March?

Other articles are saying march as well. If they are saying march, I am sticking with my april/may guesstimate.

 

March as a 2017 model. That should be sufficient time to get rid of all the 2015 models.

 

2015 Prius liftbacks will be lounging around dealer lots through much of 2016.
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March huh? They better get 2016 Prius out sooner as the 2016 Civic sedan is already eating Prius' lunch: 31/42/35 mpg city/hwy/comb* which is plenty in the minds of most consumers. Funny thing is the Civic basically has the new Prius silhouette but is sleeker and has none of the controversial rear quarter styling. Touring sedan is $27,350 sticker loaded to gills, nav, LED headlights, smart entry, push button, sensing safety, heated rear seats, leather, and ...
has a 1.5L turbo for 172 HP, 160 something torque .... and does the 0 to 60 thing in 6.8 seconds.

* 41 mpg hwy 2 L non turbo

Don't mean to be a jerk, but they better get that Prius out soon, and it better be 'real good'.

 

The civic gets 21 - 27 MPG less in the city than a Prius/Prius Eco. I went and looked at them Yesterday. That front grille sticks out a couple inches from the car like a shelf and looks 100x worse in person. The rear area around the License Plate looks like a blown up balloon. Not as noticeable in photos. The Led headlights are gorgeous and I think the car has a very nice silhouette. Probably drives and rides nice, because its a Honda.

 

i wonder if this will be like 2010's sitting on the lots with dead 12 volts and thousands of dollars off of msrp. might be great for people looking for a new car, bad for toyota. gas might be a buck by then.

 

I just don't get the nose jobs cars are getting lately. Having extra ports and cut outs works for racing cars for cooling and such, but on cars designed as everyday commuters...?

 

funny how every gen IV thread is littered with styling complaints, no matter the thread subject.

 

Probably because the visual is the only solid information we have.

 

true, and it doesn't tell us much about the delivery date.

 

Nothing solid there either. Apologies, but my "Styling" comment came about after looking at the 2016 Civic nose (and others) after Cycledrum's post.

 

I have a lady friend who's boyfriend drives a gen3 Prius. She's in serious need of a new car with an '89 BMW on its last legs. She thinks highway MPG is very important (36 Hwy mpg good enough for her) because she is planning a couple dozen trips down Nor to SoCal. After that I'll bet the car sees mostly city trips. She doesn't care as much about city fuel economy*. And she keeps cars for 15+ years. She's expressed interest in 'hybrids', but I told her current Prius is just too boring. Can't wait for this next one. I talked her out of any hybrid sedan with trunk. Too impractical.

The Civic front grill/ back faux pas are trivial complaints. Overall looks, power, pickup, interior space/style, reliability reputation go a long way to sell a car.
121 total HP for Prius (if true), 29xx lbs curb weight, near 10 second 0 to 60 times and near $25k starting price are going to relegate gen4 to those who must have a hatck/liftback, must get the most MPGs, love technology, etc ...
$25k starting price just bites (the Prius in the nice person). And it will be near $25k starting price, you watch.

I think the gen4 Prius will pick up new buyers, but it's not going to catapult up with the big dogs hanging around top 10 sedan sales in US like Corolla, Civic, Sentra, Elantra, Focus. I think gen4 Prius liftback will sell roughly 10 to 13k units a month in US depending on gas prices.

* A lot of people think they will get a car and be mostly driving down highway, favorite road on a vacation and such

 

Trivial... just like The Prius front grill/ back faux pas are?

Seems like 90% of the comments nearly every thread and auto website since Las Vegas have been about Styling.

Of course not, It was never intended nor expected to do that.

Different Market.

 

No, it was intended to be king of the 2.x % market share 'market' (aka hybrids).

 

She had a gen3 Prius rental for a week while in Hawaii a couple years ago or so.

 

Often I have traveled by flying to a US city then renting a Prius. Besides Enterprise Auto Rental, I found that many Toyota Dealerships have a Rent-A-Car program and they offer current model year of most of their cars.

In my case, I would set up the rental over the phone about a week prior to my trip. My favorite experiences where with Manhattan Toyota in Manhattan Beach, California. Their daily or weekly rent rates would beat all of the other Rent-A-Car companies, and it included gratus and individual pick up and drop off at LAX - a half hour drive in traffic. So easy!

Check it out.