It looks great!!!

I will definitely be cruising one of these in 2013! It looks like they employed some designers from Scion for the interior. Nice

I agree, it is very Scion-like, a lot more than I expected, really nice!
Currently I am driving a rental. I can't wait for the PIP, have to buy now, think a Camry XLE Hybrid is the best alternative, as efficient as the 1st gen Prius.

Very nice.
Not the "wicked awesome" prototype, but still nice looking.

Car looks okay. That video was just... Horrible.

Whats with the random fade effects and corny music? It almost seemed like a parody? 80s commercial maybe? lol

I didn't think the music was that bad. It sorta reminds me of some of the music at Toyota's stage show at Tokyo Motor Show 09. Can't find a good video of it at the moment. (It was much better in person than the videos I've found so far.)

Looks to be a very short re-cut of what would be a much longer promo video. The few seconds of interior views show off the car well, but far too brief to really see what its like.

Toyota makes good car but makes very cheap ad.

huge leap backwards compared to the concept. i'm disappointed. also the interior pictures show low end - yaris level quality.

Toyota Prius c Photo Gallery - Autoblog

case in point: the gear shifter is now traditional but the layout is what you'd expect in a rental car. the driver and passenger side vents are also those circular flip open type vents you find in cheap cars. The seat cloth... not only is the shape of the seats (stitching and such) plain but the actual fabric has some weird random lines all over it. no more automatic air conditioning either. Even on what seems to be a "high end model" with that 5" navigation looking screen there.

Exterior... too far from the concept which was much more angled and masculine. Regular Prius looks better, especially from front 3/4 view. The headlights are also not as nice looking as the regular Prius. The front end to me looks more like it belongs with the Yaris than it does the Prius family.

The rear is okay. The top spoiler at least makes it look nice but those God awful taillights... it's like chevy cobalt meets volvo and they turned out these funky cheap... funky things.

If i were in the market for a 15k-16k car. this would be a viable option. We'll just have to see how much it will end up costing.

I'm not getting this. You somehow expect fit/finish/design/etc. would be better than Yaris? It is low end. It is Yaris level quality. That's the idea. Add the hybrid power plant and all the guts that go with it to a Yaris type car, and for ~$20K US it looks disappointing? Now that I see it, I find it almost unbelievable it looks as good as it does for a basic go-to-work car.

Looks decent to me, and if it comes in at under $20k that would be reasonable. No hybrid is going to sell at the price of a conventional equivalent! That's not why we buy them! With luck the extra cost might be recouped over time, but at least the money isn't going to the oil bastards and we're doing a little to reduce our impact on the planet.

Frareak,

Compare it to a Gen I Prius or a Toyota ECHO. Basics. No frills. But with 51+mpg and loaded with technology.

If Toyota markets this car as "Total cost of ownership," they'll beat the heck out of the competition.

Huh?? Did you want the hybrid system for free? A $15-$16K vehicle is the Yaris or Fiesta or Sonic. They all get about 30-35 mpg day-in and day-out. But they all have interiors one would expect in a $15-$16K vehicle. That's business.

This^^^

Now however the buyers in the 'under $20K' segment now will have another choice.

A vehicle that gets well above 50 mpg, day-in and day-out. While the $15K interiors may not suit every buyer they may very well suit tens of thousands of drivers who mainly care about keeping the usage of fuel to a minimum along with almost indefinite driving reliabilty.

The Corolla is the prime example of this strategy for the last 40+ years; nothing spectacular except extraordinary reliability, a modicum of comfort and excellent fuel economy in its class. Toyota knows this segment better than any other maker.

I'm not sure what kind of standards you have, but I have a 2004 Corolla and it is certainly NOT a basic car. When I sit in an ECHO, now that's a basic car. My Corolla came standard with power mirrors, AC, daylight-sensing headlights, airbags, plenty of horsepower yet mpg at the same time, and a lot of other stuff, and it's very comfortable to drive. And have you seen the current Corollas? They are certainly not like a Corolla or Civic from the 1990s. They are very nice.

When I get my Prius c (If I like it when I get to test drive it - if not, I'm getting a regular Prius), I'm sure I'll be plenty happy with it. Toyota puts a lot of stuff on their entry-level cars today that entry level cars traditionally never had.

ECHO:


new COROLLA:


2012 Yaris Interior, from Toyota.com...

Toyota Yaris - 2012 Photo Gallery

Does anyone notice the video one has a moon roof option?
(unfortunately, JP Aqua does not have the option)

The base model should have a kind of double bubble roof like Gen2 and later.

Ken@Japan

nice little car wow, looks good

Giving the test drive a new spin - latimes.com

Looking at the picture of the 2012 Yaris interior reminds me. I'm assuming looking at the video, that the dash/instrument panel back lighting on the Prius c is blue?

It sounds like a "little" thing, but since most of the time you are driving in the evening or night this is what you are looking at primarily, it' s important to me. I like a Blue back light the best, Green or even simply white....but I hate Red back lighting.

I can't really 100% tell from the video, there is no completely night shot of the dash and instrument cluster. But it looks like Toyota chose blue...

I actually really like the Yaris dash now. It's classy looking, BUT I hate red instrumentation. If I was looking for a Yaris, that would be a deal killer for me...