RIP Prius V wagon: yet another efficient car cancelled because of CUV sales craze
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1511189301

The CUV/SUV carnage continues unabated!

Green Car Reports says there will be no Prius V wagon in the U.S. for the 2018 model year, owing to the Rav4 hybrid taking its sales.

EPA ratings:

• 41 MPG (combined) -- Prius V hybrid
• 32 MPG (combined) -- Rav4 hybrid

Sadly, this is just one more example of a passenger car being replaced by a less efficient CUV option. (Ironically, often the CUV is even based on the same platform.)

EG:

• Chrysler has completely dropped the 200 and Dart sedans to focus on CUV/SUV's;
• Mazda abandoned established plans to bring their Mazda2 to the U.S. to focus on CUV's;
• Ford is replacing the Fiesta with the EcoSport;
• GM has scaled back production of the Sonic, while sales of the Trax/Buick CUV based on the same platform take off;
• Hyundai has cancelled the Accent hatchback for the U.S.

I guess buyers like the CUV/SUV image, or want to sit up higher because it "feels" safer (so they can stare at the tinted rear window of the CUV ahead of them). Also, with an aging population with ever creakier bones, there's no argument a CUV/SUV is easier to get in & out of.

Too bad the CUV/SUV options are objectively more expensive to buy & run, and arguably less safe in extreme maneuvers (more prone to rollovers).

Source: Toyota Prius V hybrid wagon ends U.S. run; RAV4 Hybrid took its sales

Not that I was slated to get one, but it really stinks to have less options on the market.

Too bad. I really don't know why people want small suv's.
I guess I'm just a car guy.

CUV - The car you get when a minivan would work best, but you want your kids to be able to throw their door open into other cars (seriously, sliding doors are amazing).

I bet the Prius V would sell like hotcakes if it had gray plastic rocker panels and fender flares, an AWD option, and a giant roof rack.

Wait till gas goes back over $3.50 a gallon.
That seems to be the point where everyone looses their minds.

I'm a little surprised that they didn't just take the Prius V, throw a 2" lift on it an call it a Prius X. It's something I would be interested in and think it would make a great winter car.

Ha! Guess what Toyota just did with the Prius "C" (another model I expect isn't going to see a next gen in the U.S.)...

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1511204322

Plastic rocker panels & fender flares for everyone!! (And fake "skid platey" bumper accents?)

This is now standard on the car.

Until they cancel it.

I think we'll be waiting a while... barring some political/environmental disaster.

And by then all the most efficient car options will be gone from the market! (For new car buyers.)

https://priuschat.com/threads/tss-p-...rius-v.186938/

Unless your a fleet buyer

I think the market is ripe for a proper hybrid compact CUV. The current range of choices are pretty big, minivan-replacement sized.

Subaru made a go of it briefly with the Crosstrek (XV if you're outside the States), but it's not available as a hybrid anymore and the numbers it whistled up were merely fair. The new Lineartronic CVT-equipped Crosstrek does as well as the hybrid model did.

If we could have something along the size lines of a second-gen RAV4 with the AWD provided by conventional front drive and as-needed electric drive out back, that would make the packaging easy peasy. Toyota already has experience building exactly such a beast, this would just be a matter of scale.

Thus equipped, the front engine could be made small enough to be adequate. The battery pack needn't be overlarge, AWD generally isn't one of those things you're using all the time, just when one end or the other is starting to slip. Give it limited slip diffs fore and aft and such a rig would be everything 95% of AWD buyers are looking for: the capacity to get themselves inescapably stuck when the snow flies. And the rest of the time, the capacity would be there to give them big engine power when it's wanted, decent economy the rest of the time. Make that engine a small turbo unit that can turn its output down to something even more in line with what's needed, and it just gets better.

How many cars are available with manual transmissions?

Not that I could afford a new car, but where is my motivation?

:D

It costs more and gets worse gas mileage. It must be better.

I never tried driving off-road or on snow in my Subaru, but I got stuck anyway!

My dad rented a Prius V in Canada in winter last year and he absolutely loved it. Maybe the used ones won't keep their value and he can get one.

Straying a bit off topic, but I'm not sure what the point is of a version of the Prius that only gets 41mpg. Maybe it defeated itself and has little to do with CUVs.

It may be a "Prius" (43mpg city), but it has about the same interior passenger and cargo space as a Ford Escape SUV (23mpg city) or Mazda 5 "minivan" (21mpg city), and considerably more than a Chevy Equinox CUV (21mpg city).

This Prius I recently got is easily the largest car I have ever owned. The interior space is bonkers.

I never saw the inside of a V but I imagine it could only be bigger. WHY would you need anything bigger, unless you needed three row seating or a load bed that is just THAT big? Drop the seats in a regular Prius and the load bed is at least as big as a Subaru Baja, how much bigger in a V? 67.something cubes, as good as some crossovers.

Is it the lack of AWD that killed it?

IIRC it was quoted to be roomier than the Rav4 that's been pushed as an indirect replacement.

CUVs have come a long way. My company rented me a Ford Escape a while back and doing nothing special aside from a few extra psi in the tires and cruise control at 65, I recorded 36mpg. That's with some windows down/sunroof open time followed by AC use and alleged acceleration burts and rubber-slaying. Got about 10 miles of slower mild hypermiling at 49mpg at the end. For a vehicle with 240hp which could allegedly do 100yd burnouts, and handle as well as it did, the case for the Prius V is a bit difficult.

Blame it on EPA: CARS (light-duty vehicles) must meet "tight" EPA emissions standards, while TRUCKS have "looser" emission standards. The Prius V is classified as a car (Light Duty Vehicle) while most CUV are being classified as trucks (H.D. Vehicle).

Make a Prius truck! :D

Then you can make an aerocap! :)

Glad I got the Prius v while I could...

https://priuschat.com/media/20171105...l?d=1509921383

Bill the Engineer

In Brisbane Australia at the moment we pay $1.45 per Litre which is more than $4 us dollars a gallon.
All that happens is people start complaining more but don't stop using/buying big cars.

Huh. These charts look similar:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1511583188
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid..._United_States

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1511583402
https://priuschat.com/threads/histor....109842/page-2

Those different emission standards for vehicles that often are too close when it comes to their GVWR and load capacities is pointless.