Hybrid Previa/Estima - would you buy one if available?

I love my Prius. My wife loves her Civic Hybrid. We are keeping the old '95 Previa because even as empty nesters, we end up hauling stuff to the kids. And the Previa carries the kayaks as well.

But we'd love a Hybrid Previa/Estima to fill that roll...

We have two small kids and an 02 Honda Odyssey. With the short trips that van gets, we see 15mpg. (It's 5.5 years old, and has under 55,000 miles on it--and that includes at least 10 1000 mile round trips to my brother's, so you see how little it's actually used--45K worth of daily miles in 5.5 years.)

Show me an established technology that will give me (1) performance I need (no more old Previas, thank you very much, I had one), (2) a real minivan experience complete with size, people hauling capabilty, stuff hauling capability, and so on, and (3) 25mpg in the daily driving my wife does--and I'll snap it up tomorrow.

As long as it's not a Ford. I don't care that Ford uses Toyota's HSD under the hood, I won't buy it.

i had a sienna driver approach me to ask me about the hybrid system in the work parking lot one day, and when i told him my husband works on them for a living he started asking if we had any inside info on upcoming minivan hybrids. there's a massive untapped market there. my sister wants one, my co-worker, and apparently the guy i talked to and most of his friends who have families.

if i was in the market for something of that size, i'd be all about a hybrid version.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Apr 2 2007, 09:24 PM) [snapback]416826[/snapback]</div>

I agree. Corolla Verso hybrid for me too.

Furthermore, a 1.8L Corolla engine would go better in freeway cruising than the Prius 1.5L engine. I have gotten over 40 mpg on freeway cruising on a rental. So we could get better mpg if driven properly.

I have no need for anything bigger than my Prius. 95% of the time I need only half the size of my Prius. So, no, I would not buy a minivan.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dipper @ Apr 3 2007, 12:33 AM) [snapback]416836[/snapback]</div>

I've been saying this 'til I'm blue in the face. There is a huge market here for an economical (hybrid) vehicle that can carry seven passengers. They sell vehicles like the Verso in Japan and Europe (where they call them MPVs), but if you want to carry 7 people here you either can buy a SUV (or now, crossover but they're still too big) or a bloated "mini"van (the Odyssey and Sienna are huge). My wife likes her Honda Pilot, except for the 18mpg. If Toyota would sell the Verso here with HSD, I'd be there tomorrow to put my order in.

I've been waiting for hybrid estima for a long time. I even told my prius salesperson to put my name down for estima if it ever comes.

unfortunately Toyota just won't bring it to US. I thought about import from Japan but i'm afraid to driving on the wrong side of the road.

If toyota brings that to US, the minivan could be the #1 money maker for them.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MisterT @ Apr 2 2007, 04:08 PM) [snapback]416615[/snapback]</div>

Yes. Huge untapped market pretty much sums it up for me too. My wife and I researched this in the fall, ended up with a Mazda5, which has almost exactly the same footprint as the Prius but is taller. Drives like a car, looks like a minivan (until you park it next to a real minivan and see how much smaller it is.) Getting maybe 29 mpg overall so far. I like it, but if there'd been a hybrid minvan getting 40 mpg I'd have gotten that instead.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(larkinmj @ Apr 3 2007, 11:15 AM) [snapback]417008[/snapback]</div>

Our 2nd hybrid is the Lexus SUV, RX-400h. It sits up high enough, the AWD does well in the snows of MT and it's got enough power to pull a trailer ... even more power than the non hybrid RX. Having to haul realty customers, the object was to have a certain 'Look'. Prior to the 400h, our business car was an 11mpg 6,000LB+Range Rover. As consumer reports shows ... the RR is the WORST for reliability. Even so, many look at it an go, 'WOW'. They ought to think, "ug".

I see *plenty* of Priuses around here with real estate signs stuck on the side.

They are a good size for that. And they're newer and clean. Does anything else matter?

TOYOTA, Listen up.

I want a hybrid Sienna and I want it now, not two or more years from now.
I have the prius, I'm hooked. I have a 1999 Sienna, I am sick of getting
14 mile to the gallon. Please deliver me to the promised land. I want a
40 mile per gallon van. I know Americans want large, so you are waiting
to redesign the Sienna to accommodate the synergy drive, but please deliver
me an Estima in the meantime or rush the redesign.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(adam1991 @ Apr 2 2007, 11:30 PM) [snapback]416638[/snapback]</div>

Not even if it was the European S-Max with Toyota HSD under the hood? The S-Max became car of the year here, handles well and looks good too. No HSD yet though..

The hybrid minivan market is just waiting to ERUPT!
The people that are most interested in our Prius, seem to be soccor moms!
And I know a lot of people interested in a hybrid that won't buy a Prius/Camry because of a 3rd child that would not fit in the car.
That being said, I only have 2 kids so I'd prefer a 4wd Matrix or Rav4 with HSD.
At least until someone makes a PHEV. Then I don't care what it is, I'll take it.

Put me down as someone who wants a hybrid Sienna. We put over 24K miles a year on our Sienna, lots of that from going to Renaissance Faires in other parts of the state. We tend to pack the car with lots of people and stuff, so the smaller Estima wouldn't be as useful to us. Just getting a 25% boost in fuel efficiency would make it worth it to us.

I'll take a PHEV Sienna with a 30 mile EV range, please. :unsure:

Pretty please?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lowlander @ Apr 11 2007, 03:55 PM) [snapback]421590[/snapback]</div>

Well, that is a Mazda5, or close enough.

If you hadn't put a name on that I'd have said it was a Mazda5. Right down to the front airscoops and rounded tailgate. But it's in fact Ford's version of a Mazda5. If I did the conversions right, the specs show it being 2-7% larger in every dimension than the Mazda5. Reviews quote 35 miles per (imperial) gallon with conservative driving -- which works out to 29 MPG US, which is what I'm getting. Reviews say it's based on the Focus, which is based on the Mazda3, same as the Mazda5.

So, Ford Europe did it's own version of the Mazda5. That's great.

But on the other hand, if Ford had had the good sense to market that in the US, I'd have bought it from Ford rather than from Mazda. I wanted to buy a Ford, I visited a Ford dealer to check out what they had. What Ford sells in the US in that market segment is the Freestyle, which is a nice enough vehicle I suppose, but is enormous and, per reviews, will get about 20 MPG if you're lucky.

So Ford actually makes and sells the car I wanted, but not here. Because ... beats me. Even if the average American doesn't want a fuel efficient car, some of us do, and it seems more-than-dumb just to concede that segment of the market.


Here's the Mazda5 for comparison.

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MisterT @ Apr 3 2007, 08:08 AM) [snapback]416615[/snapback]</div>

Am I missing something in a previous discussion?

Hybrid Estimas have been around for several years (in right hand drive anyway)

Here's a 2002 for sale now...

[attachmentid=9942]