Prius could become its own brand with coupes, sedans and more wagons

xdrive, I think the general shape of the Prius is modern and attractive and the vehicle is well packaged. I can only hope that a separate Prius brand will include some non-hybrid diesel models in vehicles that are somewhat larger in size.

How about they build a hybrid which is actually fuel efficient...ever load up a prius with all your stuff and then try to get good fuel economy..impossible...27 mpg if you are lucky.

how about building a good looking hybrid

and the usual haters pop out again, spewing their lies, ignorance and immaturity.

Your non-scientific survey is the basis for all my good judgments, anyone else???

And "self-proclaimed voice of reason and morality" would mean I had, myself, proclaimed something about myself. As I have not done so, I will presume that must also be a conclusion drawn from your credible, non-scientific survey. Unless prodded, I prefer to talk about the cars, not myself.

The problem is simply that I dont believe you. I know you believe what you are writing. But if you empirically sttod by the side of the road, you would not count any higher proportion of Priuses doing anything differently from other drivers. It just appears that way to you through your skewed lenses. We all have them, yours are skewed to see bad in Priuses.

Example (talkin about me now, I must be getting self-righteous or haughty)...
In my Prius, I regularly get honked at by cars behind me to go at a green light when the car in front of me has not yet left. Or to speed up when I am following the car ahead of me by inches. You see, people believe that because I drive a Prius I must not know how to drive, but that is based solely on their hatred towards the car itself, not any inidication of the drivers. Prius drivers may accelerate more slowly off the green than someone in a Corvette or 335i might. But no more slowly than a lumbering SUV or Corwn Vic driver. Why hold us to a different standard? And driving in the left lane, I (and you presumably) have noticed and hated this of lousy drivers for as long as we have had drivers licenses. These idiots wont go away, no matter what they drive. The Prius has not changed this in any way.

Won't this dilute Toyota's fleet MPG average?? Or do they bundle all the brands together, Lexus, Scion, Toyota?

Even if they made this a seperate brand, it would still fall under the Toyota moniker and would be attaced to Toyota's total numbers.

Oh no! And if the current one wasn't bad enough!

This car is such a fad, it needs to die off. Toyota lies about its fuel mileage, and it releases excessive amounts of toxins when it's produced. It's so funny how so many people jump on the bandwagon because they feel they need to "do something for the environment." Toyota is lying to you, and you are lying to yourself. It's also a hideous car.

Why am I bothering to respond......?

I dont expect one word of what follows to change your mind, nor do I care if it does. But if one clueless newbie reads your post and thinks that there may be any merit to it, this reponse is for him or her.

"This car is such a fad"
By definition of fad, no it is not. It has increased sales year after year, and its technology finds its way into other vehicles. There is nothing faddish about it.

"Toyota lies about its fuel mileage"
Toyota, BY LAW, reports EPA fuel economy results like EVERY OTHER mfr.

"they need to "do something for the environment.""
The Prius DOES something for the environment. Low emissions and high mpg. That's doing something.

"It's also a hideous car."
That was informative. If by hideous you mean Cd of .26, mpg of 48/45, PZEV emissions, seats 5, 0-60 in just over 10 seconds, push button start/stop, backup camera, touchscreen audio/climate. Starting in the low 20's. Yeah, hideous.

Why do they still make these things? Can you believe they want to make more of 'em?

"releases excessive amounts of toxins when it's produced"
oops, almost forgot that one. Most people are pointing to the nickel mining for hybid batteries when pulling that claim out of their a**es. Toyota purchases less than 1% of the nickel mined at the Sudbury mines, mines which are 95% cleaner now than when they were at their peak of environmental degradation. More nickel is used in everyday products, like STAINLESS STEEL, (hmm where is that used? maybe like everywhere, even in cars) than Toyota will ever use in its batteries. Nope, not gonna buy the toxins argument either.

You're gonna have to do a little better than that to survive around here.

Toyota fanboy. I'm sure you are all over the "global warming" scene as well? Are you really that gullible?

I like the idea

Crap. Your gonna have every celeb going after these saying their "green". So will millions of other people. Global Warming is caused by the sun. Not us. The real issue is to stop depending on foreign fuel. When you have automakers bashing their own hybrids, you know there's a problem

I would be embarassed to be seen in a Prius