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Prius c, 2012, 61 MPG combined, $20k

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angry hampster said:
How has it been for reliability? I'm always intrigued by the late-90s luxo cars from Japan. I test drove an LS400 last year before I bought my Mazda6.
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Very reliable. I had to replace the radiator because it was corroding from 13 years of use in mountains. I have 2 things to do for the car. That is to get a stiffer anti roll bar, and get aux input head unit, so I can listen to music on the go.
 
I agree with everybody. This car looks great and sounds even better on paper. My question is what did they sacrifice to get the price that low? Toyota hasn't exactly had a good track record lately with their truck chassis rusting out, bad press for stuck gas pedals and overall interior quality dropping off. 5 years ago the Camry owned its market segment. Not anymore. I'm going to reserve judgement till we see some reviews.
 
AMCRambler said:
My question is what did they sacrifice to get the price that low?
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First thing is that is estimated price based on conversions, etc. Thus, we really don't know what price point it will hit, nor what it is "missing" compared to other econoboxes in that range. Seriously though, a $21,000 Hyundai Elantra is fairly well appointed.

Second thing is that they are supposedly recycling the standard Prius drivetrain. Thus, no R&D expenditures on the drivetrain. It has already been developed and is proven. All they have to do is shoehorn it into the new package.
 
Zap said:
First thing is that is estimated price based on conversions, etc. Thus, we really don't know what price point it will hit, nor what it is "missing" compared to other econoboxes in that range. Seriously though, a $21,000 Hyundai Elantra is fairly well appointed.
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That's what I'm thinking. If it's $21k and stripped down to bear bones it won't be a good deal. If it's $21k and comes with decent standard equipment it could be a very good value. We'll just have to wait and see the final price and the base equipment list.
 
Corporate Thug said:
where do you live?
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America I'm guessing 😀 Prices on these went sky high this summer. I think they are starting to come down...or at least should be. Supply is definitely going up but i can see see people locally trying to get over 2011 MSRP on a 2010 base Prius (used).
 
Bignate603 said:
That's what I'm thinking. If it's $21k and stripped down to bear bones it won't be a good deal. If it's $21k and comes with decent standard equipment it could be a very good value.
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Yup! I think people can live without some luxury features such as heated leather seats, sunroof and navigation system, but these days power windows/locks and a sound system that supports your BlueTooth phone and has aux inputs is near mandatory.
 
NutBucket said:
Good luck with that. It IS a Toyota after all 😉
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Yeah, here's to hoping. My parents have a current gen Prius and the thing drives like a golf cart. No steering feel, no brake feel, feels slower than it is (and it's still really slow), it's the anti-drivers car.

The tiny diesels we have here in Europe are also slow but they still manage to feel quick and every car I've driven here handles and feels like some effort went into enriching the driving experience.
 
Dman8777 said:
Yeah, here's to hoping. My parents have a current gen Prius and the thing drives like a golf cart. No steering feel, no brake feel, feels slower than it is (and it's still really slow), it's the anti-drivers car.

The tiny diesels we have here in Europe are also slow but they still manage to feel quick and every car I've driven here handles and feels like some effort went into enriching the driving experience.
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Basically this. If we had tiny diesels available here I would have gone that route.
 
What sucks is that the diesels don't even need to be tiny these days to get good mileage. BMW offers a 2 liter diesel with 184 HP and 280 lb-ft (@1750 rpm) in all of their European cars. In BMW's smaller cars (1 and 3 series) that motor nets 48 - 50 mpg and only costs ~2000€ more than the closest gas motor (170 hp/182 lb-ft, 39 mpg).

I would have killed for options like that when I was buying my last car in the states a few years ago.
 
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Dman8777 said:
What sucks is that the diesels don't even need to be tiny these days to get good mileage. BMW offers a 2 liter diesel with 184 HP and 280 lb-ft (@1750 rpm) in all of their European cars. In BMW's smaller cars (1 and 3 series) that motor nets 48 - 50 mpg and only costs ~2000€ more than the closest gas motor (170 hp/182 lb-ft, 39 mpg).

I would have killed for options like that when I was buying my last car in the states a few years ago.
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The 323d is rumored to make it over here in the next few years.
 
Dman8777 said:
What sucks is that the diesels don't even need to be tiny these days to get good mileage. BMW offers a 2 liter diesel with 184 HP and 280 lb-ft (@1750 rpm) in all of their European cars. In BMW's smaller cars (1 and 3 series) that motor nets 48 - 50 mpg and only costs ~2000€ more than the closest gas motor (170 hp/182 lb-ft, 39 mpg).

I would have killed for options like that when I was buying my last car in the states a few years ago.
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You'd pay $3k more for an extra 10mpg and pay 10-15% more in fuel?
 
Zap said:
If those numbers (price + MPG) pan out, this will be pretty compelling. $21,000 is not too far off from other econoboxes.
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Toyota Yaris is $14K 38mpg. You will have to keep the car till 200K miles to make back the difference in gas savings. The battery warranty is only 100K miles.
 
senseamp said:
Toyota Yaris is $14K 38mpg. You will have to keep the car till 200K miles to make back the difference in gas savings. The battery warranty is only 100K miles.
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Yaris is 30c / 38h. The Prius c is being quoted at 61mpg mixed, payoff will be faster than that. In the first 100k miles the Prius c would use $4300 less fuel @$3.50/gallon. The difference increase as fuel goes up. Btw, very few Prius batteries need to be replaced at 100k.
 
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Uhtrinity said:
Yaris is 30c / 38h. The Prius c is being quoted at 61mpg mixed, payoff will be faster than that. In the first 100k miles the Prius c would use $4300 less fuel @$3.50/gallon. The difference increase as fuel goes up. Btw, very few Prius batteries need to be replaced at 100k.
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100K miles is more than 5 years of driving for me...and I still just break even.

In reality, I'll never put that many miles on any car I own. I put 5 or 6K per year at the most on a car.
 
😡
Uhtrinity said:
Yaris is 30c / 38h. The Prius c is being quoted at 61mpg mixed, payoff will be faster than that. In the first 100k miles the Prius c would use $4300 less fuel @$3.50/gallon. The difference increase as fuel goes up. Btw, very few Prius batteries need to be replaced at 100k.
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I am sure this will be better appointed than a base yaris and likely larger as well and with better resale. It is very unfortunate to see people comparing other cars' highway figures with combined numbers of a hybrid. I see a lot of commercials speaking only to why figures as well.
 
At Toyota there is a car for everyone but me. I cannot afford ANY of the cars they have so there is NO car for me with my budget.
 
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