2010 Gen 3 Prius versus the Gen 2 Prius - what the pictures tell us

- The very flat front bumper and flat recessed lower lights say WIND RESISTANCE to me.
- I hope the mirrors still fold toward the windows, our driveway is narrow and I fold them to get stuff from the garage past the cars.
- I agree with Rokeby on the bulbous 'nose job' - yuck I much prefer a clean line to a bunch of bumps and hollows for the sake of 'sporty looks'. Everything from the lower grille almost to the back of the front tire looks like a 'group design' project. "You do the fog lights" I'll do the fender" "Bob will do the lights" Then we'll put it together and putty up the cracks.

I wish Toyota would let the engineers design the car, not artists with a penchant for 'aggressive styling'

Oh yeah, and I hope

doesn't mean we lose shoulder room.

One more thing - looks like the console is more of an arch with an open shallow bin underneath which contains a 12V outlet and something else. Very convenient having to reach under the arch where you can't see while sitting in the car to get to the plug. I guess that means we lose the hidden drawer as well. Or is it still there but also unreachable under the arch?

 

It's the same front light - it just looks like they photoshopped a different design over the left headlight - anyone recognize that other portion of light from another car ?


The image below is definitely a real photo. The image above is questionable. (that's MY opinion)

Where the arrow points to the rear of the car, the bottom and top halves of the car don't appear to line up. Two different images put together? The front arrow points to where the front headlights looks like it is sliced in half, with two different images put together. (Again, this is MY opinion).

 

I think it has the Yaris look (lowest end of the food chain for Toyota)...So if you showed both to someone who had never seen a Prius before ....I think thy would say the older (04-09) was the new improved one ,sleeker, better grill design,no verticle fog lights ,less bulbulus,more style in the doors ,rather than the new with nearly flat sheet metal doors (bodyman's nightmare ,just waiting for ding .........also not real wild about the interior either ...... On the good side.... maybe the front end on the new are a little stronger than the gen 2 and even better mileage ,but yet unknown .....

 

Probably to make it harder for serial debadgers to remove or paint over it...

 

actually, new one will have a lot more creases and design in the sheetmetal than the old.. you just dont see it because of the low resolution pictures.

And body repair shops wont like it because flat sheet metal is much easier to fix..

 

I am waiting for my 09' in about 6 weeks and I really like the new one. From the redesigned front to the bold lines down the sides giving it a wider look to the larger wheels, which I probably won't make it to production since they would probably be too much to turn for it to get very far on EV mode alone.

I may only keep my new 09' for a year and trade up.

 

I'll be buying an '09 at some point. I'll see when resale values go up again. I can't wait too long or my HOV stickers will lose value.

I do not like the '10 interior. I especially hate the middle part, relocation of the shift, etc. Don't really care why it was done. *I* hate it. So if the '09 is the last of the current interior design, that will be my last Prius until I can get an EV. I usually buy a car every 10 years so I'm sure in a decade I'll have my choice of EVs. Hopefully one will be a hatchback.

 

Re: 2010 Gen 3 Prius - front interior

The interior if the nextGen Prius, at least what I saw on the phots, looks like it has lost some storage capacity. I really enjoy the 2.5 glove boxes and the arm rest storage, along with the little pull-out drawer near the hump. I guess, if this turns out to be the case, I should look into purchasing my next Prius before the new models come out. I currently drive the 2004 (pkg 3) - my recent round trip (Washington DC to Chicago) gave me just under 52 mpg. :cheer2: