Featured New Toyota Aqua HEV debuts in Japan, starts at $16,900

and i'll never be able to compare it to the old prius c, but the hatch is at least 6" shorter than my old gen 2&3 prius.
access and egress are much better than the hycam though

 

The gen2 Aqua is a little bigger than the gen1/Prius c. It's about the size of the Bolt EV(the EUV is mostly longer, about 10in), Yaris, and other subcompact hatchbacks.

The only thing the midcycle refresh has in common with the gen5 Prius is the styling of the lights and nose.

 

well that's interesting, i'd like to c one

 

...and sadly that doesn't especially work, IMO. They matched the hammerhead style. I think it looks gorgeous on the Corolla and the bigbody Prius. But it seems a bit forced and weird on the Aqua. Not the end of the world or anything but it just didn't translate that well.

 

i kinda like it, but the front looks too big for the rest of the body

 

The Aqua's got a very short snout- the hood just doesn't process as far out, proportionally. That's what takes away from the success of the hammerhead look.

There may also be a bit of "style memory" at play- the original Aqua concept featured the headlights at the top of the hood, integrated into the wiper cowling.



This design feature was dreamed up to keep the expensive headlights away from city parking friction. It never made it to a production model, but all the previous Aqua noses did have the headlights set relatively high up, and so a lot of the other elements of the car were designed to support that position. That's not quite in harmony with the hammerhead look.

 

While I don't mind the looks of modern cars, they also don't appeal to me either.

A lot of things in older cars needed a bit more clever thought. Like, how do you make sealed beam headlights look good? You have all sorts of cool ideas from back then, from the hood in the middle approach of a VW Beetle to a double head lights on vehicles like the Chevy Apache to folding headlights on cars like Corvettes, the Toyota MR2 and the Mazda Miata.

Now it's the other way around with all cars having the same basic shape but the ability to make the lights any shape they want. Turn off the lights and the silhouette is indistinguishable from many other cars.

 

I first recall double headlights in the '58 Chevy. My first pop-ups were in '70.

Basic form factors are dictated by efficiency and cargo space for the class.

 

It's about sales with a little bit of aerodynamics. When a model becomes a big seller, the company becomes conservative with the design. It's because a noteworthy change can turn off the current customers; losing more of them than new ones the change brings in. Competitors will copy the design in hopes to getting some of the success. They may even have hired the designer away from the first company. Only the smaller sellers, companies, and market segments have the freedom to try more radical designs.

This was the case even in the past. The headlight variance among main car and truck models was between whether they used round or square units and using double or single ones. Differences in silhouettes was down to not caring about aero, but the industry had already moved away from extravagant flourishes of fins and curves. Your examples of more radical designs are in the smaller markets of small econo and sports cars.

 

Like the late lamented "Estima," another great Toyota product never brought to the USA. Revenge for losing WW-II?

Bob Wilson

 

i'd say the revenge is importing so many us dollars over the years

 

The Aqua?
The Prius c went the way of subcompacts here for the same reasons as the rest; profit margins. Then it had the higher price tag going with smaller sales segment. The Yaris didn't last much longer, and it was a Mexican made Mazda at the end.

 

saw a smallish toyota wagon yesterday. no idea how old it was, but i liked the size and looks. didn't catch the model, but it wasn't a camry or yaris, at least not like any i'd seen before. just saw the logo

 

The Estima is the Japanese name for the mid-engine, egg-shaped Toyota Previa van.

Now here's the thing. Maybe I'm just weird, but I like the Previa. It was cool in so many ways. It had a mid engine. It came stock with a supercharger on some years. You could get it with a stick shift. It was one of the first minivans to have folding rear seats (albeit to the sides, not down into the floor like modern minivans). You could get it in either RWD or AWD, which AWD was pretty rare back then. In Japan you could also get a diesel varient. I believe there were also two different van sizes in Japan for the Previa. Sure, some say it didn't have enough power, but it was fine by my book.

Sadly, it was replaced with the Sienna in the USA. Speaking of car looks. the Sienna is another example of having a set body style but using lights and things to make things supposedly interesting. Personally I hate the looks of the current Sienna. It looks like they drew fangs on the butt.

 

True wagon or hatchback with a squarer backend?

A newer possibility than the Tercel that is uncommon is the Auris. US got it as a Scion iM. When that brand ended, it was sold as a Corolla iM for a few years.

 

i can't really differentiate the two. i only saw it from the back, but it looked wagonish