Private viewing of the Prius v in Staten Island, NY

Well, Friday morning, and no call... USB, I don't know for sure he can stay that late if he does in fact show by 4:30-5pm and I'd hate for you to drive that far/pay the $13 toll etc. Is there anything in way of questions/pictures you would want asked/taken?

 

Sounds good, definitely drop me a line when you can later.

I got the phone call not too long ago and he will be there at 4:30pm confirmed. Sorry it's early USB but I am unfortunately working midnight shifts right now at work so I still need to get back to have dinner with the family by 6-6:30ish...

 

My wife just called from the FDR on an Express Bus and she said it's crazy out there traffic wise. I'd say holiday traffic strikes again but traffic blows no matter what day it is here in NY.

Here's to hoping you guys can make it, my co worker who was coming already bailed but his kid had to get an emergency appointment with his dentist so I'll let him off the hook.

 

Rear bumper or spoiler? We all actually thought the spoiler looked kinda cool in person with the edges they gave it for aerodynamics.

 

I have pictures I'll upload later as well but it was a great evening seeing the car and meeting up with more Priuschat members. Ryan took pics of his car seats in the back seat as well so I'm sure he'll chime in later about what he thought of the car.

Overall I was quite impressed. The trunk is considerably roomier than a 'regular' Prius and the rear seats are very roomy as well. I am 5'10" and had plenty of leg room with the front seats back all the way and the rear seats having the ability to recline backwards 45 degrees makes for fun sleep time if you're lucky enough to be back there and not driving. From reading the specs put out last week, it is beleived that the car we saw was a base model and it had the 'low end' radio which was still a touch screen. I love these new radios. Even for a base model, it still had a high res screen, MUCH better looking than the one in my Gen III with the $1800 navigation system. I hope that the launch of the 2012's (regular Prius that is) uses these new head units. Having data moved back there as well is nicer than the vacuum florescent display. The doors have a very slight curve on the inside to get more width while sitting in the rear (and front too I think but I took more notice of it in the back). I also liked how they put the rear cup holders at the rear of the front center armrest, and not in the rear center armrest. I didn't like that change for the Gen III. And the colorized top display also looked very nice in person. I like that as well better than the one color of the Gen III so hopefully they will slowly move that into the 'regular' Prius as well. The vent for the battery cooling has also been moved under the rear seat now, not off the the side like in the Gen II and III.

I'll write more as I think of it later and post up some pics as well. Thanks to Toyota for making this happen and for the people who came out to see it!

 

And behind the rear seats they even put a 'secret compartment' to store an emergency umbrella for rainy days. I took pics of that too and will post later. Unfortunately I cannot post the pics until tomorrow, but I promise to get them uploaded.

Also while the color looks the same as the Plug In Prius demo vehicles being driven around right now it is not the same color. That blue is a more purplish blue while this is more of a sky blue. I forget the name of the blue on the car yesterday (I have it on my camera as a video so I can post that later as well) but the blue that will make production may in fact be this blue just renamed, the driver said he simply wasn't sure.

 

Sorry I didn't look under the front seats or take notice of how big the rear cubby hole was so unsure just how much room there is. I wish more people would have asked us to check out more stuff for them, towards the end we were like what else can we try and find... I 'think' the rear cubby hole was kind of like the regular Prius but not certain.

Oh, and just for Tom, Ryan did bring a sheep.

 

Here's the rest of the photos on Flickr. If you notice they tried to make the doors slimmer so there is more room around your hips. Also, I had never seen the middle seat belt for the rear seats in a vehicle retract into the ceiling but that's how it is in the v. That was unique for me. Also, they added this clip which holds the metal part of the seat belt in pace when no one s sitting in the back. And I noticed in one of the instrument cluster shots I took you can see the icons for the radar cruise control. In the v they are just small lights instead of a larger display as seen on the vacuum fluorescent display int eh 'regular' Prius.

Flickr: Paradox2099's Photostream