Featured SPOTTED! *UNWRAPPED* 2016 Prius spotted this morning!

The headlights on some new cars these days are almost at front bumper height.

20 ev seems to be the sweet spot for most plug-in hybrids. What i do not care for is: trading hv mpg for ev range, 42 mpg becomes 38: Compare Side-by-Side

 

The issue is Toyota make a big deal with their concept cars, but when they make it to production, there is very little resemblance - so of course everyone is taken by surprise. Really why bother with concept cars if the production version looks totally different. Might as well put a board up with technical specs instead. Think about NS4, can you think of one design cue from that in G4? They were showing off NS4 even last year but why? Very misleading don't you think? I don't think Toyota value fans and those eagerly following their roadmap like those of us here at PC waiting for G4.

 

Concepts have always followed that path. They are used as vehicles (bad pun) for getting feedback. We've seen it for decades.

Those who are taken by surprise likely aren't familiar with the process... which is rather common, since so much changes throughout the course of research & development before even reaching potential production.

 

It's a way of having your cake and eating it too. The stylishly-aggressive-and-just-close-enough-to-possible-reality concept cars does the same thing as a halo product (i.e. a top-of-the-line sports car in a marque's lineup), without having to incur the risk of actually manufacturing and marketing an impractical niche product that few people will actually buy. It tickles the imagination just enough in the general audience (who are not as auto-obsessed to bother to fully follow a vehicle from concept to production) and makes them feel good about the image of the marque.

Yes, it is a bit of a bait-and-switch.

 

I give you the 1984 Ford Probe concept car:

And the 1989 Ford Probe:

 

Lately, production cars have been very close to original concepts of Toyota and Lexus. It may be about time to change my avatar, lost the NS4!

 

I agree with Felt. Moving the hood backward is a backward move. I can sort of imagine why that was done - they wanted to change the Prius shoe shape from G2 and G3. Even the NS4 concept sported the shoe shape but they did not think that would be good enough. Maybe there were technical limitations also driving this change. I think G4 will come with impressive technical specs so they will manage to sell this car. However, I have difficulty believing they will be able sell this car to those who did not consider a Prius till now. Even those of us who are real fans of G3 are divided. Maybe I am wrong.

 

i don't think looks will sell many prius. there has to be some desire for higher mpgs for whatever reason. look at the corolla, has it been looks selling it, or cost/function?

 

And they were't courting the suppository jokes, eh?

 

Yes thinking of changing mine too.

True but looks matter too. Here in Europe they even had to re-brand Corolla as Auris and today Auris looks far better than Corolla ever did. Over the world, VW sells more cars than Toyota now and its a shame because Toyota could have done better had they done better designs.

The question is whether we will see the next generation PiP next week at G4 reveal? If yes then why did Toyota announce a while back that the next Pluggin Prius will only go into production in 2017? 1 year from reveal to production?

 

ah, thanks. not sure what we will see on 9/8, but if they did show a pip body, it would probably just be beta guts, and not the final version.

 

Everyone has their desires and wants. Personally I don't care too much about the looks of the car. It would have to be pretty ugly (Pontiac Aztek) for me to reject it. Many people think my Gen II is ugly. My son hates it so much he has always refused to drive it at all. It doesn't bother me one bit.

Here are the things I'm going to be looking for.

- Price - I hope and assume it will still be in the $25K - $29K range.

- Reliability - Well it doesn't get much better than a Prius so this one is a shoe in.

- High MPG - Again Prius

- No flying buttress console - it seems that is a pretty good bet so I'm happy there. We skipped Gen III for that single reason.

- It must have a spare tire - this is a deal breaker. I simply won't support the trend of no spare tires.

- Placement of the gauges is very important to me. I hate Toyota's bent to put them in the middle of the dash vs in front of the driver. From the spy shots it looks bad for me but I'll have to sit in one and see for myself. I wish they would break this trend. We skipped the V due to the poor placement of the gauges which were even worse than our Gen II.

- My wife would like heated seats.

Beyond those listed items I'm pretty much on track to buy a Gen IV.

Many people want higher performance. I buy a high mileage car for high mileage not performance. If I push the car I'm lowering the average mpg which is counter productive. We've never felt the Gen II was under powered, or cornered poorly.

Frankly if I could buy a hot off the assembly line Gen II I'd be happy to do it.

 

I'm amazed by how many people insist on this.

There are many things that can go wrong in the car that can leave you on the side of the road. I've had seven in 30 years, only two of which were tires, and both of those tire issues were due to improper maintenance.

I drive on dirt (or worse) roads all the time.

Why do we have to carry a spare for one of the many things that can leave you by the side of the road, but not the other things? How about a spare ECU or 12V battery? How about spare hoses or belts? The one time my Gen 2 almost stranded me, it was because of the 12V battery (after multiple tries, it eventually fired up).

With modern, better-made tires and in-wheel tire pressure sensing, I see no reason to take up so much cargo room with a spare tire.

 

Well, at 6'3", Prius is the first car, after adjusting the seat and steering wheel, I can see all of the instrumentation.
Let's see; you want the instrumentation behind the steering wheel, because you are accustomed to see them thru the steering wheel.

There is so much talk here about design, styling that I doubt these PC Chatters would ever buy an airplane. No styling to talk about, they are all alike for the obvious reason that some of us do not think applies to cars.

You design a nice blindspot with the c pillar and put a non-functional gimmicky crease alongside the profile and Voila! yes Sir, you got yourself a stylish vehicle.

 

That's not true. I love the F-14 Tomcat. I just can't buy one.......... or fuel it.

 

So you're telling me that Toyota doesn't want to build cars or the trophy mentality we build cars more cars than anyone?

I wish they would have built the NS 4, I would have walked a country mile to get in line to buy one.

 

We've had two flats with our 2010. To each his own, but for me: no spare, no sale.

 

The like to an IMA is only as far as there is a single motor between the engine and transmission. VW's and Nissan's hybrid's are like the IMA in that regard too. The IMA was a mild/assist hybrid. Hyundai's and VW's(don't know about Nissan's) are full hybrids like HSD.

A friends BMW came with a very basic tool kit mounted to the interior trunk lid.