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What kind of feedback have you had for the looks of your Gen 4 Prius?

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Jim in NC, Jun 2, 2016.

?
  1. Enthusiastically positive

    14 vote(s)
    28.6%
  2. Positive

    21 vote(s)
    42.9%
  3. Slightly Positive

    5 vote(s)
    10.2%
  4. Neutral

    3 vote(s)
    6.1%
  5. Slightly Negative

    3 vote(s)
    6.1%
  6. Negative

    6 vote(s)
    12.2%
  7. Enthusiastically Negative

    8 vote(s)
    16.3%
  8. Curious

    3 vote(s)
    6.1%
  9. Other

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. Jim in NC

    Jim in NC Active Member

    Joined:
    Oct 18, 2015
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    Location:
    Myrtle Beach, SC
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    I'm trying to get a feel for what owners are hearing when their new Gen 4 Prius is seen either out in the wild or around home with family/friends/neighbors.

    The reason for this is that most of the automotive reviews for the new Prius are either very quiet or very negative about about its looks. Phrases like "kill it with fire!" or "bastard child of a Toyota Miriai and Pontiac Aztec" come to mind.

    A lot of the professional reviewers hate hybrids to begin with or anything that does 0-60 in more than 6 seconds.
    I personally think if the new Prius were de-badged and tastefully customized, many people would take a second look or come up to you and start asking about the car.

    Please comment on your choices! I'm interested in hearing. :)

    I'll comment on my votes first.

    • I've recently had 2 friends come up to me when I was getting in the car say they actually thought it was beautiful.
    • At a restaurant, while waiting for my order, a Volt owner came up and asked if that was my Prius. He was very interested in the car and knowledgeable. We chatted for 10 minutes.
    • My friend who owns only BMWs and Acuras rode to lunch with me in the Prius. He really loved the front end, the dash, interior and tech features.
    • My neighbor said he thought it looked really nice. He only saw it from the side, so he couldn't tell what model it was. I asked him to guess and he was totally stumped. When I told him it was a Prius he seemed very surprised.
     
  2. glennonrp

    glennonrp Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Fontana, CA
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    I have gotten only positive comments. My kids love it. My son says it's the nicest car he's ever seen and my daughter says its like a spaceship. I had a person at a stop light tell me they liked it.
     
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  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    my son told me it was the ugliest car he'd ever seen. of course, i disagree. but he's looking at suv's like every other liberal around here.
     
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  4. PriUncut

    PriUncut Active Member

    Joined:
    May 9, 2016
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    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    What I hear from most people is...

    "That's a Prius?" (y)
     
  5. MrMischief

    MrMischief Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Denver CO
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Three
    I've kept my Prius buying a secret from friends. Basically I don't want to hear their jokes. Just today one of my friends who lives a block down randomly texted me "Wth Is wrong with you?!" I guess he was commuting at the same time I was and spotted me. So the word is out, I'm expecting the hate to come flooding in. My family lives 500 miles away in Montana and are avid hunters and just well, truck people (nothing wrong with that, but I hated commuting in my Ram through Denver). So the day I bought the car I sent them a text that said "Hide your guns and get out the Hillary stickers, I bought a Prius!!!" They had a lot of fun with it, but all that is based on the image of what a Prius driver is, not what a Prius looks like.

    So I posted it up to a car club I belong to, and of course I took plenty of crap for it, but there was a lot of really positive feedback about the looks from them. Granted these are not people who would even consider a Prius, but the comments ranged from "finally they look good" to "I like that at least now they are taking a chance with some styling."
     
  6. PriUncut

    PriUncut Active Member

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    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    We Gen4 owners are slowly changing that image! (y)

    Funny, I get that... there are people I purposely haven't told about the car yet... :sneaky: and I won't until they're seeing it with there own eyes!
     
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  7. William Redoubt

    William Redoubt Senior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Coronado Island, California
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I have finally decided to debadge the car and make up some fake decals. I might go with a Lada emblem just for the fun of it, along with a Mr. Fusion logo and a "LRD" garnish (Lada Racing Development).
     
  8. Jim in NC

    Jim in NC Active Member

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    Location:
    Myrtle Beach, SC
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    William, will you do some customization on your Prius?
    Remember -- you're representing all of us! :)

    I truly think that a lot of people hate the 'Prius', but if they saw, rode in, or drove the new Prius they would sing a much different tune.
     
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  9. jbkendrick

    jbkendrick Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Baltimore, MD
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    The wife told me it looked like a batmobile when I took her by a dealer to look at one. I think it was the dark colored blanks where the fogs would go on a blizzard pearl. Sure wish they offered fogs on the 4. J
     
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  10. PriUncut

    PriUncut Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    Pictures pictures! If you seriously do it.
     
    KimPrius3 likes this.
  11. Dan0

    Dan0 Junior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    We have a dark grey 2010 Prius. My wife and I both think it's a sharp looking car... We go places! But the 2016 is horrible! Absolutely horrible! How can you screw it up that bad?! They must be trying to kill it!
     
  12. glennonrp

    glennonrp Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Fontana, CA
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    You're in the wrong thread. Nobody asked how much you hate the way our new cars look. There's already five other threads for you to do that. Maybe you would be happier with all the other people who are clearly superior to idiots like us who bought these objectively ugly cars.

    By the way, I think your 2010 looks stupid and uninspired and it was that utilitarian design that made it hard for me to look seriously at Prius. It looks like a committee got together and worked hard to make a car look as boring as possible. It's like they got it to be as aerodynamic as they could and called it a day. But, it's a good way to keep from attraction attention from the opposite sex.

    Yeah, I'm tired of it. We get it. The Gen 4 is ugly. We get it, you don't like it. But, please, feel free to offer us your unsolicited opinion in this thread, too.

    I've ignored it in the other threads. People are entitled to their opinions. But, the title of this thread is super clear. It's for owners to say what others have told them looking at their car.

    Either my car looks awesome and that's why all I hear is polite things about it, or most people have enough good grace and were brought up right such that they don't tell me how ugly they think it is.
     
    #12 glennonrp, Jun 3, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 3, 2016
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  13. jbkendrick

    jbkendrick Active Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    Really, it is in the eye of the beholder as they say. For me, I still look fondly at pics of my 2006 Honda Insight. Most people thought it looked at strange with the fender skirts and all.

    My daughter and her husband both have previous gen Prii, and they looked boring to me and I would never had considered one until i saw pics of the 2016 in January. I think the outside is amazing and the inside looks so great sitting in the moonstone interior. Of course then all the tech!

    But this is just one man's opinion. Can't wait until my 4 arrives. J
     
    Jim in NC likes this.
  14. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    Mixed bag here. Most EU based reviews say that the design is "challenging" and that each should decide for themselves.
    The market, especially in Germany, is so dominated by BMW/Audi/Mercedes etc. that any design which is different and unusual is criticised and badged as "bad" or "unlookable" a priori.
    Toyota never delivered any really inspiring design, maybe now it starts to attract looks, if only because really different.
    A few people I know said simply "cool! different!" and some others went directly to "it is really shit".
    I personally think that it is different than most cars, it sports and engine and a fuel economy that distinguishes from all the dinosaurs out there, and apart Mercedes latest designs, most cars look all alike and among each other in the same brand. Boring!
    Actually the new Prius is very similar to the new Civic in a way.
     
  15. ATHiker

    ATHiker Senior Member

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Massachusetts
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four Touring
    Someone compared mine to a go-cart.

    I cannot get inside the heads of the SUV driving masses in this country, but I have a suspicion that a whole lot of people see "small" and don's see anything past that.

    Prius owners know it really is a big car-- at least when we are driving it or hauling a treadmill or garden tiller in back-- but I have to admit when I see one driving down the road in the sea SUVs, "go-cart" kind of fits.
     
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  16. Thomas Grubb

    Thomas Grubb Junior Member

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    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I was with some friends today and there was one particularly noisy car that turned up next door with a throbbing engine. We wondered what made that racket. My friend looked out and said it must be that blue sports car sitting out front. I said, well that's actually my silent Prius!
     
  17. MrMischief

    MrMischief Active Member

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    Three
    In my first couple of days of owning the Prius I came out from work and saw another new car parked next to it. "Oh another new Prius!" Nope, Honda civic. They look different enough but in that first glance I thought they were the sameYours looks like an uninspired bare bones budget economy car from 1984.

     
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  18. KimPrius3

    KimPrius3 Member

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    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Four

    The looks of the Gen 4 was the only reason I test drove, and plan on purchasing, my first Hybrid - Never considered a Hybrid until I saw the little Sonic Red one on the lot when I was there test driving a RAV 4. I've been smitten (y)
     
  19. pakitt

    pakitt Senior Member

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    I saw the red one live *after* I ordered mine in dark grey (very elegant and smooth looking I'd say, better than the black which is not shiny enough in my opinion, quite dull)... The only thing I could do is call the dealer and tell him that if he had in the pipeline by any odd chance a Gen4 like mine but in red, to let me know I would be interested in that color too...
    But considering they are delivering nothing, I don't think that makes much of a difference.
     
    Jim in NC likes this.
  20. William Redoubt

    William Redoubt Senior Member

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    Two
    Other guys may look at your wife and say the same thing, even though you adore her beauty. Differences of opinion are allowed, BTW, both in women and cars.
     
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