The all new Prius 20......11?

No rumors that I have heard of. If there were any, they would probably be surfacing around Oct/Nov.

Personally, I seriously doubt there will be any major changes to the 2011 model after everything that had been put into the 2010. If anything, maybe a few minor changes.

I believe the speculation for the next 'new model" will be a plug-in model that would be coming out for 2012.

 

I doubt that we'll see any major changes in 2011 or even a few years beyond that. Remember that the Gen II came out in late 2003 and between its introduction and the 2010 Gen III, six years later, the changes were minor, incremental, and evolutionary with no major engineering or design changes.

On the other hand, the 2010 Gen III is essentially an entirely new design. I'm sure Toyota will want to recover their investment in the Gen III retooling before launching a Gen IV.

 

They will probably "improve" the car with 4 or 5 things the marketing department will list out for you, but essentially it will be the same car. They can only go up from here and eventually they will roll out the nice things that other countries already have like side turn signal mirrors and heads up display.

I'd wait it out and see how the options packages will change- that's the biggest flaw in the 2010 right now. They are upselling things like crazy in the 2010- all of a sudden you're paying $30K for a $22K car because you wanted a sunroof.

 

I usually wouldn't expect the 2011 model until August/September 2010, but Toyota's been releasing new models (at least the first year of a new model) on weird schedules for a few years now.

 

Agree with most of the posts so far. Cars usually go 3-5 years before the undergo a major redesign and are counted as being part of another generation. The 2nd gen for the US (04 to 09) went a surprisingly long time for a generation.

URLs below might help:
John's Stuff - Toyota Prius History
http://john1701a.com/prius/images/Prius-Generations.png

 

New model year cars are typically released in the U.S. in September. Like the new 2010 Prius, some manufacturers release a new model, or generation of an existing model, some time earlier. BMW, for example, typically releases new models in the U.S. in March.

My guess is the 2011 Prius will be available September 2010.

 

My understanding is the only real change may be a plug in Prius in 2012. Not sure if it will replace the current one, or be an option. Plug in could be great for some, limited value for others. For me, I could do 1 way of my commute on electric....(assuming 12 miles on Battery), but my wife would be 85% electric.

 

That is one advantage of buying now. You will be on the current model year for longer than normal.

G

 

Might we look for a 10th anniversary special edition?

 

Another advantage for buying now is the cost.

The 2011 models will probably have a price increase. Save yourself some bucks and buy a 2010.

 

You pay for that by having higher than expected mileage for its model year when you sell.

 

I have not often seen the price of a model to go down much. Car companies will often maintain the price over the 4-5 years of existence of a model, but each year adding new features.

In 2006, the new Civic Hybrid was released. That was new competition for the Prius. In Canada, the Civic had curtain and side airbags - the Prius had those only as part of an option package. So, possibly as a response to that new civic model, the next year Toyota included the curtain and side airbags in the standard prius model. Also the (non-hybrid) civic was upgraded several times since its launch in 2006 - without increasing price much. Features that used to be available in higher packages are now available in lower packages.

I guess we can expect a similar evolution in next year's Prus models. For now the car sells easily, because several people had been waiting for it. Once that is over, they might adjust the model to the demand.

But there is something else I believe you can also expect out of the 2011 model: they will have solved several issues that the thousands of users (or may I call them "beta-testers") will have found over the first months. When I bought my civic, it had only been released (I bought the 2006 model in fall 2005). The civic is a very reliable car. Yet, during the first 3 months, I had to replace the rack and pinion (which was leaking, during a trip it had lost most of its oil - it was sent to Honda for analysis), the shock aborbers (which were exagerately leaking), and another small part (elbow, carrying oil) because it was faulty. I guess those were all solved in the following year's model. Naturally all those were fixed for free (under warantee). But I consider myself as having been one of the beta testers.

In the past, the Prius has always been a very reliable car. But the 2010 model is very new, with all new features that have not been tested by many people (1000 patents do they say?). If problems are found, they will likely be found during the first year. Waiting is not fun, but is probably wise.

 

I heard Toyota were going to have a good lie down and not make any cars in 2011.

 

Could very well be, but most likely only a limited edition color, different wheels and a few cosmetic bells & whistles or a different option package (from existing options - like a V w AT & Solar...).

 

Li-ion battery in 2011?

 

I would suspect they may offer a new color.

 

I've also heard rumors that there may be a package I to complete with the Insight. But then again, our salesman said that they may not be doing that anymore.

 

I can't recall seeing a car model price decrease over time--just the opposite, usually a few percent increase with each new model year. Last year Toyota raised all model pricing by a few percent mid-model year.