I'm just surprised that Toyota didn't bring the hybrid minivan to the U.S. sooner. They've been selling their Estima Hybrid minivan in Japan for years.

It's a situation Chrysler can exploit, but the window of opportunity is closing fast, and I wouldn't put it past Chrysler to flub the launch.

We have 13 greyhounds so a minivan is pretty much a requirement for us. Not only for our own dogs, but we pick a lot of adoption dogs up from the track (at least an 8 hour round trip). So we need a big vehicle with the best FE possible. The Prius - we're on the waiting list - is for our around town driving and taking one or two dogs somewhere. Anyway...we'd buy a Toyota hybrid minivan in a second. Our current minivan (Mazda MPV) probably only has a year of life left in her but we're hoping she lasts until we get a hybrid or diesel option for our new one.

Why is Toyota holding off bringing their hybrid mini-van to the US???

LoveMyGreys:

While the prius won't fit 13 dogs, it will fit more then one dog with the seat down. The prius is our largest car and we take our two german shepherd with us everywhere and I could comforatbly fit three dogs back there.

Once we start a family, things will get trickier and we want to by a really FE station wagon, people mover or lastly minivan. So far there are no real good alternative on the market so the Volvo V70 is on the top of the list, but if Toyota brings in a reasonably sized people move then I will buy one.

When DH talked me into going to look at the Prius I was definitely skeptical regarding its "greyhound capacity" The first thing I had them do was pop the back and put down the back seats...I figured I could fit two easily...maybe three of our smaller hounds. Then it was on the test drive and I fell in love! Can't wait to get our Prius!

I'm really hoping there's a FE option for us when we replace our mini-van...something that holds at least what our current van holds - 8-9 hounds with all the back seats removed.

We have two adopted greys ... a 65 lb. female and a 80 lb. male ... and they fit nicely in the back with the seats folded down. They have room to stand up and move around a bit, but our female doesn't like to be crowded when she travels. Three or more greys are possible if they all get along.

VW's has just the vehicle for you. The 2009 TDI Jetta Sportwagon is EPA rated at 29/33/40 mpg and has a total passenger / cargo volume of 125 cubic feet. It starts at $25K. (As reference that is 12% more than the Prius and the extra room is behind the rear seats.)

The V70 is EPA rated at 16/20/25 and has a volume of 135 cubic feet. It starts at $33K

Yes, diesel is more than regular, but diesel would have to be 65% more than regular to offset the better fuel economy.

Why not use the 13 dogs to pull the car instead?

Ha! If only. Greyhounds are way too lazy for any sort of real work.

American car companies are making a big mistake if they spend their resources hybridizing their gas guzzlers to squeeze out 10-20% more gas mileage out of them. It hasn't worked with the Ford Escape. What they need are some Prius-type 50 mpg hybrid cars. That's what the market is saying. But then, they have never been very good listeners.