Light when the back hatch is open?? Spare tire advice??

too bad we don't get the hybrid, that's a beautiful car. but i don't want to go smaller either.

funny, i don't think i have ever seen one.

 

I agree. And many of the road tests reviews are luke-warm. But it felt nice to sit in, and it looks nice...

Is it early next year, Toyota is coming out with their compact hybrid SUV? Or maybe it will have the Scion badge. Not sure.

 

Didn't Toyota nix the Scion brand? Or was that just in Canada?

Looks like some nice rims, btw.

 

This car was on my short list too. The 2015 Scion iM.

It's becoming the (rebranded) 2016 Toyota Corolla iM soon! It would be cool if they had a Hybrid version over here.

The one thing I didn't like, was the placement of the front seat. You sat very low... and after adjusting the seat height, I would hit my head getting out of the car. Just like a YouTube video reviewer stated. By they way, I'm only 5' 8"... so I was not fond of hitting my head everything I got out of the car!

Oh, and the other negative (at least with the US version)... the CVT whines like there is no tomorrow... very loud!

 

That Scion got a rave review on Global's car show (locally broadcast on Sat. at 11:30 AM).

The "small hybrid SUV" is the RAV4 hybrid? Now out in Canada and the US. Or are you expecting another?

The above car show also test drove the Infiniti Q50-400. 400 HP?! So I checked it out on the Infinity website. In Canada there are three models, all AWD. The "bottom of the line" is a 300 HP car. It is also available as a hybrid! Nice! Expensive! About the same price as the Q50-400 - about $60,000 in Canada. For just a bit more you can get a Tesla model S.

But we're way off topic.

 

This is the Auris Hybrid!

 

This also looks like the Auris...!

 

^ All is not well with the world, when vehicles look like that.

 

Yes, I must admit it's definitely "different." I wonder how the actual production model will look? The article I read says Toyota is building this in order to compete with Honda and Mazda's new compact SUV. But the Toyota will be a hybrid (supposedly.)

 

It will look like this:
Der neue Toyota C-HR – Ein Coupé, dass den Crossover neu erfindet.

 

Talking about TOYOTA lights (at the start of this post). I was at my Mum's today and had to get into her car, a 1992 Camry Sedan. Which reminded me when I opened the door that I'd replaced the dome lamp with a bright LED strip one a few years ago. The light inside was pathetic - Mum&Dad would come with me sometimes at night in my KIA RIO which had both a front and a back dome light, and Mum kept commenting on how hopeless the Camry one was - I did an LED fix for her.

Maybe TOYOTA has a perpetual problem with interior lighting.

 

Maybe it's to make Prius, Prime and that Hydrogen thingy look more normal.

 

Driving the Corolla HYBRID after driving the Prius, it felt a bit downmarket, smaller, more consumer grade, though I think the steering might have been a whisker sharper (17" rims). It was noticeably noisier - it started the ICE the moment I touched the accelerator. In contrast, the Prius, which had come direct from the factory, via holding yards and I (& the salesman initially) was the first person to ever drive it - and it ran on electric for at least the first kilometer - and I didn't notice the ICE switching on at 50km/hr - the salesman pointed it out after the event.

Still - was still a consideration - $8000 cheaper than Prius and would have done the job I wanted just as well - but no, it lost out.

 

Thank you pakitt. I like that version much better. It will be interesting to see what kind of MPG it gets. Toyota may have a hit if it's reasonably priced and gets in the 40 MPG range. I wonder if it will have the same hybrid engine that's in the RAV-4 hybrid?

(I sat in the Mazda CX-3 ("sub-compact crossover") at the auto show. It was very small and cramped (for me) and had very little rear hatch/trunk space. The Honda HR-V was a bit more roomy, but the interior felt and looked cheap. Some reviews said it is very slow and very noisy. They were supposed to be huge sellers... for people who are tired of smaller 4-door compact sedans. But I've only seen 2 Hondas on the road, and no Mazda CX-3s. My Prius has more room than either of those vehicles.)

Back on topic... Maybe Toyota wanted a more "subdued" interior lighting; rather than what some people call the "harsh" white light of LEDs? (I don't mind harsh.) Or was it just cheapness(?) on Toyota's part, and they went with the old incandescent bulbs. I can't figure out what is the purpose of those dull little orange "footwell" lights? I can barely see them, even at night. But I got old eyes.

 

8K will buy a lot of pizzas and cat food.

Hatch back is the key word of the day.

 

So pakitt, did you ever figure out what the phrase meant. "same mother different fathers?"

 

Twins (1988) - IMDb

Twins (1988) - Quotes - IMDb

 

I have owned a Gen3, and test drive the following hybrids: Yaris, Auris, Prius +, Lexus CT200h.
The Prius Gen4 has the most refined drivetrain of them all at the same price essentially of the Gen3 back in 2009. It might be a revolution, but truly a huge evolution of the HSD ever made.
Depending on what you give value to, pizzas and cat food or silence and comfy ride, or savings to get the job done, one decides what to buy. When I tested the Gen4, I was like - OK - this is interesting. Got back into my Gen3 and I was like "oh my this is noisy tractor with ugly plastics and old design... " The decision was taken.

No, Toyota being a Japanese company, tends to be for some things, quite conservative. If it works, don't change it. So interior lights are essentially a nuisance which is never really used compared to the lifetime of the car, hence, why bother using LED lights, etc. Which put more costs. And they are "easily" user replaceable.
They focused on fuel consumption and driving behavior and quality. The rest a detail that if it works and nobody is really yelling about, why bother changing it. VW/BMW/Audi etc instead........

 

That is why the quality is so high. I am also a stickler about MIJ tires and hence the difference even in the exact tire made somewhere else.