Disappointing G3 exterior

I brought my 2009 G2 in for scheduled maintenance today. While I was waiting for service, I found that my dealer had just got in a shipment of new G3s. Most were model IIIs.

I was really anticipating finally getting to see one in person! They had black, red, the gray, and the blizzard pearl, still with their shipping wraps partly in place.

But I have to say that I was really severely disappointed by some of the lack of attention to exterior detail. Granted the cars had not been cleaned yet. But even looking past that, here's some of the things that immediately stood out to me as real "negatives".

• What were they thinking with the gray "fog light opening blanks"?? There is nothing on the exterior of the car that color! Couldn't they have made them to match the body color, or even made them in black! (I know that this has also been mentioned by others).
• The wheel well openings appear larger than those on the G3. As others have noted, they really, really need much more extensive wheel well liners. the suspension components and other items just kind of hang out in the open. They look for all the world like someone forgot to finish building out the wheel wells. The G2 had smaller wheel wells and seemingly more substantial liners, so this was not anywhere near as noticeable on the G2s.
• On the front lower edge of the rear wheel well openings, a rather large piece of body sheet metal wraps into the wheel wheel. On the red and white cars this looked really bad. I can't exactly remember now as I'm typing this, but I think that the rear lower edge of the rear wheel wells were treated the same way. On the G2 these same areas were covered by black plastic flaps, which blended in with the black of the wheel well liners and coatings.
• Up about a third of the way on the rear wheel well openings there is a black plastic tab that helps secure the wheel well liner. It sits right on the body sheet metal lip that forms the wheel well opening. This just looks bad! At first you think, "Gee, someone didn't tuck that under the lip", until you realize, "oh no, they actually made it that way".

I really just couldn't get past how bad these details looked. They "cheapened" the look of the entire car, especially the blizzard pearl and red units. On the black and gray, they are not as noticeable (well, except for the need for better wheel well liners, which looked bad on all colors). I was disappointed, as after seeing the photos here on the forums, I really wanted to say that I liked the new exterior looks of the G3s. I walked up to them expecting to be wowed; instead I was underwhelmed.

Hopefully when the G4s comes out they'll get it right.

Before seeing the exteriors of those G3s today, I already knew that there were design features of the interior that I definitely did not like (the cluttered "floating bridge" center console, low color MID, etc). But I could eventually "look past" those kind of items, and maybe even make peace with them, as they are mostly just preference, and I can change my opinion (even though I am a man ), when necessary.

On the other hand, the exterior deficiencies that I mention in this thread seem to me to fall out of the range of "design preferences" into instead that of "cheap" or "poor" design.

I'm already a Prius fan, and so I want to like the G3. But for someone else who has never owned one, and who has an eye towards detail, they may be really off-put by such things.

I was indeed glad to see my beautiful Seaside Pearl G2 when the service was finished.

You got to be kidding.The Blizzard Pearl is one of the hotting saleing Prius.You belong over in the Gen II form because your not going to find any love here.

Hello TP:

Maybe there are pieces that the dealer is supposed to put on the wheel wells when they prep the cars? Kind of doubt it. But I'm going to stop in when they have some cars prepped and take another look. However, I seriously doubt that they will look any different.

I guess you mean "hottest selling".

Look, I'm not knocking the Blizzard Pearl. It is a beautiful color!! It would be my top choice if I were to buy a G3.

It's just that the problems with the bad design around the wheel wells look worse on the bright colors like the Blizzard Pearl, the Red, etc., since the colors contrast with the wheel wells, and make the deficiencies with the wheel well trim standout more.

If I would have a 2009 Prius, I would be seriously trying to find flaws on the 2010 to justify my purchase. Keep trying, but the fact is that the 2010 sells for the same price and it has been vastly improved. If you are seriously concerned about details like that, go buy a BMW.

Maybe you would. But I'm not trying to justify my purchase. I could have waited a few months longer to get the G3. I chose not to, for various reasons.

I've actually been trying to find things that I like about the G3. And there are many, especially in the improved mileage, horsepower, etc. I don't like some of the interior aesthetic design changes. But as I already said, that was not the point of this thread.

The point was not to criticize their design choices. It was to criticize poor execution of some details that cheapen the overall appearance of the exterior of the vehicle.

I'm the reverse to you I bought a smart due to the shape of the G2 and now have a 2010 on order. I didn't look at the black tab he was talking about and no doubt liked the fact you could see the suspension so didn't take notice of the difference. My colour of choice is blue so I no doubt didn't notice the issue with the white/red choices I didn't like the colours so didn't really look at the vehicle.

Upside you made the right choice in the 2009 it fits your eye.

It seems to me Toyota needed a center console for the numerous control buttons.

I'm not a huge fan of the MFD in my car. It's a bit of a reach to touch the screen and takes some attention just to set the fan on low for example.

Don't think I like the full plastic wheels covers on the II - IV. I like the Gen2 alloys and trim rings better. I thought the trim ring was alloy until looking very closely. I like the Gen2 touring wheel covers a lot too. They look so much like alloy wheels.

I didn't like the looks of the tail lights, front headlights, and front end

Some of you GenIII guys that never wander out of this forum need to lighten up a bit.

There is nothing wrong with the G2 IF you own one. If you would have bought a G3, you would love it too like the rest of us do. I would not let the black tab at the rear wheel well where rocks and stones chip your paint to bother me.

I like the sporty look of the G3 also. I'm in love with it!!

The problem I have with the Gen II guys that want to jump over here and bash the Gen III to make themselves feel better about their car and then jump back to the Gen II. I would not go over on the Gen II form and post a long article about what I hate about the Gen.What's the point.

It's like bringing home the new baby and the other children are jealous because the new little baby is getting all the attention now. The guy has a 2009 and fires a long post about what he doesn't like to make himself feel better and then is surprised when someone fires back. That is just unrealistic. If I posted the stuff he posted about the Gen II in the Gen II forum I would expect people to take issue with it.

You know this to be fact?

Could it be he is pointing out flaws so that future models maybe take these flaws into account? Pointing out flaws on a GenII is not productive in any way unless the GenII carries them as well.

Ultimately I did not take the post the same way some of you did. In fact I see some GenII owners getting their panties in a bunch and becoming overly defensive over these relatively small issues. Since I like both cars and would take a GenII if I could afford it I sit in the middle ground and honestly don't care if someone nit picks either car apart.

The problem I see is with the GenIII owners never leavin gthe GenIII forums and not feeling a part of the rest of this webiste so they get all segregated and touchy as if GenIII and GenII owners are different and in some kind of competition.

If you'll check the GenIII forums, someone posted a picture of some new models which looked like they had different wheel covers. Turns out, they are just the covers used during transporation, and the dealers change them out.

It could be that all of the things you saw were all for transportation issues, and are not at all noticeable once the car is on the lot for sale. (which would explain why you couldn't see these things on our pictures)

All except for the gray plug for the fog light. Which I agree...looks weird, but I don't think it's awful or anything.

Thank you, F8L. That was precisely my main point.

I thought that I made it clear in my subsequent posts that even though there may be design elements that I don't like about the G3, I wasn't criticizing those (actually, there are many other posts on the forums that have already done that). Rather, I was pointing out some poor details on the G3 exterior execution that really have nothing to do with the "style" of the car. Rather, it has to do with sloppy execution of those details by Toyota.

Others here have already been pointing out the problems with their new G3s (NAV resolution, NAV obsolete maps, MID resolution, intermittent electronic weirdness, can't run on traction battery when you run out of gas, etc). Just as their comments are intended as constructive criticism, so were my comments.

We know that Team Prius reads these forums, and some of our intent is to funnel observations back to them via these forums, so that future generations of the Priuses benefit.

Most people on these forums love the Prius. I'm one of them, and want to see it and other Toyota hybrids succeed. I hope to maybe buy a "G4" or "G5" in the future!

Thanks to those of you who understood my intent.

Thanks, DMVP. That may be the case here also, as I pointed out in one of my replies (but I doubt it). To that end, I intend to go back and look at some G3 Priuses that have been fully prepped to do a comparison.

I may even take a camera with me to shoot some photos to illustrate my points the next time.

Hey , We are not over on the Gen II site telling the Gen II people what we do not
like about their cars like, They kind of look and run like a Turdle now that the new Gen III has come out. What kind of response do think I would get if I posted that on the Gen II site. :mod:

With the cars not being clean and prepped, I think one cannot fully appreciate the entire package.

The fog light blanks seem out of character and not integrated with rest of the car's exterior. To be quite blunt, it looks like a cheap afterthought. The problem is that it is so noticeable.

Quite frankly, I didn't even notice the other points you made. So they're non-issues to me. But they bother you (and more than likely others) and that is what really counts in your personal decision to buy or not.

I can see how it would be very difficult for one to justify moving from a 2009 to 2010. Heck, it was a difficult decision for me to decide which one to buy. And I had to get another car.

All in all, I am very satisfied with my decision to wait for the G3.