A Negative report on Prius V and its owners

I disagree. A review should not be solely, or even mostly, opinion based. I see reviews (at least ones for consumer products) as something that will help an interested party decide whether they want to purchase a product. The stupid video he made rivals a high school kid with a camera making a Youtube video bitching about math class, it gives next to no objective information.

The dude is entitled to his opinions, I agree with that, but if anyone uses said video to help determine if a Prius is the right car for them, they're being misled tremendously.

 

A review should be basically about the facts with objectivity. Of course, everyone, nowadays, don't review without putting their own personal bias. That is why I stop caring about Movie reviews. At best, the only reviews I focus on with regards to cars would be on certain stats that I care about, not someone's impression, because of the simple fact that for a car, people will be picky about things.

If they are going to decide, they should test drive and see how it works for them, not simply go by what someone says.

Hell, I am curious about the Nissan Leaf, but not regretting my choice for the Prius v because I don't feel the charging infrastructure is quite mature enough to really consider getting a Leaf due to the unknown factor I may run into as far as going for distances thay may not allow for recharging and the less than mature infrastructure which hopefully will change in 3 years, but not likely right this moment.

 

I didn't even read the review, but I agree with some of his points Seriously why are people reading or watching CNN reviews. I mainly watch cnn through the window of the daily show.

Hey lots of us don't get epa in our prii. The v does take a hit in fe compared to a liftback because of its weight and shape compared to a liftback.

lol. The media has a huge anti volt agenda. Part of it is expansion of its anti prius agenda against all cars that have anything but an ice. Most of the media is overly positive about Toyota.

Drive a volt or a leaf, they are a lot more fun to drive than a prius. The volt is also much more expensive, the leaf has range limitations. Why would they ask the volt owner if it was fun. Odds are he would say yes. Then some prius v owners find the mileage game makes there cars fun to drive.

 

You guys need to relax and shake it off.
OK....so I didn't see the review. I don't have to.

You expect a Hummer to bet bad ink for fuel economy and ride comfort....oh and price.
You expect a ('12) Honda Civic to get bad ink for a 'regressive redesign'.
You expect a Laaaand Rovah to get bad ink for being expensive, and built to stay that way.

SO….they say that the Prius is dull to drive? An overweight Prius takes more fuel to operate than its smaller sibling?!
Wow!
How did that keep from making the main desk as a breaking news story????

People don't buy Priuses to tip cones over in a parking lot, or do long smoky burnouts at a drag strip. They're supposed to be reliable, frugal, and (fairly) comfortable for their price point.
You can't expect some automotive journalist to climb out of a Camaro or a Porsche Cayman, put a Prius station wagon "through its paces" and write something like:

"OMFG!!! That thing really performs!!! It accelerates like an F/A-18, and it handles like its on rails!!! I'm selling my BMW and ordering one tomorrow!!!!"

C'mon!
The G3 (and siblings) are good at two things.
Sipping gas and being industry-leading reliable.

You want "fun to drive" for less than $30K?
You're probably going to have to give up "industry-leading reliable."
And......you're going to have to give up "fuel frugal" at almost any price.

Just be satisfied with that.

 

I like going to Rotten Tomatoes, and seeing the user and critic reviews before deciding to go to a movie, so of course I'm going to read every review before making a decision to test drive something as expensive as a Prius V.

While I was deciding, I read that the tech was a bit glitchy, and the car was underpowered even in power mode when getting on a freeway. When I test drove it I was blown away with how well it accelerated. I rarely even use power mode now, except when I really need to move. I love the negative reviews, they really make me happy with all aspects of the car.

I got this car because it fits my purposes to a T, as I assume most of you did. Car critics have their criteria, I have mine (cargo space, mpg, technology and price). Ultimately my opinion on what car I purchased is more important to me than anyone else's.

 

"this car is as much fun as doing your parents' laundry" This guy must have been a heck of a kid.

 

Yeah, but the reality is not all reviews are only fact based. Infact I'd argue the majority of reviews available to the public include a high degree of personal opinion.

The Jeremy Clarkson review of The Honda Insight comes to mind.

IMO you take the good with the bad. It should be obvious to anyone watching that review that it's almost entirely his opinion. If you are going to change your buying decision based on the pure opinion of someone else? Opinions like, I bet the owners of this vehicle are boring? Then IMO, you weren't very commited to buying the vehicle to start with.

I'm not saying I liked the review. I'm not saying it was fair, or objective. But as a personal opinion review of an Automobile, it's almost unassailable.

 

That particular shot, and the way it was presented was manipulative. Yes, a lot of people don't reach EPA, with their vehicles. But to make the statement...The Prius V takes a hit..then flash to a Screen MPG reading far below the expected average...is suggesting that is the MPG you should expect.

As I said before? A persons opinion? Is there opinion. But that section of the review, was unfairly presented.

 

Talk about boring and dweeby .... how about the reporter ....

Like said in Wizard of Oz ... pay no attention to the man behind the curtain ... in this case, in the Prius v

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The whole journalist thing about 'boring, numb steering, etc....' is the same 'ol schtick. They're trying to compare a Prius to the feeling of driving a sports car. In fact, the guy probably drove into work in a sports car. He's all used to that, then jumps in Prius v and doesn't feel the love. Who cares.

So many negatives in this video. Notice how he shows the 33 MPG on gage. Bogus. Total average on Fuelly | Share and Compare Your MPG is showing 40 MPGs for the v.....

... and Prius backs up its MPG claims. We seem to have gone back on to summer blend gas and my trips are longer now, but still highway and city mix .... my MPG gage in my 2011 .....

54.x MPG for actual economy of about 51 MPG ....

Folks, there is no non-plug in car on planet earth that can touch that. IOW, Fords little Focus SFX would be down in the 35 MPG range tops on same conditions. The Focus would have burnt off lots of gas in the 45 minute, 6 mile trip we had to put up with Friday.

One last thing, this guy might have been put up by one of our mfrs for this 'review(?)'. Truth is, we have nothing on the ground to compete with it. Just a picture of a C-Max which Fords *hopes* can compete with v. GM? They have a lagging Volt, nothing else coming. Chrysler? Forget it, they may not even care. Too busy building Chargers and Challengers.

 

I think I can guess why this wanabe journalist has a wild hair up his hoe hoe over the Prius. $120/week to fill his land barge - and it's going up quick. Paying for import oil with dead soldiers too. Sure, the U.S. has to spend billions of exported dollars to terrorist countries, but what the hell, it's worth it, because big over powerd transportation "says who we are" ...

But hey - other than that, he finds his land barge 'fun to drive'. Let's be glad for him because it works for him.

 

About the only jollies you can get driving around the suburbs here is a little acceleration from a stop light, but not much. Speed limits are low and you'll end up with a ticket for speed contests.

I've see guys driving fancy sports cars sometimes, like turbo Carrera's and all in the city. They'll blast off the line to 35 MPHs, then have to chill out. How boring. Then they get to suffer with the gas engine rumbling away at all times the Prius would be shut off.

 

My 2011 Prius is almost like a 2-speed car on acceleration. I accelerate casually off the line and it rolls to about 15 MPH on electric, which seems like 1st gear. Then the gas engine chimes in, like shifting into 2nd, but it happens very smoothly. Engine going back off if imperceptible.....

Conventional cars leave the driver stuck with either manual or automatic gear shifting. If I'm in a sports car, I'd like manual shifting of course. But, that's gets old quick in the city. ...

automatic transmissions? Yuck. Constant, never-ending of shift up, down, up , down in the city. Every acceleration up to speed, you're going through 3 or 4 gears at least. Slowing down, shift 3 or times .... over ... and over .... and over. Completely nauseating to me. If I can help it, I won't drive anything less than a full hybrid. Conventional, I hope I've owned my last one alredy.

 

Had some kind gentleman (yeah, right) come up behind my Prius yesterday ... in a Ford Explorer with custom wheels ... gets up really close behind me in heavy boulevard traffic.. you know, like get out of my way close ...

that's what I did, signaled and changed lanes.

Enjoy your land barge while you can still afford the gas.

Consider this, the folks with land barges likely aren't getting around too far in their land barge, nor seeing much of the world.

 

This car is not for the disco dancing type that this guy obviously exudes. Wow, he test drove the car under a bridge for two miles then showed the obviously skewed MPG. Can you say Prius hater! What a joke!

 

Well, I know from experience how he got the 33 mpg. As I got it on my Prius v the first few weeks I had it and not really reading here on proper ways of driving the hybrid cars.

The problem is, the reviewer jumped into the Prius v and drove it like you would any car, hard acceleration, maintain acceleration at the speed you want. Thing is, the hybrid synergy system does NOT work the same way as a normal car. But then, should we be surprised that car reviewers are the types who love power machines and not used to cars designed more for economy?

 

What I find interesting is that they will do anything to discredit Toyota because Toyota builds automobiles for their engines to last a long time, and this what keeps their customers coming back for more automobiles. Does anyone remember when they had all those accelerating Toyotas? To me, it seems it was someone playing games (just only my opinion).
If you are young punk for power, yes, the Prius/Yaris/Corolla/Matrix/or any of the low any models may not be for you, but if you are a young guy/gal who wants just a car to save money , then any of the smaller cheaper Toyotas (including the Prius) will do the trick. (My first car was a Hyundai Accent GS 2 door, and it was crappy, but got me from point A to point B).I know people who had Toyotas for a very long time, and would get another Toyota. I even knew a guy who had a 20 year old Toyota, and he was still driving it because that it got him from point A to point B. If you don't care for speed, and you want to "spice your ride" up with all the lights and fancy such, you can still do that with Toyota products (have done it to some extent on my Matrix). If you want to spend more money for speed, be my guest, but I have to ask where are their brains especially when they are spending more for gas at a lower MPG. For a guy who has an 07 Matrix XR, I definitely love the 2012 Prius V because it has everything I want and more than my Matrix XR does. Does speed matter? No, but saving money in my pocket does! It was funny the other day when I told my dad that my wife and I decided in a Prius V, and he asked but, "does it have everything you want on it for that model? I said umm yes, or I wouldn't even bother looking at the Prius V base model. (He has a 2009 Corolla CE, and has more features than my Matrix does. Lucky him!) So, in the end screw those Auto journalists, and take a hike!

 

And might I add that the Prius V also looks amazing just for being the Prius V wagon in all 3 ways, driving on city streets and highways, parked in parking lots, and parked in your driveways.

 

On the subject of reviews and critics, Andy Ihnatko had a thinkpiece about what makes good and bad film criticism. To paraphrase, #27: Zeppo Kardashian he expects a review to be in keeping with the purpose of the film. A documentary and an action film are utterly different, but you can tell if they each did the job they intended to do. You can give 5 stars to a kids film and 1 star to a serious drama, not by comparing the two films together, but by comparison to others in the genre.

In the same way, a car reviewer should be able to see the purpose and intention of the car and review based on that. Sure, if the manufacturer is making a wild claim, the reviewer can must put that to the test.
Generally you review like with like, so the Prius v might be compared to small wagons and hatches. Wheels magazine's Car of the Year (COTY) in Australia puts all new cars sold in that year and declares one winner. Not one winner for each category; one winner. Somehow the judges can compare 40 cars and determine which one is doing the job the best across the broad range of criteria. (Honda CR-Z in 2011) They spend 3 days doing that, so you can't expect the same for a 10 minute review. But you can expect some prior research no matter how short your piece to camera is.

Oh, and Andy Ihnatko's link to the Prius? He was featured in Robert Llewellyn's Carpool. He doesn't review the Prius, he talks while in a Prius.

 

It's hard to trust the American media these days--they have become more and more profit-0riented--especially the news organizations. It's the American Big 3 car companies vs Toyota and Honda. The American car companies can only come back at the expense of the main Japanese companies. That's it in a nutshell. It isn't all bad, mind you. There are a lot of jobs at stake with the Big 3, and you want to see them show a profit.