In fact, my dealer told me they are still making 2010's on the line. He said it takes about nine weeks from the time they start manufacturing a car until it hits the dealers, so he is anticipating the 2011's will be in showrooms in Jan/Feb 2011 at the earliest. Considering the 2010's came out in May 2009, that is an incredibly long cycle.
Dianne Whitmire: PS: "Yes, that's really my license plate!" How did you get them to put a heart on your license plate? Must be a Californee thing!
It is a Californee thing. If you go to the CA DMV website and search out personalized license plates, there are many types. The one she has is a "kids plate" or something like that. You can have symbols like a heart. They charge a fee for the "environmental" plates and that fee goes straight to a charity.
IN CA we can have icons on plates, such as stars, a hand, a heart... they are personalized (or vanity) plates, and the choices are many. They support various causes!
THEY ARE NOT STILL BUILDING 2010. They are shipping the last of them. The 2011's are already in production, just not shipped yet.
I think that rather than use numbers or numerals, we need good names. Prius CE (for the base car, aka the II, CE = Classic edition) Prius LE (for the III) Prius SLE (for the IV, SLE = Super Luxury Edition) Prius XLS (for the V, XLS = Extra Luxury Sport - because of the 17" wheels)
So many manufacturers use this type of nomenclature, I kind of like how Toyota does the Prius. It's pretty clear what level has more features than another when it's so clearly numbered. Maybe they could downlplay the numerics by just adding extra S's to the end. So.. Prius II becomes just Priuss Prius III becomes Priusss Prius IV becomes Priussss And Prius V would be nicknamed "Snake"
Dianne, I gave similar feedback a while back and you'd be surprised the response I got from all involved. CE, LE, XLE, SE, etc. make sense, but the goal seems to be to keep the Prius unique and separated from the status quo.
I have a 2011 on order through my corporations fleet service and it is currently scheduled for production followed by delivery around Jan 12th.
