Super Size Me: Why the v opens up the Prius market by 34 percent

While the statistics are alarmingly true this isn't the market I see as a trend. I think you will see young families being adopters, sports enthusiasts, people with large dogs and so on. I personally am nowhere near the statistic obese. If anything I'm a little underweight. My problem is I'm tall with a lot of that height being in my legs. I wasn't comfortable in a regular Prius. The console made my knee miserable. But that's me and I'm different from the next person and so on which keeps the world an interesting place. I have a few extra things to factor in as well. We have large dogs but are tired of 20 mpg. The v is a great compromise. To be honest I don't see it as a comfortable car for a larger (obese) person but that is only my opinion. W

 

While I will admit, I am a bit over weight, I am, by no means, obese, and I am also 6' tall, which is a bit taller than your typical asian. The car, in and of itself, does appeal to people who prefer a much larger car, but also want higher MPG. There are SUV Hybrids, however, their actual MPGs are not really that great nor the price tag of some of them make the much better than the Prius v in price, in my opinion.

Aesthetics wise, the Prius V appeals to me due to the fact that the standard Prius design for the back bothers me. The bar in the middle of the back is distracting versus having a decent window. The cargo space allows for the ability to transport more and the simple fact that the backseat area, while not the 7 seater that some would prefer, is still gives the feeling of more room than the traditional Prius.

Unfortunately, I think Nakano (The writer of this Article) did a very poor opening for this article, it is rather... Insulting to some of the people who bought the car as it gives a misconception of the intent of the vehicle at the initial, as we see here from the reposting here.

 

In any case, quite apart from insulting potential readers, the review is mostly content free. Then again, I realize that this is an LA oriented blog so perhaps different standards do apply

 

Arroyo – My current *Fighting Weight* Stats are 70-inches, 174-pounds. According the U.S. Gummit CDC Food Cops, this puts me at ragged edge of the BMI Chart GREEN-to-YELLOW/Normal-To-Overweight Zone, which makes me neither fish nor fowl by the BMI Index categorization.

Adolphe Quetelet's 1832 “normal man†equation and Ancel Keys BMI-ation of it in 1972, was never intended to be used as it is today. The reason is the BMI equation ignores variables like a person’s age, gender, ethnicity, and frame size and muscle mass ratio.

Back in the 1970s, I owned and operated a 2½-Ton, 1974 Ford Thunderbird *Land Yacht* with wall-to-wall burgundy leather upholstery and beaucoup passenger and driver room space and volume in the cabin area. Now that was a car. In those Pre-BMI days, I weighed 166, which would have placed me solidly in the BMI GREEN Zone, had it existed back then. Nobody beat people up for being *Too Non-Fat* to own a *Land Yacht*. Back then, the government only wanted your money, as they still do today, but stayed away from your Freedom To Eat What And How Much You Wanted To Eat.

People ate what they wanted to, as much as they wanted to, and drove the size car…VW Bug, Civic, Pinto, Chevette…T-Bird, Town & Country, Town Car, Caddy…they could afford or stretch their budget enough to make car payments on.

The point, one’s svelteness and good eating habits, or lack there of, had nothing to do with the type of car one was inclined to choose and purchase as their personal gas-powered transportation platform.

I drove and owned-operated an iconic GEN II/2G for five years, before trading it in on the new 2012 Prius v (vee) I am driving now. I loved the 2G for what is was and what it was not. The regular 2G/3G Prius cars are great cars that can deliver great fuel economy. However, they are marginal in the area of hip room, elbowroom, legroom, headroom, and trunk room roominess. No amount of Prius Kool-Aid drinking is going to change the facts of their shortfall in the areas of cabin volume and driver-passenger space and comfort.

My or your or your neighbor’s BMI level of fatness does not change the volume and personal space story on the 2G/3G sedan hatchbacks. They were lacking in this area.

Enter the Prius v (vee) from Toyota Town across the Pacific. Yowza, YOWza, YOUZA!

It is not a minivan, a sport utility vehicle or crossover. It is not truly even a station wagon as EPA insists. The best term to describe the Prius v is it is a *Caddy In A Kimono*.

If the Prius v is for *Fat People*, bring on *Fat Tuesday* next week --- ‘because FAT IS WHERE IT IS AT.

Lets see…Prius v… "v" for more "v"ersatility. Roger that…but also…"v"ery good driver road positional perspective "v"iew "v"isibility, "v"oluminous interior passenger and cargo space, and "v"ery, "v"ery good fuel economy. Driving my iconic GEN II/2G Prius Sedan that the Prius v replaced, *Hybrid $mart*, I was typically running 55-58 MPG Per Tank-Full Fuel Economy Averages (about 120-125%± of EPA). So far, driving my Pv5 in Florida's *Hybrid Friendly* winter season, I am logging Per Tank-Full MPG numbers in the low-to-mid 50s which is about 125% to 130%± of EPA MPG. I am “vâ€ery, “vâ€ery, *Hybrid Happy* with these *Fat* fuel economy numbers.

Join the rest of the Prius v *Fatties* and me at http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/caddy_in-a_kimono/ and I will see what I can do to *Fatten You Up* to get you qualified to get out of your 2G Hatchback into a *Caddy In A Kimono*. lane:

 

I am a potential Prius & Prius V owner. I like the size and comfort of the new Prius V, but if I were to go to that Prius, I am not sure it is worth the change in mpg. I know it is new, but I have read conflicting reports of some good mpg and some not so good, where the normal Prius have very consistent reports. There are quite a few normal size cars like similar in size to the Prius V that offer nice space and mpg that some are reporting. I would hate to switch to a Prius V (which is what I prefer over the regular Prius) just to see mpg in the 30's or low 40's.

 

I would like to point out that while I may have issues on the opening part of this post, Arroyo may not be Roy Nakano, the originator of this message. Looking at the date this was posted originally (on the www.lacars.com site), it was back in November.

DBV - A note about the MPG... I am a fairly new Prius owner right now, namely, my first Prius is the Prius v. I will tell you, depending on how you drive, you will see the lower MPG because of driving habits you may be used to with your older car if you haven't driven a hybrid. Catgic's signature has a guide that I read recently on how to get better MPG with the Prius cars, including the Prius v. The Prius v will get lower MPG than the standard Prius due to design and weight being larger and heavier than the Prius.

I went in knowing that, so I would suggest checking out the guide, as that sig picture he has there... That is from his Prius v using his own suggestions and tweaking of driving habits.

 

@DBV; Consider that Prius v wagons came on the market November 2011 (approx) so they have been driving exclusively in the colder winter months. That will affect MPG as discussed in this (Gen III) thread:
http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-v-fuel-economy/99503-why-mileage-gets-worse-in-winter.html

If you would hate to switch to the Prius v to get low 40's MPG, then the EPA 42 MPG should be enough info for you. If you have been reading DustMonkey's posts about his low MPG, I would say don't worry. He seems more interested in posting his bad stats than understanding and improving them.

Check out Fuelly.com. 33 users with Prius v's share their MPG data (from the winter months) and only 1 user with low 30's MPG from Canada. I wonder if that person is from an extra cold part of Canada, or if fuelly is having a conversion problem.

After tracking 6 fill-ups on fuelly.com I'm showing 37.1 MPG. I am happy with that because I know it will get better in the spring when it warms up, and I am making a lot of short errand trips for my mother-in-law.

I know you will find the right vehicle for you.

 

I will say from experience, I got 33.7 mpg and I am in Southern California. But again, that is mostly because I drove the car like I would have driven my Nissan. But to also be fair, I also ran LONGER than I did my Nissan and did have one day of having the car on for 3 hours working with a Window Tinter, so that could be a probable reason why my car had lower mpg while I have somewhat better conditions than a Canadian driver would temperature wise.

Again, as others have said, up to you which way you want to go. Roy's article just starts off bad in my opinion.