Oh what a feeling! Toyota.

We parked our excellent 4-Runner in the garage and bought a red Prius V for my wife's commute. She is getting 46.5 indicated on the commute and last night we were 43.5 indicated on the interstate at 70-75 mph over 260 miles. 44.5 average indicated over the first 500 miles. We haven't calculated yet. Not sure if the first tanks had ethanol in them or not but we won't be burning ethanol blends from here out. Anyway so far super pleased! I have an 02 Outback and the Prius is so much roomier and more versatile inside. Love the back doors for putting the little girl in and the nine year old loves the reclining rear seats. Limo black tinting on the back windows coming soon. /Near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

 

Short answer - I want to maximize our fuel economy with our family hauler. That is why we bought the V.

Long answer without being political since both sides of the aisle are bought and sold by energy interests - I'm against traditional corn based ethanol for environmental and economic reasons. It is very damaging to our environment when corporate farmers with no interest in land conservation till fence to fence to maximize production of corn which isn't the best ethanol stock anyway (requires massive nitrogen applications) and the factories that produce ethanol use four gallons of fresh water for every gallon of ethanol produced and many of them burn coal to cook the ethanol. Our local plant has its own coal plant. We get water from our river here so we are lucky since it has traditionally always had good flow (getting a bit low this summer though) but many communities in Iowa and elsewhere in the midwest are tapping deep aquifers to pull water up to produce ethanol. Those aquifers have water now but in many cases levels are dropping so nobody knows how sustainable this is long term.

Plus a gallon of E10 has approximately 2.0 percent less energy than a gallon of straight gasoline due to the lower energy content of gasoline vs ethanol (110,000 btu per gallon vs 75,000 btu per gallon)

Alcohol based fuels from switchgrass and other biomass that is produced cellulose shows promise maybe but limited info is available on its viability and it is not available for purchase. Studies are being done at Iowa State's Leopold Center for Sustainability (Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture | Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture).

Better choice for now imo = plug in hybrids running on clean electricity for as long as possible and gas only when absolutely needed.

 

^^^Nice! We have 160k on the 4-Runner with the 4.0 v6 and it went to the shop once for a sunroof leak. I put in new front axles when the boots tore, a new a/c relay, a new serpentine belt tensioner and new front brake rotors. That is it, period! Most reliable truck ever. It played a big part in our decision to go with the Prius V over the VW Sportwagen TDI.

And congrats! Keep her on the ground for now

 

Absolutely, great question. Volt is too small for our needs and my wife's commute falls outside of it's ideal range of 35-40 miles where it becomes less economical to operate but we did consider it and I am a big fan. We also considered waiting for the Prius plug in (net yet available here) since it gets good fuel economy even after it runs out of battery. In the end I had to get something that worked for our family and that we could afford and I'm a wagon guy so the choice at the end was really between the TDI Sportwagen and the V. In the big picture I think that plug in vehicles are a better response to the energy/climate crisis than ethanol from corn but in the micro world of my families budget and needs the Prius V seemed like the best fit. I wish I could buy a V for the price I paid with bigger plug in batteries but I can't. So far I have not been disappointing but of course only time will tell the true tale.

 

Bump for two months of trouble free happy ownership! We have been averaging 46.1 mpg with our mix of city and highway miles. Fuelly | Share and Compare Your MPG

 

123456