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2010 Prius Hopping A Slow Boat From Japan Starting Today

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by Danny, Apr 24, 2009.

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  1. Danny

    Danny Admin/Founder
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    That's right, ladies and gentlemen. Today the first set of 2010 Prius units hopped a boat out of Japan and are headed out to the rest of the world. According to Toyota, the first units are the ones shown in these photos and are mostly "quality units". But "we're hoping some of the very first production units will make it on if they're headed to the destination of that boat's port of entry. I won't know more until we get the VINs to cross check, and it's very few Prius given that production started on the 20th and this boat departed on the 24th (think travel time to port, customs etc etc)." So production started on the 20th and the first set of production units MAY have made it onto the first boat that left today. The countdown begins until they hit showroom floors. If they even make it that far before customers take delivery.
     
    #1 Danny, Apr 24, 2009
  2. paprius4030

    paprius4030 My first Prius

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    What's a "quality unit"?
     
    #2 paprius4030, Apr 24, 2009
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  3. HTMLSpinnr

    HTMLSpinnr Super Moderator
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    I'm going to hedge a bet that the "quality units" will be sent to the NHSTA and insurance co's for crash ratings.
     
    #3 HTMLSpinnr, Apr 24, 2009
  4. Paradox

    Paradox Prius Enthusiast / Moderator
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    And the excitement grows... :rockon:
     
    #4 Paradox, Apr 24, 2009
  5. fredthepostman

    fredthepostman Member

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    Won't be long now.:D
     
    #5 fredthepostman, Apr 24, 2009
  6. Prius Team

    Prius Team Toyota Marketing USA

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    Good guess, but not quite. Actually we often produce hundreds of "quality check" units. They just go through special checks to ensure top Toyota quality - and they end up being sold just like every other car. Once the manufacturing engineers are satisfied everything is looking good on the line, we start building "official" normal production units.

    Doug Coleman
    Prius Product Manager
    Toyota Motor Sales, USA
     
    #6 Prius Team, Apr 24, 2009
    8 people like this.
  7. a priori

    a priori Canonus Curiosus

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    Does anyone know why some of these cars have one "eye"-bolt peeking through the front bumper, while others have two of them?
     
    #7 a priori, Apr 24, 2009
  8. PriusCrazy

    PriusCrazy Blizzard Pearl for Me

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    I'm guessing they are the "priority orders" that were placed via PC a few months back...
     
    #8 PriusCrazy, Apr 24, 2009
  9. bedrock8x

    bedrock8x Senior Member

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    Quality units are the ones built meeting the customer shippable quality.
    There are alway things that will went wrong during the pilot run of autos like misalignment of parts or painting blemishes with the production parts.
     
    #9 bedrock8x, Apr 25, 2009
  10. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    If this ship gets hijacked, I'm authorizing the use of deadly force :)
     
    #10 tochatihu, Apr 25, 2009
  11. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    hahaha
     
    #11 Tideland Prius, Apr 26, 2009
  12. Rybold

    Rybold globally warmed member

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    After the MANY different definitions of "quality unit" (laughing), I tend to think your definition makes the most sense. (especially since the Prius wasn't expected to go on sale to the public until June)

    The original article said "The countdown begins until they hit showroom floors. If they even make it that far before customers take delivery." From an advertising standpoint, it makes a lot more sense to get them out on the road. They get a lot more exposure to the general public if they are being driven on the streets instead of locked in a showroom. A doubling effect is that people will see the Prius in on the roads and go to the Toyota dealers to see it, and when the Prius is not there, they will likely look at Toyota's other [more profitable] vehicles and possibly buy one.
     
    #12 Rybold, Apr 26, 2009
  13. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Doug from the Prius team said "quality units" are early production vehicles which are thoroughly checked over for any fit, finish or production issues and provided those vehicles meet Toyotas high standards of quality they will make their way to retail customers.

    I suspect crash testing has already been done and all the right signatures are on all the right documents to allow the new Prius to be sold to Americans for use on the roads.
     
    #13 patsparks, Apr 26, 2009
  14. ManualOnly

    ManualOnly New Member

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    I suspect the so-called "quality units" is similar to sampling checks like any mass-production QA verification phase.

    Considering the fact Toyota had been getting lots of public attentions on its quality issue for past several years, it is better to catch some of the bugs early for such an important release in recent years.
     
    #14 ManualOnly, Apr 26, 2009
  15. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Pat's got it right. They're normal retail units but the first batch has to be quality controlled to make sure everything in the factory is installed correctly. This ensures that they can catch a problem early on before too many vehicles get into the owners' hands.
     
    #15 Tideland Prius, Apr 26, 2009
  16. wayfarer72

    wayfarer72 New Member

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    Ship Name and Pic?

    Does anyone have a nice picture of a trans-pacific roll-on-roll-off car carrier? The best picture I have is of a ship picking up cars in Germany. It's the "Atlantic Highway", and you can see it at vesseltracker.com.

    Although I've nearly worn myself out with anticipation for my new 2010 Prius, I am hoping that I will be able to find out the name of at least one of the ships carrying them over from Japan, and track it across the Pacific using the vesseltracker.com website. Anyone know of the name of such a ship?

    Thanks in advance!
     
    #16 wayfarer72, Apr 28, 2009
  17. rcsting

    rcsting Toyota Fanatic

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    Re: Ship Name and Pic?

    Here you go with some ship names
    HOTOKU MARU
    TOYOFUJI MARU
    TOYOFUKU MARU
    HOUSHO MARU

    I found this info at
    TOYOFUJI SHIPPING | TFS News


    Hope this helps.
     
    #17 rcsting, Apr 28, 2009
    1 person likes this.
  18. wayfarer72

    wayfarer72 New Member

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    Re: Ship Name and Pic?

    Thanks! Kind of neat, getting into the details of the huge shipping network that brings us our Priuses :) This company seems to serve only the Japanese domestic market, and East Asia/Oceania, so any further tips would be appreciated!
     
    #18 wayfarer72, Apr 28, 2009
  19. rcsting

    rcsting Toyota Fanatic

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    This sight could ruin someones day. :eek:


    [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_Ace"]MV Cougar Ace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
     
    #19 rcsting, Apr 29, 2009
  20. wayfarer72

    wayfarer72 New Member

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    Heh heh - yup, if that happened to one of our Prius ships, we might have to turn the color theme of PriusChat to black to mourn for a day ;)
     
    #20 wayfarer72, Apr 29, 2009
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