Consumer Reports 2012 Ownership Satisfaction Survey

So did they include their "we do not recommend the Prius c" or words to that effect?

Bob Wilson

 

That is stellar...I am pleased to see HyCam finally hitting the spot. Somewhere around 03 or 04 I started waiting for the rumored HyCam and thought they'd never make one finally came out in 06 but it was less impressive than Prius so I defected. Harder choices today, and that's a good thing.

 

That's nice.
But I don't put too much stock in same year, ownership satisfaction surveys.
I think if a vehicle scores very, very low, you can perhaps determine that it is flawed and to be avoided.
But I take high scores with a grain of salt. Because in this day and age, if you spend any time researching your vehicle purchase, and I believe the majority of people do, then most people are going to be happy, and say they would buy it again,- well...because they just bought it.

Most people want to like the vehicle they just bought, or they wouldn't buy it to start with. So unless they drove it off the lot, and had it explode into flame? I think the tendency is to say you would buy...the vehicle you just bought.

That being said, The Prius has great repeat owner loyalty. I think partly because it is such a (still) relatively unique product. IMO nothing exactly, and perfectly competes with it...even today.

I think what you really want to know...is why the 7%-15% of people that just bought are saying they wouldn't buy it again...those answers would be far more revealing.

The only vehicles I haven't liked in the first year of ownership, were vehicles forced on me by circumstance. Any vehicle I had the time and resources to orchestrate the purchase, I have liked...at least for the first few years.

 

Understood.

I didn't catch the 3 year span.

I still think Hybrids benefit from a loyalty standpoint by still being relatively a unique product. I think in general the decision to purchase a Prius, Plug-In, or Hybrid in general is likely to be a more thought out decision than perhaps the impulse buy of "any" new vehicle.

And I think if you've purchased a Hybrid, you're likely to be happy with it for the 1st 3 years at least.

 

In our case:

• First Prius - seven years and counting with over 55 MPG on the trip meter at lunch time for just today's commute and lunch. About to head to the grocery store and home.
• Second Prius - three and a half years and counting with 33,000 miles and it is bigger, nicer and tows a larger trailer. We're getting similar mileage at a faster speed.

So we're looking at 10.5 years of Prius happy. Anyone else still Prius happy?

Bob Wilson

ps. You don't suppose folks who hang at PriusChat might be Prius happy?

 

My comment does not disagree with your perspective- "first 3 years AT LEAST" .

And yes, I obviously default to the reality that Prius Chat would be an environment in which the the majority are happy with Prius.

I might be somewhat in the minority in that I consider the 1st 3 years of ownership of any vehicle as pretty much being the state of owning a "new" vehicle. I think the warranty has to expire, and a few major styling changes have to happen before I even consider I'm not "still" driving a new vehicle.

Then I often change gears in self delusional self -defense and tell myself I'm now driving a "classic".

Hey, don't tell me my 1992 Honda Accord was just a beater....even though it blue-booked at a best value of less than $2000 when I traded it in....that baby was mint...and beautiful.

My overall point being, Prius or otherwise, I think initial, even 3 year customer satisfaction surveys can be pretty valueless, because I think most people WANT to like what they own or have purchased.

I do think if a vehicle is a lemon, or has a significant number of drawbacks, low scores will reveal that.

 

The raw data would be interesting.
Is the survey question just a generic 'are you happy with it?', is it broken into multiple questions?

If a car got a low score because of some common, but optional, feature, but people were otherwise happy with it, that would be more informative.

Simply put, the why they weren't happy is more important than how many for current shoppers.

 

No Bob, this a completely unbiased group of car owners.

 

Aren't all of our women strong, the men handsome, and our children above average too?

Bob 'Woebegone' Wilson

 

You must be speaking of Prius owners families.

 

Cognitive dissidence and self selection bias will over inflate the numbers. Small things that really piss people off like being unable to work the head unit will bias against new technology.

Still when you get very high numbers such as you get for the prius and volt there is something real going in as per user satisfaction.

 

This is what put the Fusion, and a few other Fords into a negative light. The MyFord touch is a PITA to use, over complicated, and some of what was promised is not included yet. Overall, very good car, very reliable, but this one item drops its value to others.

I haven't driven a GenIII, but did have a GenII, and for a country guy like me, it was not the right car. The TCH was a bit better, but it had quality issues, which really surprised me given how everyone raves about them, so been with Ford now for 3 years, and no complaints about any of them, except for a couple stupid marketing things that Ford totally screwed up on.

Like someone else said, take it with a grain of salt, there is a lot of bias when it comes to cars, some are so enamored with Toyota, they have no clue that other brands are just as good, if not better in some cases. Others are open minded and will give others a try, some go back, some are converted.