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Prius on order in Japan...

Discussion in 'Newbie Forum' started by Tamyu, Jul 23, 2009.

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  1. justaguy

    justaguy New Member

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    hehe I like the silver mica metallic. Is that the color only in japan too? Japanese love their prius ... thats pretty cool. It was loved just as much here before all the recalls and media/gm/ us government going after toyota hehe.

    How are they able to ship US prius and run out of cars in japan? Because there are many sitting in dealer lots right now hehe.
     
    #21 justaguy, Feb 23, 2010
  2. Tamyu

    Tamyu New Member

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    As far as I know, the color we are getting is only 2% of sales, so even then the chances are quite low. :D

    It`s a very light blue shade with a slight purple tint. That color is quite popular in Japan, so it shouldn`t be hard to find pictures of it - but our color is different so you`ll have to accept pictures of other people`s cars. I will be able to provide countless photos of the Aqua though.

    Yes, it`s a Japan exclusive color to the best of my knowledge. It appears that the sandy something color is a US exclusive.

    There is a quota of cars made for export - they make so many each month and ship them off to the US. There are a fair number of differences between the models (the clearest being the placement of the steering wheel!) so the cars sent to the US are made for export.
    I think it is also largely because of the difference in sales. People expect to walk into a lot and drive away in a car it seems, so they just send a whole bunch of them and let people choose the one they want. It seems that this causes shortages in popular models, colors, etc - especially if their sales projections are off... But will also leave a bunch of less popular ones on lots.
    In Japan it`s all by factory order, so there is no stock of cars. You order and then it is made for you.
     
    #22 Tamyu, Feb 23, 2010
  3. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    hahaha. Sounds good! Looking forward to the photos!
     
    #23 Tideland Prius, Feb 25, 2010
  4. Tamyu

    Tamyu New Member

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    And... It is here. The manufacture date is the 22nd, so all updates included. There were 5km on it. We put 150 more basically just driving around to get used to it and feel the joy.

    At this point, we`re extremely pleased with things - and features we didn`t realize were included on the low model we selected... Like the light sensor auto on headlights. Didn`t realize those came on all the models!

    17kpl (40mpg?) at the 150 mark, so we`re quite pleased with that too as I am sure it can only get better. It`s already quite a lot better than our former car - 11kpl (25mpg) in cold weather.

    I`ll post some pictures tomorrow. It`s been raining like crazy so haven`t had a chance to take any nice ones. Requests to see the difference for the Japanese version? :D
     
    #24 Tamyu, Feb 28, 2010
  5. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    In EU it is most often built-to-order. The only way to get a car "immediately" is to get one the dealer has because it was on display or some other reason. There are no lots and no "supermarket" style type of purchase. Typically a colour is seen based on the test car available at the dealer, or by making comparisons, as a much as possible, with other models in the showroom. This is how you end up getting a colour. I don't think that BMW, Audi and the other fancy brands have any better way of showing a colour.
    All brand are typically built-to-order.
    I had to wait only 2 months to get my Prius as Toyota is allotting stock for EU (and its various countries) no matter the request from the US or Japan. Otherwise we would never get it! Sales of the Prius are very small, also due to the high starting price (about 25k€ for the "basic" model - I put that in quotation marks, because it is already quite full of options compared to other "basic" version of other brands' models - one for all, automatic A/C is standard - you *never* find this as standard on BMW/Audi/VW etc., even when you pay as base price 36k€ - see BMW3 Cabrio...).
     
    #25 pakitt, Feb 28, 2010
  6. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    BMW/Audi/MB used to be like this in Canada too. Their basic model wouldn't have cruise control, climate control or even a CD player (as in the case of the 2001 C-Class). Sad when even a $14k Toyota Echo (Platz) has a CD player as standard equipment. They're better equipped now (they all come with alloys, CD, climate control and cruise) for not much more money than what they were charging a few years ago.


    In Canada, it's half and half. You can take one off the lot or the dealer can trade with another dealer if there's one available or you can factory order. It usually is a factory order for a popular car since they're all sold before they hit the lot so most of the time, there's only one demo car. 3 of our 5 Toyotas were factory ordered. One was a dealer showcase model and another was traded.
     
    #26 Tideland Prius, Mar 1, 2010
  7. Tamyu

    Tamyu New Member

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    Unfortunately today was very rainy too, so no chance for a nice photo... But here is one that was taken between the clouds...

    The car is still so shiny that it reflects everything around it. The color is great - basically like the background for this site! :D

    Finally got a chance to drive it around myself for the day (yesterday was all my husband) - and did much better on the mileage. 80km of driving and it was steady around 25~26kpl (around 60mpg) - only by display measurement, but still not bad in my opinion.
     

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    #27 Tamyu, Mar 1, 2010
  8. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Nice, unique color only available in Japan.
     
    #28 usbseawolf2000, Mar 1, 2010
  9. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Very unique!
     
    #29 Tideland Prius, Mar 1, 2010
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