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

[MetroMPG]

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

[Daox]

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

[ksa8907]

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

[vskid3]

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.

[oil pan 4]

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

[Saskwatchian]

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.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by vskid3

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.

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.)...



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

This is now standard on the car.

Until they cancel it.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

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

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.)

[rmay635703]

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

Unless your a fleet buyer

[elhigh]

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.