others tell me prius is ugly but its a beauty

If it had a Ferrari badge you would not say it's ugly!

 

Nope. I disagree. It's not "pretty ugly". It's not even "ugly". Compared to the 1980s / 1990s motor cars, it's different. Radical. Futuristic. That's a shape designed in a wind tunnel, to cut through air with minimum resistance. A bit like those fictional Star Trek Shuttlecraft. It's a very functional design indeed. And an aerodynamic beauty.

Yes, it looks quite different from everything else on the road. That's the price we pay for driving this Advanced Technology Vehicle

Pretty Ugly? Er.....no.

p.s. However....."Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder"


iPhone ?

 

lol but we all own one.

The Prius looks like an steam iron.

 

Nah! I'd say more like one of those modern electric irons that look like spaceships out of a 50s science fiction B movie.....


iPhone ?

 

Like this?

 

Bwahahahaha......sniff.....Hahahahahaha.......gasp......hehehehehe....!!! Never seen THAT before....very funny indeed! Thank you, ftl


iPhone ?

 

Long live the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish:
Topped with melty American cheese, creamy tartar sauce and served on a soft, steamed bun.

 

Thanks for the setup! Hardware Wars was an instant hit at the time, made shortly after the first Star Wars movie and shown as a 16mm film at many science fiction conventions.

And 21 years later there was this one:

 

Tongue in cheek mode: "ON":

Kinda hits the nail on the proverbial head right there! I mean, look at Doc Willie's Prius Class Shuttlecraft for a minute, and you quickly realise that the original designers of this Gen II road going spacecraft had the most amazingly warped sense of humour.

Seriously, look at that shape! Described as bland, mostly by those with no imagination. I look at a Gen II and I can see (albeit, imaginary) warp nacelles attached to each side of the vehicle. Those huge rear light clusters are easily reminiscent of impulse drive thrusters. And that shape belongs in the background of every futuristic science fiction movie on the planet. Or smoothly climbing out of the gravity well of some technologically advanced planet.

I can't believe industrial light and magic passed up a chance to insert a few meshes of assorted Prii (wheel wells covered over of course) into the numerous sky lanes criss crossing the equally fictitious world of Coruscant.
If the humble Mazda MX-3 gained fame as a background functional prop in the streets of "I Robot", they could have done the same with the Gen II Prius! Would have made wonderful easter eggs!

Look at that interior design (leather, obviously)! Look at that dashboard. Pure GEEK overload. It's Futurama's "Planet Express Ship" meets Shuttlecraft "Galileo". Functional, yet, totally fun especially for the true geek... (that means me first and foremost....). A large central dash touchscreen in 2004 was definitely baiting the scifi B Movie afficionados back then (not to talk of the average Star Trek fan). And it worked, just look how many they sold! That dash still excites me in an "as old as the Millennium Falcon" sort of way. It just looks good and it works. And it's out of this world different!

Anyway, this vehicle (notice how I keep avoiding the word "Car", when talking about Prii...?), is still highly appreciated across most of the civilised world, that it turns up in the most unlikely of places on TV.

Brian Griffin on Family Guy drives a Gen II Prius. No, I don't care that he's a talking dog walking on two legs instead of four. Of recent, the FG animators seem to be outdoing each other trying to draw the Brain's Prius to absolute perfection, so much so, every lovely wind cheating curve shows up right there in the cartoon! I think Brian now has a Gen II Touring model.

Then there's Marvel's Animation Series! They've taken to drawing their cars a bit too realistically as well....so much so, one episode concentrated too hard on the exquisite curves of a Prius II parked in a street (from different angles as well) which some super hero's soon turned into a battle zone! It was unmistakably a Touring model. I guess these animators actually get the design humour cues of the excellent Gen II....and quietly immortalise it in their work. Hell, they might even drive Prii themselves.
They come out at night. Mostly. (That was a random neurone misfiring - it happens!)

Toyota's Prius II design team were definitely designing a great vehicle, but put in design flairs that screamed "buy me! I'm from the future"......and doubtlessly, "look at me, I'm a Star Trek Shuttlecraft on wheels". And appealed to our inner schoolboy and girl of course - that grew up reading various scifi comics of yore. And different evolutions of Trek. Very, very clever indeed!

I get the somewhat peculiar feeling that if the "Carbon Creek" episode of the Enterprise TV series had really happened, the temporarily marooned Vulcan (Mestral) who eventually stayed behind to live out his days on earth (when the rest were rescued......including the arguably delectable T'Pol), is probably driving a Prius somewhere on this planet right now.
Because.....it's a most....... (insert trembling lower lip a la Kirk, here; ST:WoK)....logical design.....For humans....

Tongue in cheek mode: OFF

p.s. Data Daedalus was absolutely bored, started writing and got carried away. It was not my intention to insult or otherwise upset anyone, and if I inadvertently have....I unreservedly apologise

p.s. Klingons are exempted from this apology for obvious reasons.
(As in, never show weakness to a Klingon....it's an invitation to invite the sharp end of a Bat'leth upon your person....For sport!).

Good night!

SM-G900F ?

 

gen IV looks even spacier!

 

Indeed. I strongly suspect, if BMW or Mercedes Benz had built the first hybrid with this very design, people would be willingly parting with three times the present cost to own one, and most of us would have lost out on experiencing a brilliant piece of technology.

So, which member of the Gen II team was really a cleverly disguised Vulcan?

SM-G900F ?

 

As a society, our tastes change. When technology and style morph, so do our expectations over time.

I think it's always funny to look at how films from the past believed automobiles, clothing, and other styles were supposed to look by this point.

 

One thing that bugs me is the designer's cavalier estimate of our "pocket depth".

Al the headlights are LED now? Yeah I've got those on our 3rd gen, so far so good, but what was replacement cost: something like $800 per? That can buy a LOT of old school sealed beams.

The glorified fairings fore and aft, that can barely keep from falling off; don't even think about surviving a minor accident unscathed?

Head and and tail light shells that have NO practical value?

The whole concept, that some one has to explain to us, what we want: get's me feeling Toyota has their current Prius customer base pegged, as a dependable repeat customers. Time will tell.

 

You think?

If, and it now seems a very big if, Toyota bring out a 150 mile EV, then count me in as a customer. Great cars, amazing dealer backup, but petrol prices here mean even a hybrid is more expensive to run than an EV. I'm never ever buying a fuel cell vehicle. Just sound a nightmare if they go wrong and it means paying for a fuel that over here will be taxed significantly. No thanks.

 

i think toyota is counting on the fact that people don't consider repair/parts costs when they purchase a new vehicle. and even if they did, prius falls very low on the list.

 

Is your girlfriend or wife beautiful to other people? Not necessary. And do you care? Not really. Does she fulfill your needs and you leave home happy everyday? Yes and that's all that matters.

My Prius has a tight little package with a nice rounded nice person and a well-endowed front end loaded with 2 big HID lights and a camera. Her SEXIEST part is the 50+ mpg. I get a thrill ride out of her every time.

Cheers,
Wolfy

ps. my other car is a Jaguar XJ which is an entirely different sexy beast.