Anyone think that the Touring will be worth more $$$ in the future

since the Gen II is so iconic and the Touring represents <3% of all gen II cars? The only proble is that there is no badge to distinguish it - only enthusiasts and experts of "historical" hybrid cars or Prius will be able to recognize it. And we will probably have hundreds of thousands of miles on them anyway. Still,

Think it has the potential to be the Shelby gt500 of the hybrid/electric future?

The Shelby GT500 was a huge performance bump on the base Shelby. The Touring is not a huge performance increase over the base Prius. If there was even a 10% mileage improvement, then you would have something to distinguish the two. But a premium for larger wheels/tires and different shocks? Approximately 1 inch longer rear spoiler? Maybe I have missed something?

Very true. But I'm hoping and thinking that people will find value in it's rarity however, not what it offers over the regular model.

Here is a link that spells out the difference:

HowStuffWorks "Prius and Prius Touring Comparison"

I have owned the Gen 2 base, Gen 2 Touring, and have driven a Gen 3 base. The Gen 2 Touring handles somewhat better than a Gen 2 base, and a wee bit better than the Gen 3 base.

Unless there is additional appreciation for the Gen 2 handling, reckon that the Touring will not be worth much more than a similar Gen 2.

One item to note: Consumers Report graded the 2009 Touring as car of the year, and it's score was 12 points higher than the base model.

No, that would be the soon to be discontinued Tesla Roadster...
only about 500 will have been made.

My guess is that you will not even recover the price differential (let alone an additional premium) between a Standard Prius and a Touring Prius unless you were to sell it to someone in the know that's willing to pay the price differential.

BTW, if I had a Touring, I would add a chrome "Touring" badge to the rear hatch:

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-prius-modifications/29725-touring-badge-options.html
.

Huh? How do you figure? The price difference was $585. That gets you wheels, tires, suspension, spoiler, and a shorter braking distance and faster avoidance manuevering as tested by CR.

For $585, you could add better tires (or, just wait until the tires wear out and then add the better tires) and get some improvements in the stopping distance and handling. If you want to improve stopping distance and handling as much as possible, go for better (wider) tires, ceramic brake pads and a set of TOMs suspension braces. That is basically what I did with my Touring edition (I also swapped out the wheels for lighter and wider ones). A base Prius could be modified for the same expenditure as I put into my Touring edition and it would run away and hide from the stock Touring edition.

You may have misread my post.

I would pay the price differential because I think it's well worth it and wish I had gotten a Touring in the first place. But I'm not the general used Prius buying public.

You're wrong. You could not get better rims and suspension for that price. Not even close. I know. I've speant way WAY too much money in my lifetime upgrading wheels and suspension and you get crap for that kind of money.

Further more, the suspension upgrade in the stock touring is what contributes to most of the improved braking distance and cornering.

Ooops. I must have misread it

I never said you could get a suspension upgrade + wheels + tires for $585. I said:

I doubt it comes from different shocks (which is the extent of the suspension upgrade) on the Touring edition. My stock Touring edition suffered from buffeting in cross winds. When my Touring edition arrived at the dealer, there were a set of ceramic brake pads and wider wheels (15 inch) and tires (Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S in 205/55-15) that were waiting to be installed on the car; I insisted on the bits being installed before I took delivery of the car. I did not bother to test which addition (ceramic brake pads vs. wider & lighter wheels vs. wider and stickier tires) contributed the most to stopping distance. But even with the wider wheels and tires, the car suffered from buffeting in cross winds. Then it was on to the TOMs suspension braces.

My point about modifying a base Prius still holds - the mods that I made would make a base Prius handle and stop far better than a stock Touring edition without the mods.

IMO a Gen2 Touring will sell for a bit more. It is still a production car produced en masse. For a car to appreciate the model either has to become more popular in the future or have a small production run.

There were less Gen1 cars produced than Gen2. Do you believe they will appreciate?

Chevy had a hard time selling the original Corvette. Now they are valuable because later models developed a following. Tesla's Roadster is my candidate because the production volume will be low (There are a 1000 now) and the car has high performance.

In 2008 (and I think some other years) in Canada, we could only get a Prius with the Touring upgrades.

By the time 10 years passes, IMO the premium, if any, for a Touring will be small.

I did this with a Touring model, using 16" RAYS/Volk rims. I am not using ceramic pads because they typically need to heat up to reach max mu (friction) against the rotors.

The suspension is something that maybe older buyers wouldn't appreciate.

The suspension upgrades/differences between the 2007-2009 Touring Edition and the 2007-2009 Standard Prius consist of:

1. Bigger front stabilizer/sway bar.

2. Bigger rear stabilizer/sway bar.

3. Different, but not necessarily stiffer, rear shocks and springs. (Note that the front shocks and springs are identical in the two models.)

Interesting how it took a set of front and rear suspension braces from TOMs before my Touring edition's susceptibility to cross winds went away. In the bargain, I got a much better handling car. Ordinarily, adding stiffer (bigger) stabilizer bars does improve handling. But the most improvement came from adding the TOMs rear suspension brace.

If an owner wanted to get the benefit of Toyota's thinking about suspension improvement, they could opt for the TRD Prius suspension kit. More $, but hey if you have it, the dealer will sell you the kit.

Whether the different stabilizer bars and rear springs and shocks warrant a price premium for Touring editions in the future, I still doubt it.