Featured 2016 Prius Reveal Photos

I worked for a long time in consulting engineering, as a draftsman, then mainly as a checker. When a drawing set is being prep'd for issue, there are various people that have to sign it.

More times than I care to remember, the drawings are dropped on the desk of the designing engineer, late in the day, with little preamble, and this is really his first opportunity to really see what's transpired, since his initial sketches/requests were fleshed out by the drafting crew.

There can be an element of the "Chinese whispers" game: his design has been tweeked so many times that it's wandered some way from the initial intent. Skilled draftsmen will keep in touch with him on the changes, keep him "in the loop". But the system's far from perfect, the concepts evolve.

Sometimes there's a what-the-heck-is-this moment. On the other hand, some engineers are brilliant at thinking on their feet; will look at what you've given them, go: ok, ok, not what I'd anticipated, but it'll work. Just fix this, and that, and we're good to go.

In the process of producing a new car, we are not the engineers. We're kept in the dark as long as possible, are told we'll be "blown away". When the reveal finally comes, there's little or no recourse.

I hope this flys, that the technical details (if they ever get around to popping the hood) will win customers over. Sure not holding my breath anymore, tho.

 

don't worry mendel, looks didn't sell gen I, II, or III either.

 

They certainly didn't, but if the G2 and G3 cars are guilty of anything (and I'm not actually accusing them) it's blandness. With the G4 it has gone from bland or perhaps "unoffensive" to polarizing, and that's not something that plays well in a mass-market vehicle IMO. (As an extreme example, I bet the designers of the Aztek though that it would "make a bold statement" or something to that effect.) I think those of us who don't dig the styling and are willing to overlook it are just clinging to hope that other elements of the car will make up for it. To echo Mendel, it may work out but we're going to have to wait for the rest of the picture before we know for sure.

 

Yeah, my take, from the two dash pictures I posted in #116:

the third gen's functional elements are seamless, integrated, nothing stands out or jars. Fourth gen, not so much.

 

prius has always been polarizing. read the comments after gen III came out.

heck, just read the comments here from gen II owners who hate gen III, and vice versa.

 

Reporting From Vegas, Meet The New 2016 Toyota Prius

 

And that's one of the big reasons I bought mine. Going back to what a regular car has largely defeats the purpose of the car.

It's not all about efficiency.

If my 2004 had got 35mpg, I would still have bought it. If the 2016 gets 90mpg, I probably won't buy it. It's about carrying me and my stuff. If it won't carry my stuff, I don't want it.

 

Excellent perspective. What usually never happens in car design (interiors), is someone coming out of left field and asking a truly common sense question. The "job" typically gets in the way of such things. So you can end up with many cupholders not able to store cups, blind spots created by styling miscues or structural needs, and the inevitable "Camel intended as a horse, but designed by a committee". Engineering-wise, cars have leapt forward . But in terms of interior design, many have stayed in place. An afterthought, not as sexy to real designers.

This applies to the majority of all cars, not just Toyota.

 

Blandness can some up Toyota's past design philosophy. They also have an Asian Buick reputation among some people. With the designs coming from Ford and Hyundai, Toyota needs to adjust to keep pace, or risk losing important sales to younger customers for looking to dowdy. Remember when Honda took a drubbing from CR for a new Civic? Part of it was for sticking with dated design elements.

Now, this isn't a bad thing. The 2015 Corolla is a sharp looking car that can no longer be discounted for being blander than the competitors. The Prius goes a step further, but it is the Prius. It needs to stand out some as Toyota's flagship hybrid; the plain kammback isn't enough anymore. Plus, a psuedo sedan vibe might be more appealing in the US. We also don't know if some of those styling elements are functional aero tweaks or not at this point.

The Aztek concept was very well received on the show circuit, and that is why GM decided to take it to production. It's designers did a good job on it. For production, the bean counters had built in on an existing minivan platform. Whose firewall and other structural elements required some big changes from the concept.

The Sonic has two glove compartments, an open cubby in front of the shifter, two cubbies to the sides of the radio, and the base radio has a slot on the dash for turnpike tickets. Plus the bins on the cars. People carry more stuff with them everyday now than a decade or two ago. You can't have too much storage.

 

maybe so, but why do we have to go backwards? 'look, we designed this 2004 prius with a lot of storage, and nooks and crannies that people might like, and since then, we realized they are unimportant, and it was way over the top for the size of the car. and nobody cares anyway.'

 

No offense intended, Enjoy!
2016 Toyota Prius | Let’s make the unexpected happen
Toyota Unveils 2016 Prius - Video - HybridCars.com
Reporting From Vegas, Meet The New 2016 Toyota Prius
Toyota boosts mpg, interior space on retooled 2016 Prius

 

none taken.

 

Mid cycle refreshed 2016 Accord seems to have a polarizing design based on all the online gripes about the 2 inch side silver upper grill. It used to be thinner on the 2013 - 15s. I think it's just trivial griping and won't hurt sales at all.
The Pontiac Aztek was a hideous looking vehicle: Big and blocky, built for ultimate functionality and styling seemed largely thrown out the window.

I predict that this new 4th gen Prius will be a surprise hit here in the US. People who've been keeping an eye on the Prius' 2nd and 3rd gen but were put off by the unusual exterior and interior styling will be pleased with the new design. I'll bet people who don't make the switch from 2nd to 4th gen Prius are ones who prefer to drive the wheels off their car anyway, or they want a plug-in, or ...... a hydrogen car (just kidding about that).

 

The 2016 Honda Civic is also "NEW". Wait till they see the family resemblance of the New Civic!

Honda's redesigned 2016 Civic breaks cover

 

Possibly I missed it, but the reveal photos seemed to be mostly of a red gen4. Any chance of getting photos of the gen4 in some of the other colors? Especially black

 

Each of us has our own reasons for things we like or dislike. In my case I don't care at all about the non-flat floor. Cargo space has become a major issue for me. We actually had one 1,200 mile round trip where we had to drive the 4Runner instead of our Gen II because we were just a bit short on cargo space. I really appreciate the extra cargo space behind the seats, if that is what the 3-4" deeper design means.

When I research cars now one of the first things I look for is the cargo space. Anything under 20 Cu Ft is an instant reject for me, I don't even look at the other specs. That pretty much kills almost every sedan on the market. I'm looking in the under $30K range, with good mpg. The Prius is hard to beat.