 second car to merge on the highway.

 

It's been updated now. So has the Prius Family website, Toyota Prius Family

I just completed a roadtrip over Thanksgiving week. I drove from Southern California, across Nevada, the corner of Arizona, across Utah, across Colorado to the Denver area (round trip).

There were several times that I was "out in the middle of nowhere" in the desert with no cell phone reception. I did have cell phone reception in most places, but there were some places where I had no reception. (cell phone companies continue to build out the networks - it's become much better over the past several years and it continues to improve - but there are still uncovered zones. I have AT&T, which is a major company and has a large network). In many areas, even when I did have cell phone coverage, it would have taken a tow truck at least an hour to get to me. There were small towns dotted along the map, who likely have tow trucks (not necessarily networked with my AAA card) but I specifically took a photo of one sign that said "no services next 100 miles. last stop next exit." To me, having a spare is not a "comfort thing" but rather a matter of doing things right and being prepared. People in today's society have become too "comfort"able with not being prepared that when unexpected situations occur, it is a disaster. Take the San Diego power outage two months ago when the gas stations would not operate due to no electricity: many of my coworkers ran out of gasoline on their way home and some just left their cars in the company parking lot. Not me. I never let my gas tank get below 1/4 empty (for weight reasons, I don't fill it all the way up either). I had half a tank and easily drove my 48 mile drive back home.

I go hiking all the time. My backpack is always in my truck, which has a first aid kit, extra food, and extra water. I have an emergency kit with extra food and water at my house. It didn't take me much time to put together or cost me much money. You can say whatever you want, but if you watch the news on television or read the news, you know that disasters do happen. The people who are unprepared will parish first. (that may sound harsh but it's true).

When was the last time I had to put the spare tire on my car? It's been about five years. I think with the housing market and construction slowing down, there are fewer nails on the streets. There are comments above of others that have had flats, some in a Prius. So, flats do still occur. I would like to be prepared.

Looks like I'm not the only one that won't be "left in the dark" when the power goes out. I just hope the cell phone networks aren't jammed (like they often are during mass emergencies). During my recent roadtrip (mentioned above), there was a traffic jam between Vegas and the CA border. There is cell phone coverage out there, but it's only set up to handle sparse traffic. During the traffic jam, there were so many people that the cell phone networks were overloaded and not connecting calls (I tried several times).

I have found that when the stop lights on the on-ramps are turned off, I have plenty of distance in Southern California to accelerate up to speed with being gentle on the gas peddle. However, when they turn those dammed lights on, I often have to waste gas to get up to speed without causing a row of traffic behind me to stack up their brake lights!
On the brighter side, I have noticed 99% of people on my 48-mile commute between OC and SD are now driving slower since about 2-3 weeks ago. I'm not sure what changed, but something changed. This means that I do not need to accelerate up to as high of a speed before merging into traffic.

 

I'm with lensovet.

I mean, look at this stupid thing.

http://www.you-are-here.com/transport/pasadena.jpg

Seriously, that's the 110 freeway... moving at 65...

Yea, you can be safe and wait, I mean, people do it all the time. When you have a faster car, you need less of a gap.

However, with efficiency and speed, you rarely can get both... and we both know what the Prius stands for...

 

That image is VERY analogous to the stupid stop/go lights that I'm referring to that are all over California on on-ramps. Some on-ramps give you plenty of distance to accelerate, but some are almost as horrible as this image you posted. I don't have a criticism of the concept of stop/go lights - my criticism is on how far down the ramp and close to the highway traffic that they are located.

 

Yep. I went to college in LA but on a visit to So Cal many years later, I encountered a horrible "on ramp" on the 110 north near Pasadena just like that. It might've even been that very entrance. Wow! What a horrible design w/no room to accelerate at all.

 

More images of Prius c, from Tokyo autoshow...

Click link for HIGH RESOLUTION images...

2013 Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid: 2011 Tokyo Motor Show Debut Live Gallery









2013 Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid: 2011 Tokyo Motor Show Debut Live Gallery

2013 Toyota Prius C Compact Hybrid: 2011 Tokyo Motor Show Debut Live Gallery


NICE !!!

Toyota Unveils Aqua Concepts At Tokyo Motor Show
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Oh I have no doubt. And in other parts of the world you probably don't have people driving 40 while merging onto a freeway with a flow speed of 65+. And people understand what road etiquette actually means.