New Prius v i-Tech (Australian 7 seater) finally delivered!

That third row seats are pretty cool. I wished they shipped these to the U.S.

 

Only thing the Aussies missed were the 17" that has to be there to set this away from the White taxi version.... Easily solved buying the wheels on Yahoo Auctions Japan. A$800 shipped.

 

@richard - Love your Prius v I-Tech!

I am looking to purchase in the next week or so. I have had no luck finding any specials or deals in Sydney or the east coast for that matter. There are several demonstrators listed which I shall inspect shortly.

Currently taking my time and trying decide if the i-Tech is worth the premium. I like the headlight upgrade, the wife likes the moon roof and heated seats...

I intend to keep the car for the long haul as I do not enjoy "turning vehicles over".

The only significant minus is a lack of a local tow bar option. We cycle tour and it would convenient to be able to use our hitch mounted Thule carrier.

Hoping to be a Prius v owner in the coming week...

 

First post here!

My wife has been itching to replace our Mazda6 with a 7 seater. She mentioned the Prius v the other day, thinking that the tech/geek factor would turn me. I said no (mainly because the Mazda is only 4.5 years old). But to be honest, I've been reading everything I can about Prius' online since then

I was adamant that our next car was going to be all electric (wasn't planning a new one for at least another 5-7 years) but the price and features of the Prius v are pretty compelling. I've always been of the opinion that a hybrid is the "worst of both worlds" since you have two different types of engines to worry about - not to mention that my father-in-law is a mechanic and has always serviced our cars at cost price, but he is in his 60s and doesn't see value in investing time into learning about hybrid/electric engines - so our costs will increase in this regard. But it dawned on me that the Prius has been around for 15 years now and is fairly mature technology.

We have three children under the age of 7 and the Mazda6 is one of the few "normal sized" (that is, not a 4WD or Falcon/Commodore) cars which will fit three child seats across the back. We also frequently have interstate visitors and would love to fit all of us (or most of us!) in one car. Does anyone have experience in this sort of volume of child seats in the Prius v?

I might be joining the ranks of Prius ownership .. but maybe not.. we will see!

 

Chuq, I will post a photo tonight but we changed from a VZ with a 3, 5 and 7 year old and orgionally doubted the seats would fit, I even added a fittment trial as a clause in the purchase contract. My recommendation is to just test drive one, I'm sure you'll like it.

 

Thank you!

 

Thanks for the tips and advice all

Emcguy, we will go for a test drive at some point (I'm not even sure if our local dealer has any in stock yet). I'm keen on getting a 1 or 2 year old model to save considerable $, so might not go through the dealer in the end. It's been a busy couple of weeks so not sure when we will have a chance. Obviously fitting all the seats in the car will be attempted before anything is signed!

 

Here are the photos.
-Our friends with Mazda6 had to buy slimline seats, ours are normal.
-My wife puts the passenger seat forward so she has 'walk through' ability during the week.

 

About child seat.

- The outboard seatbelts have ALR.
- The middle row centre and both sides of the third row is just the standard ELR so you'll need to use the seatbelt locking buckle (it's not legal to stick them in the 3rd row anyway without the rear anchor points).
- ISOFIX is only available on the middle row outboard seats only. Fore-aft movements no longer restricted by the seatbelt.

Mind you with the third row being used, there isn't a lot of storage apart from a day bag for the little one. Definitely no room for a pram maybe except those flimsy umbrella type ones from KMart if you're lucky.

 

Hi all, I'm a new Prius V i-tech owner having come from a 2007 Prius i-tech. I recently drove from Sydney to Nelson Bay and back. I had 5 adults and 2 children in the car. Also had a Roof box on as with the 3rd row of seats up there is not much room left for luggage Although you can easily fit a compact pram and a few bags in. Fuel wise, it averaged around 5.2L/100km.

I'm not one for SUV's with only 5 seats and the other 7 seaters out there are too big so the 3rd row of seats in the Prius V was the clincher for me.

I assume currently only certain overseas models have the blind spot detection and lane departure warning?

 

My only beef with the Prius v having driven it to the Hunter (I rarely leave the city... sad but true) is that you need to wring its neck going up the big dipper & Mooney Mooney just to hang on to any decent speed. Then again, it's all good for the car to go through an Italian tuneup once in a while.

Btw, no BSD nor LKA on any model. The steering wheel comes from the hatch so the extra button under the radar cruise button is for LKA.