Must-Have Safety Features Missing From Prius v Five

Then wait 'til next year. Toyota will most likely add them. Head-protecting side-impact airbags were an option on the RAV4 in its first model year ('06), if you can believe that. By the next year, when I bought mine, they were a standard feature. We have blind-spot monitoring on our '12 Camry XLE hybrid and we love it. I expect that if and when I get around to replacing the RAV4 with a v, it'll be at least an option on that car too. What I don't get is why they don't offer power driver and passenger seats? They have a lot more adjustments than manual seats and they're well worth the extra money.

 

Air bags are certainly safety devices. However, tech like blind spot detection seems needless when you should be checking the lanes next to you by turning your head.

 

Ah, spoken by somebody who, unlike me, obviously has a functioning left eye. Why do you need a heater in your car? Couldn't you just pile on more clothes when it gets cold?

I love all this safety technology - especially as we get well into our 60's. Now I'm spoiled. I wouldn't dream of buying another car without PCS or a similar system than can automatically brake a car to a stop or near stop if an impending impact is sensed.

The Toyota Avalon Hybrid my wife and I looked at last week had PCS and both BSM and RCTA and didn't list for all that much more (+19%) than our Prius v Five/ATP. It would be great if these features were offered on the Prius v and all vehicles manufactured by Toyota.

On a side note, the manager of the Lexus dealer body shop that had my car for a month after it was rear ended recently told me that PCS on Lexus vehicles is hurting his business -- fewer newer Lexus vehicles rear ending other cars and much less damage when they do.

 

And that feature loaded car would compete how well with the ~$22k small 4-cylinder cars?

What would be the current draw of all those features you describe being on all the time?

How would they differentiate between the car you describe and their upscale brands?

I like Prius V at ~$27k, but no way I'd buy at $37k.


(Said as an ex-Porsche owner, current Avalon and Prius owner and 69 years old)

 

You're missing the point, mikefocker. The Prius v Five/ATP isn't competing against other $22,000 4-cylinder cars. If that is your target price range, then the Prius v Five/ATP is not the vehicle for you and you won't be getting some wonderful safety technology like PCS - at least not in the next couple of years. Why do people critize the availability of these features? If you don't want them, don't buy them.

The base Prius v in Europe sells for the equivalent of about US$45,000 -- doesn't seem to keep them from selling. We would have paid substantially more for a better equipped Prius v Five/ATP. Maybe Toyota could call it the Prius v Seven.

We bought the Prius v because it is a wagon - not because it is a hybrid although my ultra-fugal CPA wife certainly likes that aspect. Since we will likely continue to have two vehicles - one for my wife and one for me - an Avalon or other sedan would be OK. It's not like I'm going to be loading anything really heavy at my age like I did when younger when I rented a pickup truck or van whenever I needed to haul something or pull the boat.

Speaking of Porsches, the other car we looked at besides the Avalon Hybrid was the Porsche Panamera 4-door sedan. Guess which one I want? My wife would rather I buy an Avalon as we retire but she also likes the Panamera a lot. If anybody thinks you can get too many expensive options on a Prius v, take a look at the Panamera on which you can double the price by adding options.

It's all about choice and we want a lot of choices. Toyota seems to be adopting the "big tent" philosphy - lots of variations of each model so there is something for everyone. Being both Toyota buyers and shareholders, that makes us darned happy.

 

Offline, I didn't buy the five because it didn't seem to offer me anything for the difference in price that I valued. The V replaced a perfectly good CRV which cost me about $1.2k a year in depreciation over 9 years. To me the Prius was a compromise between a sedan and a wagon in space in the rear with the added MPG being a bonus. The common thing it has to my Porsches (3) was a 'fun to drive because they are different' factor. The more practical car might have been the RAV4 for more room in the rear but it wouldn't have been as much fun. As you get to the $37-40k price point, you are into Lexus ES Hybrid territory and the five equivalent with all options is well over $40k. and can get to $48k. Be interesting to see how many of each car is sold.

The Avalon...it is my wife's car. Married almost 40 years I don't tell her what kind of car to drive. She wanted plush and V6 power (not turbo-4) so it was Avalon or Buick. Choice was close and the whimsical deciding factor might have actually been the Toyota dealer is closer. Could she have bought a Pana, yes but no dealer within 50 miles and she had no interest in buying a car that costs 3 times our first mortgage.

When I ask how would a Prius sell at $37-40k I ask because my son bought one a few years ago but wouldn't at that $37k price and I wouldn't have either. Daddy told me don't put serious money into a depreciating asset. (Now why did I buy a house 4 years ago? <grin>)

 

Isn't this what the Mark 1 Head on Swivel and Eyeballs are all about?

 

The max option Prius v Five/ATP sells for over $40K in NC? We paid well below invoice in the low $30's without doing anything I would call haggling. I watched while my CPA wife did the deal.

Everyone has to make their own choices on what they value. I don't mind paying for a vehicle I want as long as I do it at my price.

So, again, what's your point? You don't buy a product like the Prius v Five/ATP because it has features you don't want. We bought it because it has features we consider essential. You bought what you wanted. We did too.

And the "daddy rule" I adhere to is never borrow money to buy an asset that doesn't produce revenue. No mortgages, no car loans, no credit card interest. Period.

 

No problem at all if they make a Prius V Seven with the options you want. Just pointing out that Toyota has a line of Lexus hybrids that the Seven would intrude on and they still don't have all the features you want at several K more. The Lexus marketing types would scream if the Toyota version got more options.

My $37k price point is taking the cost of an optioned V five and then adding on the prices they may expect to get for the options you want added. I don't have problems that you want them available, just pointing that there are other customers that don't.

Yes we in NC do pay more for the Toyotas we buy in state than in some others states because of a series of adders our distributor and all dealers add that aren't negotiable. I use my history of going out of the SET distributor area to drive the prices to a tolerable level or I go elsewhere. They know I have and would again.

I'd like to see the LED headlight lights moved all the way down the food chain for efficiency sake, LED DRLs and LED lights as turn signals on the mirrors for safety and a lighted "gear shift" knob so I can find it in the dark. I'd like the backup beeps to be audible outside the car and less intrusive inside. I figure the OEM-quantity costs of all those to be less than $250.

I did add "leather" to my Three because I have grandkids and they spill. Plus I didn't like the fabric on the armrests and figured they would stain. So it isn't like I'm adverse to options or paying for things I value.

I'm not historically at your "no borrowing except for revenue producing" level but darn close. That $279 a month house payment for a mortgage we took out to buy a house we lived in for 37 years and paid off 20 years early sure seems small now.

 

That is what the S-Turn on taxi and final are all about...