yardie876

With some coercion of the friendly Hyundai rep of course. The cars were for training purposes only and VINs weren't even assigned to the vehicles.

spwolf

For me, owning Prius would be mostly due to its different image and styling (techy, different)... If I was just just about efficiency then I guess I would not buy new car to start with :P, or I would get much, much cheaper Auris or Auris Wagon with hybrid drive which is kind of a steal at prices they sell it compared to Prius and it has 90% of MPG/Functionality.

I would bet many Prius Prime owners will get it to be cool and different and have bestest model as supposed to costing them less in fuel.

So I wish Hyundai and KIA made their styling crazier to convey similar image. For instance, if Nero was looking like Sportage, I would seriously consider it. Instead it looks like old design with shiny led strip on front and polished new paint job. In a year it will look like it was released in 2010.

spwolf

Spent some time today in Ioniq... it is nice car, as suspected before, it is half size smaller than Prius. I could not sit behind myself in Ioniq (6ft 220lbs) due to low knee room and hard plastic seatbacks, it was impossible. In Prius I could sit behind myself properly even if I did not have LS amount of legroom left, it was fine.

Interior is all right, better than pics - for instance new Hyundai steering wheel is nice... some other plastics are questionable but overall fine. Seats were not comfortable, you kind of sit like on bench with sides being soft and middle of the seat being hard... it is nowhere as comfy as new Prius in the front.

spwolf

Also, here for Eastern Europe at least, they told me the price would start at around €26k. Prius starts at €27k with nice equipment here. I suspect high pricing is why Hyundai predicted only 70k sales in 2017.

Previously, European journalists expected than Niro and Ioniq will come at 18-20k, thats just nothing close to the truth. As usual, our European magazines publish a lot of false info.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

just watched alex on autos review and he says there's more cargo room in ioniq than in prius so maybe hyundai traded rear passenger room for more cargo room.

as for the review... he felt the ioniq destroys the prius in just about every way...

mmarshall

Once again, Alex is right on. I myself did a review of the Kia version (Niro), and also felt it was superior to the Prius. For one thing, the Niro is far more conventional inside and out, lacks the geekiness and weird gauge / control layout of the latter, and is much more accommodating to the person accustomed to the typical, average compact-car interior.

Toys4RJill

Curious to know what the sales figures are like for this model. Is the car selling?

TRDRAV4

There are a few around, but no where near the amount of Prius...that's a given. But the main advantage IMO that it has is the styling isn't so "out there" like the Prius.

But I have noticed a few more popping up on the road, as are those Niros. The problem now with Hyundai is that they're producing too many Sonatas and Elantras (models that aren't the Sport) that need to be fleeted into the rental agencies. There's an article on Automotive News and TTAC about it where Korea is being dictator over what the US is getting (which should be more SUVs). Honestly, I like the flat bottom steering wheel (same one as the E Sport).