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Featured 2016 Prius Reveal Photos

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Danny, Sep 8, 2015.

  1. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    I measured with my own two hands (and the help of Tom Stangl) that the distance from the inside of the hatch (because you have to close it) to the back of the front seat is 78.5 inches. This translates to 6 feet, 6 inches. Give or take.

    To be safe, you might want to shave a few inches off. This was with the front seat slid as far forward as possible. Keep in mind that I took this measurement because I was personally very interested in this. So you can trust my accuracy.
     
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  2. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I worked for a long time in consulting engineering, as a draftsman, then mainly as a checker. When a drawing set is being prep'd for issue, there are various people that have to sign it.

    More times than I care to remember, the drawings are dropped on the desk of the designing engineer, late in the day, with little preamble, and this is really his first opportunity to really see what's transpired, since his initial sketches/requests were fleshed out by the drafting crew.

    There can be an element of the "Chinese whispers" game: his design has been tweeked so many times that it's wandered some way from the initial intent. Skilled draftsmen will keep in touch with him on the changes, keep him "in the loop". But the system's far from perfect, the concepts evolve.

    Sometimes there's a what-the-heck-is-this moment. On the other hand, some engineers are brilliant at thinking on their feet; will look at what you've given them, go: ok, ok, not what I'd anticipated, but it'll work. Just fix this, and that, and we're good to go.

    In the process of producing a new car, we are not the engineers. We're kept in the dark as long as possible, are told we'll be "blown away". When the reveal finally comes, there's little or no recourse.

    I hope this flys, that the technical details (if they ever get around to popping the hood) will win customers over. Sure not holding my breath anymore, tho.
     
    #122 Mendel Leisk, Sep 13, 2015
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2015
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    don't worry mendel, looks didn't sell gen I, II, or III either.:cool:
     
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  4. brick

    brick Active Member

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    They certainly didn't, but if the G2 and G3 cars are guilty of anything (and I'm not actually accusing them) it's blandness. With the G4 it has gone from bland or perhaps "unoffensive" to polarizing, and that's not something that plays well in a mass-market vehicle IMO. (As an extreme example, I bet the designers of the Aztek though that it would "make a bold statement" or something to that effect.) I think those of us who don't dig the styling and are willing to overlook it are just clinging to hope that other elements of the car will make up for it. To echo Mendel, it may work out but we're going to have to wait for the rest of the picture before we know for sure.
     
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Yeah, my take, from the two dash pictures I posted in #116:

    the third gen's functional elements are seamless, integrated, nothing stands out or jars. Fourth gen, not so much. :(
     
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  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    prius has always been polarizing. read the comments after gen III came out.;)

    heck, just read the comments here from gen II owners who hate gen III, and vice versa.
     
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  7. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    The 4G's dashboard does seem like form over function; it's different from the first three generations.

    To be fair, the 2nd and 3rd generation Prius had ridiculous amount of storage space. (Both in sheer number of compartments and the total volume of each one of them). Short of midsize or full size SUVs and minivans, I'm not sure any other car in the Prius' size had this much storage space.
     
  8. Sergiospl

    Sergiospl Senior Member

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  9. Lee Jay

    Lee Jay Senior Member

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    And that's one of the big reasons I bought mine. Going back to what a regular car has largely defeats the purpose of the car.

    It's not all about efficiency.

    If my 2004 had got 35mpg, I would still have bought it. If the 2016 gets 90mpg, I probably won't buy it. It's about carrying me and my stuff. If it won't carry my stuff, I don't want it.
     
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  10. Stevevee

    Stevevee Active Member

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    Excellent perspective. What usually never happens in car design (interiors), is someone coming out of left field and asking a truly common sense question. The "job" typically gets in the way of such things. So you can end up with many cupholders not able to store cups, blind spots created by styling miscues or structural needs, and the inevitable "Camel intended as a horse, but designed by a committee". Engineering-wise, cars have leapt forward . But in terms of interior design, many have stayed in place. An afterthought, not as sexy to real designers.

    This applies to the majority of all cars, not just Toyota.
     
  11. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Blandness can some up Toyota's past design philosophy. They also have an Asian Buick reputation among some people. With the designs coming from Ford and Hyundai, Toyota needs to adjust to keep pace, or risk losing important sales to younger customers for looking to dowdy. Remember when Honda took a drubbing from CR for a new Civic? Part of it was for sticking with dated design elements.

    Now, this isn't a bad thing. The 2015 Corolla is a sharp looking car that can no longer be discounted for being blander than the competitors. The Prius goes a step further, but it is the Prius. It needs to stand out some as Toyota's flagship hybrid; the plain kammback isn't enough anymore. Plus, a psuedo sedan vibe might be more appealing in the US. We also don't know if some of those styling elements are functional aero tweaks or not at this point.

    The Aztek concept was very well received on the show circuit, and that is why GM decided to take it to production. It's designers did a good job on it. For production, the bean counters had built in on an existing minivan platform. Whose firewall and other structural elements required some big changes from the concept.

    The Sonic has two glove compartments, an open cubby in front of the shifter, two cubbies to the sides of the radio, and the base radio has a slot on the dash for turnpike tickets. Plus the bins on the cars. People carry more stuff with them everyday now than a decade or two ago. You can't have too much storage.
     
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  12. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    maybe so, but why do we have to go backwards? 'look, we designed this 2004 prius with a lot of storage, and nooks and crannies that people might like, and since then, we realized they are unimportant, and it was way over the top for the size of the car. and nobody cares anyway.'o_O
     
  13. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    none taken.:)
     
  14. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    So did the 2001 Echo (and does one further with a compartment behind the steering wheel where the instrument panel should be).

    But there's a balance between being utilitarian and being a bit more "normal" (be it classy or sporty). Utilitarian usually comes with bland designs or one that is a mish mash of design elements. The Prius has done well so far from Gen 1 to Gen 3. The Gen 2 modified the "gun grip" shifter into something more elegant and still within reach. It expanded on the flip-out cupholder design and added an upper glovebox with shelf and added a shelf to the lower glovebox too (and it's even felt-lined!). It took the good parts of the Gen 1 and made it better.

    The Gen 3 came along and Toyota wanted to market it as a more mainstream car. It also had competition from Honda (Insight-II). Toyota played it a bit safe and kept most of the design elements from the Gen 2 with regards to the interior. It had most of the storage space. It transformed the hidden drawer to that storage tray under the flying buttress. In an attempt to make it look sporty, the interior had a driver-centric (ok not quite but a little more driver-centric) cabin with the flying buttress giving an impression of a cockpit. We lost the ability to walk from one front seat to the other but the dashboard looked modern and nice with the leaf-vein pattern (vs. the smooth painted dash of the 04-05 and the rubbery dash of the 06-09). The outside gained some creases to sharpen the design but the basic shape was the same. It sacrificed some aerodynamic efficiency by pushing the peak of the roof back to increase rear headroom.

    With this Gen 4, they have a completely new slate. New TNGA chassis, new boss (Akio) who's a racing driver and perhaps a chance to really push the Prius into new territories. Competition today is different than when the Gen 3 came out. Remember that development started a few years ago and Toyota is forecasting what the market will be in 2015 (and now 2016 cause it got pushed back). It saw the rise of mpg in small and midsize cars. It saw the rise in mpg of SUVs. Toyota knew it needs something more than mpg and low emissions to sell the Prius. 30 to 50mpg combined is a big jump. 38mpg (Scion iA) to 55mpg (or whatever the final number will be) isn't and with low gas prices, someone might rather buy a well equipped compact car (Mazda3, Focus, Civic, Corolla, tC, iM, Elantra, Forte) that drives better and still gets good mileage.

    Of course there are compromises to be made to go in that direction and that's form over function - the loss of interior storage compartments. I like the bins as much as any owner on this site and they will be missed. However, I've mentioned this several times, the front seats are really nice. I might even say, they're the best Prius seats I've sat in (Gen 1-3 and even v and c).

    Right now, we don't even know the specifications of the car or even how it drives. Toyota is teasing us, saving the best for last (hopefully??) and I really hope it drives as well as they're saying. No more slow steering ratios, no more adequately tuned suspension (really, the riddance of the torsion bar should solve a lot of it), no more dynamat installations to reduce interior noise.

    I'm sure the first person to design a gorgeous interior with all the nooks and crannies the Prius offered will be bid on and hired immediately. My guess is that there's less space behind the dash to house wires and airbags and other things because of the design of the car. However, I will say, there's room for improvement between the shifter and the Qi Wireless Charger. That area can be massaged a little bit but that may be the return of a less airy interior if they put a compartment in the shape of a triangle between the shifter and the cupholder.

    I was getting tired of the accusations but I'm glad that I am the one that's eating humble pie now. :)

    Thanks for the links!
     
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  15. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    Mid cycle refreshed 2016 Accord seems to have a polarizing design based on all the online gripes about the 2 inch side silver upper grill. It used to be thinner on the 2013 - 15s. I think it's just trivial griping and won't hurt sales at all.
    The Pontiac Aztek was a hideous looking vehicle: Big and blocky, built for ultimate functionality and styling seemed largely thrown out the window.

    I predict that this new 4th gen Prius will be a surprise hit here in the US. People who've been keeping an eye on the Prius' 2nd and 3rd gen but were put off by the unusual exterior and interior styling will be pleased with the new design. I'll bet people who don't make the switch from 2nd to 4th gen Prius are ones who prefer to drive the wheels off their car anyway, or they want a plug-in, or ...... a hydrogen car (just kidding about that).
     
  16. Sergiospl

    Sergiospl Senior Member

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  17. joe1347

    joe1347 Active Member

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    Possibly I missed it, but the reveal photos seemed to be mostly of a red gen4. Any chance of getting photos of the gen4 in some of the other colors? Especially black
     
  18. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Went through all 80 pages of the Reveal photos. I found one nice silver one and the rest are the black that you requested.

    2016 Prius Reveal | PriusChat

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  19. jdonalds

    jdonalds Active Member

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    Each of us has our own reasons for things we like or dislike. In my case I don't care at all about the non-flat floor. Cargo space has become a major issue for me. We actually had one 1,200 mile round trip where we had to drive the 4Runner instead of our Gen II because we were just a bit short on cargo space. I really appreciate the extra cargo space behind the seats, if that is what the 3-4" deeper design means.

    When I research cars now one of the first things I look for is the cargo space. Anything under 20 Cu Ft is an instant reject for me, I don't even look at the other specs. That pretty much kills almost every sedan on the market. I'm looking in the under $30K range, with good mpg. The Prius is hard to beat.