I don't have a Prius yet but I am seriously considering getting the v but I have concerns about overall MPG and performance under my driving conditions (hills and curves). When Toyota mentions expected fuel economy they only refer the city or highway driving - the don't mention rural hilly driving. And the dealership won't let me do a 'real world' testdrive because it's too far from their dealership. As far as fuel economy in hilly driving situations go I have learned from reading other threads that it largely depends on how one drives, especially when going downhill. My other concern is performance. How has your v performed when going uphill? What about when you have passengers or luggage? The road that I take in my daily commute has many aggressive drivers (especially BMWs) and there are few turnouts. I want to be sure that I can keep up with the ambient speed limit.
Might be a couple weeks before I can get hands on a rental v, but are your roads 'backroads' something like a Hwy 9 out of Saratoga, up into the hills to about 2k feet, then a windy road on the ridge?
While I can't comment on the performance of a v since I have the standard Prius, I can say that most vehicles will have poorer fuel economy if you regularly drive in and around hilly terrain. It's not like the magic bullet where only the Prius loses mpg and other cars don't. Where you do have an advantage is going downhill. While other cars will still be idling (or even if they're engine braking, they're still using a miniscule amount of fuel), you'll be regenerating the battery pack with the engine off until the battery pack is full. If you have rolling hills, all the better as you can take advantage of gaining speeds on downhill portions (engine off) and rolling up the uphill portion with momentum and then firing up the engine to keep up with traffic once your speed comes down. It's all about learning the terrain and figuring out how to maximise the potential of the car in that terrain. It'll take a while to experiment. (took me at least a year or so to maximise efficiency both ways with my former commute on our 2005 Prius by figuring out what speeds to attack the hills to minimise braking, maximise momentum carrying and balancing all of that with traffic flow).
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Toyota Sunnyvale rents out lots of Toyotas - Prius, HiHy, HyCam, and most of the conventionals. IIRC, 6 Prius in fleet and 6 HiHy. I imagine they'll add the v soon. They also sell more hybrids than any other dealer in the nation, so I've been told. btw, first time I rentred 2010 Prius there in June 2009, it was a Five with about 2 miles total on it. Spankin new.
In Santa Cruz and in Monterey, I average low 40s on my Gen III Prius. My buddy averaged high 30s on his 06. Both of us are lead footers though.
My wife is getting about an average of 39 mpg with our new 2012 Prius V. I noticed my personal average is 44 when I’m running around town which I consider good. My wife leaves it in ECO mode. Sub 40 mpg average for a combined Highway and City driving is a little disappointing. Our previous car was a 2008 Prius and we usually averaged 48 mpg on trips and about 44 in the City. We usually drive about 5 - 10 mph over the Highway speed limit and about 5 mph over in the city. We wanted to buy a 2012 Camry Hybrid and I now wish I had waited. The Prius V only advantage is space. It really has a tremendous amount of space. I’m 6’ 1” tall and I can lay down with the back seats folded down and rear hatch down!! We also love the new seats which seem a lot more comfortable for long trips compared to our 2008 Prius. We also like the exterior styling.
Why don't you rent one for a week. It should come with a full tank from the rental agency. You can then proceed to drive the hell out of it and see if it works for you! I live in the LA Foothills, my Gen II avg is about 48MPG. I have a steep hill, CA SR2, to go up and down every day. while I go down the hill for "Free", the ride back up it puts a ding in my avg. Still even with that minor hitch, it's well worth it to have the car!
I just went over 5K miles on my 2012 Prius V and it has outstanding performance when it comes to keeping up with traffic. The 1.8 Liter engine has good low end torque. My previous 2008 Prius was a little too weak whenever you stepped on the gas, but the V model doesn't have that problem at all. My cruise control is usually set for about 7mph over the speed limit on the Highway, so when I’m driving from LA to Phoenix that means just shy of 80mph and I average just a tad over 40mpg. My best mpg is in slow city traffic and it’s not too difficult to get 44mpg. The really cool thing about the V is the extra cargo room over our old 2008 Prius. About the only thing I don't like about it is the Backup Camera doesn’t have a beeper to alert you when you’re getting close as does my Toyota FJ, but I would recommend the V model for someone who wants a lot of cargo space and 40 + mpg for a car that costs about 30K...
