Gen 4 Prius Delayed Until Late 2015 | Plug-in Late 2016

Is it? I thought they were both classed as "compacts". Insight set sales records when it was first released in 2009: Honda had to open a second manufacturing line to handle the demand, and it was the best-selling hybrid in Japan. (shrug) I am also disappointed Star Trek 2 did not sell more tickets, but that's okay. I still like both of these so-called "flops".

Ya know, it's funny how two different people can form completely-opposite opinions. I rented both the Insight and the Prius C, and my immediate impression was "wow cool colorful dash & sporty feel around the canyon roads" versus "wow this dash looks cheap & I feel disconnected from the road". Both were base models, but the insight felt much nicer. (Note: I'm not saying your opinion is wrong..... just opposite of mine.)

 

What's worse is these idiots "beep" at you or give you the finger, because you are intelligent enough to drive 20 miles/hour so you can hit the green (and not have to brake). They act like YOU are the donkey, when you are actually the intelligent one.

Man I hate rude people.

 

Japan sales were good for a certain time, but mind my opinion: US sales were a flop...which in fact underlines the global (worldwide) lack of success.
The sizes of the Insight/Prius c, you may not agree with the standards, but they are in different classes.

Calendar Year American sales

(Insight - compact)

2009 20,572
2010 20,962
2011 15,549
2012 5,846
2013 4,802

(Prius c - subcompact)
2012 35,733
2013 41,979

(Prius HB - midsize)
2009 139,700
2010 140,900
2011 136,500
2012 147,500
2013 145,200
[2011 onwards includes v]

Insight was a flop.

 

Did you mean:

The 'Prius killer' ran into a problem.

Bob Wilson

ps. To make a table:

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Thank you a lot, Bob.

 

(1) Honda never advertised Insight as a prius killer. You will never find any ad that said that. And if you do I'd like you to post it here please (a year has passed & still I wait). (2) I'm not sure where to find the "size" of a car, but a quick peak at greenercars.org lists both the Prius C and the Insight as "compact". They are the same no matter how many times you lie and say the C is a midsize. (3) Insight was intended to sell in a class Below the prius, against other compact cars (not midsize cars like Prius). That seems obvious. (4) As for sales it's pretty obvious what happened:

The Insight had very good sales as the "sub-20K hybrid" until the C was released. Then all the customers flocked over there. The Insight lost 10,000 sales the same year the C started selling.

In terms of quality I would rank them:
1 - Prius G3 (obviously.... it's $5000 more-expensive car)
2 - Insight G2 (a sporty canyon-carving hybrid for only $19,000)
3 - Prius C (looks and drives as cheap as its pricetag..... I didn't like my rental C at all)

 

And Chevy is fuel speed ahead: 2016 Chevy Volt to make auto show debut this season

 

They might show a prototype, as Ford did with the F150 with the aluminum body, but the NEW Volt won't be for sale until the forth quarter of 2015.

So, the marketing strategies are different. "Que sera sera."

 

Hmmm, I wonder if the next gen Prius delay has been affected by the fact that ....

* 2014 Rav4, Prius c and Prius v have Poor ratings on IIHS small offset (SO) frontal crash test


Vehicle details


4Runner and Corolla have Marginal SO ratings

and none of their models have a Good SO rating

They are scrambling to bring Camry from 2013 poor SO rating to a 2014.5 to 2015 version with 2,000 new parts. All this might slow down Prius development.

 

Toyota shouldn't make too big of a deal out of the FCEV. There will only be 100 Hydrogen filling stations in CA even 10 years from now.

 

If GM finally makes it a 5 seater, drops the price a tad, gives it more leg room for rear passengers and bumps up the mileage in Charge Sustain mode ... what with it being sold in all states, and Toyota only limiting PiP sales to a few states ... It may actually start outselling the Leaf.
.

 

Toyota should fix the horrid multimedia system. Laggy interface, stupid siriusXM (wonder how much SiriusXM pays to Toyota for their button), useless entunes, bunch of nonsense buttons, weird navigation controls. No thanks to that. A phone will do that all with a few clicks.

 

I never understood why can't they just build an extension to the touchscreen for phones. So then you can have any type of phone, expanded specifically for the car, be able to do any of th phone functions, etc...etc...get free software updates etc!

 

Overall, I find life a little cheaper, and easier, without a smartphone. Now that the plans are far better and cheaper, I might go back, but my tablet is so much nicer to deal with. The Entune apps were fine, not great, but OK. The navigation app in my Prius v Three has worked so well, I'm delighted it was standard equipment. Another perfect rating this past weekend.

Now if they could put $15 into their stereo?

 

Personally I'm quite happy with the delay because I'm not planning to change my car until summer 2017 anyway.
Hopefully the shape and design, the interior etc will all suit my taste, leaving the only question; regular Prius or Plug-in?
If they can push the electric-only range out a little further, I am very tempted to go for the Plug-in next time.