Glad I didn't buy a Gen 4

That too, but if we're comparing price changes over time, MSRP is a good baseline. Right?

 

good question. to me, msrp had no meaning in the past. now it's definitive. what the dealers pay toyota would be more interesting

 

You can pretend Gen5 is an economy car all you want, but the culture of Gen5 is not anything like the frugal economy car culture of Gen1 and Gen2 when simple and affordable mattered more than all the extra junk.

 

The original culture of the Prius has been phasing out for years. Sales peaked in the US in 2012 and has reduced by 86% by 2022 (from 236k to 33k annual sales).

The majority of the early adopters who wanted efficiency and eco friendliness have moved on to full EVs.

The people who want an economical hybrid (or an Uber car) can get a base Corolla hybrid.

Toyota had to adapt the Prius to something new before sales completely died out, is that really such a bad thing?

 

You made the claim that the old prius buyers were economy car focused, that you could buy two of the Gen 1 or Gen 2 cars for the price of a Gen 5. The premise being that, they were economy cars, because of their cost to purchase. You imply that a Gen 5 prius is not an economy car because it costs more than the Gen 1 and Gen 2 did.

But then people showed you data showing that, in 2025 dollars, the Gen 5 is very much in line with the cost of a Gen 1 or Gen 2 was back when those generations were new.

As far as hybrid cars go, the Prius is still in the economy class of car. In 2025, alternatives, if you are buying new and even used, the prices are simply significantly higher than they used to be, and most of that is due to inflation.

When you consider dealer add ons, and extra fees, maybe it could be priced up. But that's much moreso a factor of the covid era demand for cars and low supply. This was a thing *every* dealer was trying to do, and in the US it was especially egregious because few if any states have laws against "market adjustments". And because of these adjustments, and pricing, even used car prices went up significantly. Depreciation for cars between 2021 and now has been really low compared to the past for many models. The only things that depreciate quickly are EVs because of all the rental companies flooding used markets with them and downsizing their EV fleets.

Even the corolla hybrid, in Canada is $30,680 for the base model (LE). And $32,184 if you get the LE with AWD. The Mid-range is 34,400 and the XSE is 40,159. Since we only have prius XLE (the US mid trim), with AWD to compare, the prius is only 1,000 more than the corolla XSE, and is roughly 5k more than the mid trim.

The corolla was always a little cheaper than the prius.

If someone wants a hatchback hybrid from toyota, its either the prius or the corolla cross SE that starts at $38,924. The only other hybrid corolla cross option is the XSE at $41,749. The RAV4s get way more expensive than that. And In this choice, prius vs Corolla cross, you're picking between something a bit stubbier but with a taller SUV styled car, or a longer but shorter sedan styled car. The cross has a bit more storage space, but that's because you can stack stuff higher in the square hatch rather than the liftback style of the new prius. It comes down to how small you like the car.

Reality is, in 2025, the car market has changed. Toyota carries a premium, but high reliability historically and (IMO) one of the best hybrid systems out there. It's much more seamless/smooth than others with great EV to Gas driving ratios, and has had many more years of engineering behind it. Maybe in Gen 1 and Gen 2 you were paying a premium to other brands econo class for not only toyota badge but also for the newer tech at the time. And prices have, MSRP, stayed pretty consistent.

For fun, the Elantra hybrid from Hyundai here in Canada, only available in the top elantra trim (luxury), is $34,129 and it is rated at 6L/100km combined, vs the prius/corolla/cross that come in at just under 5L/100km in fuel efficiency.

So where is the econo car of yesteryear in 2025 with a price tag of 25k? 35k is the new 25k. It sucks, but here we are.

 

Funny, I bought Gen 5 for speed (drivability anyway, and pretty darn good pick-up) and looks, as well as those other things. But, then, I would never have considered a Prius before Gen 5.

 

The G5 is speed limited to about 110.
Maybe 115.....
My G3 was similarly limited to 108
Don't ask me how I know that number.....
That's a distinction without much of a difference but I get it!
The G5 is a fairly 'normy' looking car in a college kid sort of way.

It looks to be VERY VERY low to the ground but that may be an optical conclusion.
AI says it's lower than my old G3 by three inches and one of the things that I DO NOT MISS about the Prius Life is riding around in a car where my sightline is lower than normal people's bumpers and headlights!!!
THANK GOD my work car AND daily driver are adult sized cars!!

If I have to go back to the 'car life' some year it will be because I have to go back to the car life some year.

 

Wake me up when they've got sensible wheels again, and a spare, and the tools for using said spare.

 

AI is very wrong as the gen 5 prius has a road clearance of 6 inches, and the gen 3 prius has a road clearance of 5.5 inches.

The sightlines are lower to the ground. But that's because its a sedan. So you're not complaining about the gen 5 prius, you're complaining about sedans.

A Rav4 has a roughly 8.5 inches of road clearance. So the prius is almost 3 inches lower than an SUV. But thats... always been the case.

And max speed isn't really what anyone cares about. I think more people care about the fact that it doesn't feel lethargic when trying to pass on a highway or get up to speed to merge since it has more power. People would buy a midsize sedan to get around 200hp instead of a prius or other compact car which might have only had 120 or so hp and slower acceleration.

I don't know why you're trying to put down the gen 5 so much. As if its some boomer style mark of pride that you had the older back in my day car by saying it looks "normy" now, and you were the cool kid for being economical in the past. But now, you also say you have an ADULT sized car, as if the new car is somehow childlike because it doesn't have the same ride height as what you drive now, but your older prius was somehow not a childlike car back then even though it had a lower road clearance than the new one?

You know what, fine. I drive an expensive waste of money overpriced tiny baby car that was designed to appeal to a super young crowd that only cares about aesthetics and zoom zoom fun time. You drive a big boy car that reflects your sophisticated experience, and your early gen prius was the smartest most economical purchase, and you were so smart to buy it at the time, and all us plebians are simply too uncultured, and young to understand that we got duped into wasting our money.

 

From context, I think they meant roof height. Gen3 seems to be 58.5"(avg) and the gen5 seems to be 56.1"(avg). It's still not the 3" lower that was claimed, but it's likely what they meant.

(I suspect they cherry picked the upper trim gen3(58.7") and the lower trim gen5(55.9") to get close enough to 3" to round it up.)