They started awhile ago: Toyota | Toyota Begins Corolla Production in Mississippi. I posted a recent article about the plant at Forbes: In Mississippi, Toyota Tests Radical Redesign For Factories And Itself | PriusChat.
If you can live with a snug fit, I think you would be extremely happy with the Cruze. The cabin is exceptionally quiet for the C-segment. Judging from the materials, that car is also likely to age much better than the Prius. I am at 37k on my 2011 and the car definitely does not feel new anymore. iPhone ?
^^^ Unfortunately, the Cruze has horrific reliability and both engine configurations were dead last in reliability in the small car segment in Consumer Reports w/both being much worse than average. There's no way I'd recommend anyone buy one if they care about reliability until that changes. Every other car in that category had better reliability and there were numerous ones that were above average. Sagebrush posed one image at GM Sees Record 100,000 Sales of "30 mpg or Better" Vehicles | PriusChat. I'll post more when I get a chance.
It makes a great deal of sense. The end result of the machinations was moving Corolla production from an old, expensive NUMMI and to a cheaper new plant they'd already built in MS. The question that remains is how could Toyota (finally) assemble the Gen 4 Prius in the USA? The Cambridge, ON plants have an annual capacity of 300,000 but also build the RX. MS only has a capacity of 150,000. Woodstock, ON builds the RAV4 and even after expansion will only have a capacity of 200,000. Does Toyota NA now have enough spare capacity to assemble the Prius in the USA?
I'm with cwerdna, the Cruze is the worst of the lot. If you don't buy a Prius then I'd definitely look into the Elantra GT.
I don't believe my 2012 has a noise-maker. I have driven up behind pedestrians in parking lots, at very slow speeds, and they obviously had no idea I was behind them.
All 2012 Toyota Prii should have a Vehicle Proximity Notification System (VPNS, aka noisemaker ) - reportedly, you have to roll down the windowss and drive the Prius in an enclosed area (to reflect the sound waves) to hear it. It should sounds like the "tractor beam from Star Trek." If you can't hear it - then you either don't have a 2012 Prius, Something is wrong with your 2012 Prius, or something is wrong with your hearing. It is illegal to disable the VPNS. Plug-in hybrids and all electric vehicles (like the Volt and the Leaf) are also required to have them.
The '11 Volt doesn't have one. I don't think the '12 Volt does either. The '11 Leaf has it and has a switch to disable it until you power down. On the '12 Leaf, they removed the disable switch. Illegal? I don't know, but some Leafers have gone out of their way to disable theirs. I wouldn't, but that's just me. The noisemaker on the '12 PiP and liftback isn't very loud but can hear it while standing in a parking lot w/them driving around. To add to my earlier note re: Cruze reliability, see attached.
