Prius v, hands on (VT)

[NOTE: I wrote this up for another, all-makes car forum, so please forgive the non-PriusChat specific language. I figured if I wrote the whole thing up, I might as well post it here as well, though it's mostly preaching to the choir here.]

My dealership had a 2012 new car "event" tonight and I got to go and spend a bunch of time crawling around the new Prius v (terrible name, it's the mini-minivan one) as well as the new Camry. I was meeting my wife for dinner so I didn't have a chance to drive anything though.

I came away very impressed. The v is much larger inside, particularly in the cargo area and back seat. The new dash—sans flying bridge—offers more stretch out room as well. As in my hatchback, the seat has a huge range of adjustment fore/aft as well as up/down. Not sure about the new dash layout, less cohesive then the swooping piece in my car, but I think it's workable. Standard rear view camera and bluetooth are a nice touch. The displays are much improved from the current 80's looking monochromatic look that hasn't been updated since the 1st gen cars (reminds me of an Apple IIc)

The backseat slides and folds so if you want more cargo room you can move the seats up, or for more legroom, slide them back. With the driver's seat set for my big body, there was tons of rear seat legroom behind me, noticeably more then in the hatchback. The back of the seat is mostly hard plastic, and when folded creates a flat load floor minus a 5" space where there cargo floor and seat hinge don't meet.

As compared to my regular 2010 Prius materials seemed noticeably higher-spec and there is a genuine "dark" option for the interior now instead of what I have which is still just medium gray (and there is a lighter gray as well). Hopefully they've corrected the rattles that plague the 3rd Gen hatchbacks, mine included.

The lift gate in the back goes up just high enough to clear my 5'11" dome. Load floor is flat and the space is very squared off. It's not much deeper then the regular Prius's hatchback but the roof comes all the way back so the space is much taller and squarer and not glass covered as the regular hatchback is.

For my needs, with 2 big dogs, this would be a HUGE improvement as the current hatchback puts "dogs under glass" and it just too low for my big lab (my smaller, older lab manages back their but it's not ideal and I won't put them back there on hot days, even if they're never left in the car).

The overall size isn't that much larger then my car but it seems much larger. It's definitley Mazda5 sized. It's 4" taller, 6" longer, 1" wider, with a 3" longer wheelbase then the Prius Hatchback.

This was a silver "two", the "three" ads Entune, and the "four" adds even more goodies. It stickered for around $27k with destination and floormats. It's about a three grand bump over a comparable hatchback. If you are shopping Prius anyway, and have a couple of kids and dogs to haul around I think it's definitley worth the price. Obviously you could buy the Mazda5 or another competitor for less but the fuel economy on the v is best in class and I don't know how much they'd be cross shopped given the large price disparity (20k vs 27k). Just different markets imo.

A lot has been made of the "lower MPG" on the v but PriusChat users who are already owners are reporting very little decrease in real-world MPG from their hatchbacks. I'm sure there will be some dip but overall a 40+MPG minivan with real seating for 5 and a big cargo space is a win-win against the competition.

I certainly won't be making a financial case for replacing my less then a year old Prius, but if something happened to it, I'd buy a v over a standard hatch without a doubt.

I didn't take any pictures, there's millions out there.

Here's a comparison of the Prius Hatch, Prius v, Mazda5, and Jetta Wagon TDI, all automatic, in case you want to nitpick or whatever. I was directly comparing it to my Prius Hatchback, and that's the eyes I looked at it with.

Compare Vehicles: 2012 Mazda MAZDA5 vs. 2012 Toyota Prius v vs. 2011 Toyota Prius vs. 2012 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen