The Prius is pricy, no question,but it is more practical that the TCH or the HCH.It has more carrying volume than those two, and it gets better mpg than they do.It has 69" of more or less flat length behind the front seats( the width varies from 35-50+" It also outsells them 3/1 for the HCH2, and who knows for the TCH.
The reason Toyota doesn't make a Hybrid Corolla is that it would cost $23000-just like a Prius.
The HCH 2 is a good compromise-$2000 less than the Prius, with mpg close to a Prius. The compromise is that you get a slow car-no free lunch.You want better mpg, more acceleration, more carrying volume; pay $2000 more and get a Prius.
The Fit the Yaris and the Scion get very good mpg, and are in the $12000-$16500 range-waaaay less than the HCH and Prius. The Fit is probably the best of a very small cars-full airbags, and lots of carrying volume.Thanks.Charlie

 

Reality check: If the Prius were just another car, it would be about as popular as the Pontiac Aztek. So the target market in my eyes is primarily:
1. Nerds. I mean that in an affectionate way. That's my interest. I can afford the gas.
2. People who commute 50+ each way every day... probably because the pay is good. These people are still doing just as much harm to the environment than the SUV driver who lives 10 miles from work.

In either case, that's a limited market (and they need to be middle class).

If a hybrid Corolla would need to be $23k, then that's a severe limitation of Toyota's system. It seems to me that the Toyota system will be much more plug-in compatible than Honda's, but if they can't get their price into the mid teens, they're only catering to people who could afford the higher gas prices anyway.

The average household income in our country is $43k. If that's your household income and you have a typical family of three, you don't have a pair of $25k cars in the garage (or the apartment parking lot) if you have any sense.

 

Still, Toyota is making a profit on the Prius and they have sold at least 100,000 of them - not to mention the enormous PR.

 

The Aveo sucks. It was the replacement for the Chevrolet/Geo Metro and it gets much worse fuel economy. The 3 cylinder Metro was almost on-par with 4 seat hybrids in fuel economy, heck even the 4 cylinder was pretty close. The Aveo on the other hand comes nowhere near. It's a completely inferior replacement, and at a time when gas prices started climbing. Once again, GM manages to completely miss the boat.

 

I always thought that the Geo Metro and the Ford Aspire were cute little cars that got great gas mileage. I don't know why they stopped making them. It would have been fairly simple to upgrade the interiors of these cars to FIT-level amenities.

The Chevy Aveo is a poor replacement indeed. And it's certainly no Prius. If I had a shoestring budget for a car and wanted a fuel-efficient choice, it'd be a FIT or a Yaris, not an Aveo.

 

I agree that Toyota's decisions have been hit and miss. I don't agree about the Prius. I think they made a mistake by going up in size, rather than keeping it a sub compact like the original version. Other than that I think it's fine. Deciding what to sell based on what most people want is counterproductive. Some people obviously like the Prius and some of us even like the Insight, even though many people would scoff at the mere thought of driving a 2 seater.

I agree about the Lexus hybrids, and also Honda's Accord hybrid. There's no point offering power versions of hybrids. The people who want hybrids are going to be the ones interested in fuel economy. The ones who want crap like power by and large are not going to be concerned with fuel economy. I know this is an over generalization, and might sound contradictory to my previous statement, but I think Honda/Toyota need to be aware of what demographic they are appealing to with hybrids. I know there are some people out there who care about both FE and power, but they should be targetted as a secondary market, not as a primary one. For example, if the V6 accord was an option and there was also a more fuel efficient 4 cylinder version, then that would be more reasonable.

I think Toyota doesn't make a big profit margin on hybrids, so they're actually afraid of them being too successful. We need to see more entry-level hybrids. In particular I'd like to see a Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris hybrid. I expect that in addition to a lower price, they also would get better gas mileage than the current Prius and HCH simply due to slightly smaller size. I do have to wonder whether Toyota might be afraid to upstage the Prius by making a more efficient, smaller automobile, and I am sure the profit margin on a Yaris/Fit hybrid must be tiny which doesn't incline either Toyota or Honda to make them.

Personally, I think Toyota and Honda should turn the hybrid screws on their competitors. While they might not make big bucks off them now, the more the sell the more cost of scale improvements are seen. And, in addition, as hybrids become more accepted and come closer to cost parity with non-hybrids, it will just be one more stigma attached to their American competitors.

 

In their reader survey Consumer Reports asks whether people would buy the same car again. I don't remember the exact number, but the Prius ranked highest of all vehicles (cars, trucks, SUVs, mini-vans, etc.) in that category.

 

I'm sorry to hear the Aveo is so underwheming.

Hybrids have been out for only six years with only about ten real choices (Toyota/Lexus - 5, Honda - 3, Ford - 1, GM - 1 {very soon} ). The technology has already improved considerably and the gas prices continue to go up. This does not look like a niche or declining market.

 

I don't know if I'd agree with that. I test-drove the Prius and TCH before deciding on the TCH. I'm 6'3" and the Prius felt a bit cramped to me. Also I can fit three across reasonably comfortably in the back of the TCH. Don't know if the same is true of the Prius (didn't try it). Of course the Prius' hatchback wins for cargo space.

 

Consumer Reports give Prius a 95% satisfaction rating.
No rating on the Aveo. Overall the Aveo is described as "unimpressive".