Looked for a Prius Prime thread, I assume this is the one but no mention of "Prime" in the thread title, are we up to 4 gens of the Prius?.... I'd like to consider myself fairly versed in hybrids and PHEVs, heck I own 2 Leafs and a '07 Prius since new but I recently finished reading an article on the Prius Prime(gen 4??) and while I was seriously considering one to replace our aging '07 Prius, after reading the article I'd say a solid no
Maybe it's been mentioned before but I must have overlooked it but who in the heck thought it was a good idea to come out with a 4 passenger Prius :? Yes like the original Volt that not many people seemed to want(I sure didn't and sales were anemic in my neck of the woods) that only had 4 seats, the Prius is following Chevys lead and producing a 4 passenger Prius :roll: (why don't they make it require Premium gas while they're at it
)
Damn I can't believe they would do such a stupid thing, don't they realize many people probably want to occasionally seat more than 4 people and would probably not be interested in a car that didn't allow that? I mean it wouldn't have to be for 5 linebackers, just something like the Leaf which is basically just for emergencies or small kids. I'm glad Chevrolet finally got the idea and gave the gen 2 Volt 5 seats and regular gas, I hope it doesn't take Toyota that many years to figure things out.....
It's almost like when a major mfg. comes out with a new vehicle they purposely design in things that they can later
correct and therefore have something current owners want requiring them to replace what they have and
upgrade to a new model. I could live with the limited range, yes it's double the old PiP(which was an absolute joke IMO) but still would it have killed them to given the Prime at least a 16kwh battery to not only give the maximum tax credit but more EV range.....and another knock in my book is it's measly 3kw charger, sure with it's tiny battery it still charges the battery in little over 2 1/2 hrs but IMO since many/most?? public charging stations utilize 30a(>6.6kw) equipment why not maximize on that, heck go shopping for an hour and basically charge your car from empty to full....would it have added
that much to the price?
Over the past half year I've been talking to various people about the upcoming Prime, several people were interested to the point that they were going to give it a drive when it was finally available. After notifying them it would only hold 4 passengers none were really interested, granted none were single or childless but they all showed interest that has now disappeared
Oh well, our current Prius is still running great and we'll probably just wait Toyota out, glad I bought my Leaf when I did, while not a perfect car by any means I haven't seen anything better since and have no current hopes I will in the near future