Styling

A few years ago, someone, who I think is long gone, posted that their gen 3 Prius was a "good, boring car." That's about as simple and straightforward as it gets for me. Yes, it is a good car: It is super reliable, obviously great on gas, very practical, but it is a bit lacking in the driving experience category which matters to me.

 

agreed. i don't think most prius drivers care about the driving experience, but many of those who do care are likely driving something else.

 

I care. I care that it's trouble free. My turbo sports coupe has tons of torque steer, it can lose traction in either of the first two gears, it doesn't have ABS so it can lock up the front wheels under braking thus taking away your steering, and the turbo comes in suddenly and violently and can surprise you if you don't expect it. That's exciting!

I want absolutely none of that from my Prius. I want a steady, predictable and linear steering and throttle response without torque steer or loss of traction. And that's what it provides.

 

a little probably, but unlikely ct 200h.

 

Come to think of it, I'm glad many are displeased with the 4th Gen looks, because that will hopefully add value to the 3rd generation USED Prius liftbacks after all the 2015s sell out hopefully by next June.
Woohoo, 2015 production finally ends this month!

 

I bought my prius so that after 3 or more years of making payments, I don't have the additional "costly repairs" that seem to come up with other trendy vehicles. As for driving experience, the idea of modding the prius keeps me loving to drive it. Its so funny to watch people turn to look at my car like its something new they haven't seen, then once they see its a "Prius", they are mad because they won't admit they like the looks of my car. We Prius owners are ahead of the curve. The way the combo motor is put together is years ahead. The electric water pumb. The eliptical AC pump. Regenerative braking. And all these things are built to last.

 

I get the feeling that a very drunk, and very senior design engineer made a napkin drawing at a party as a joke and nobody had the testicular fortitude to say that it looks like a bag of a--.
Then...self doubt set in on both sides and they collectively set off to flesh out the "design" each not wanting to admit to the other that it looks like the "don't let this happen to you!" chapter in an automotive design class.
The initial "artist", thinking that they were on to something kept wandering down the same unfortunate path, and the design was added to by the butt-kissing (or face saving) underlings not wanting to embarrass their boss, or lose their jobs.
Think of an aesthetic degenerative feedback loop.
Finally...when no more edges or swoops could collide with each other in such a limited space.....the G4 exterior was formed.

Months went by.

Soon, inertia set in and this "design" had to be presented to the head-shed, none of which are likely to be under 60, and none of which ever drive themselves anywhere----especially in a hatchback, and they probably rolled their eyes at the clay model (inwardly----Japan is a polite culture!) and thought about what people under twenty are wearing and listening to, and wondered when their tee-off time is down at the club......
Next thing you know...you get headlines like:

The 2016 Toyota Prius Is Not A Looker, But It Could Be A Nice Thing To Drive - Gear Heads
Toyota just launched an all-new Prius, and it looks weirder than ever | The Verge
It's like Toyota WANTS the 2016 Prius to be ugly. : Autos
Toyota Gets Weird to Make the Prius Different Again | WIRED
2016 Toyota Prius: Ugly Redesign Is Thanks To 50 MPG Achievement | NSEAVoice

In short?
It has to be done by committee.

Nobody can do something like this single-stick.

 

emperors new clothes?

 

I will say this.
I think Toyota faces significant challenges when it comes to trying to update The Prius. I mean, starting with the Gen 2 Toyota created what for good or bad became an iconic look.
I thought Toyota did a good job with the Gen 3 with updating the look BUT keeping stylistic ties to the previous generation.

I want to see this one in person, because I can't tell from pictures.
In some pictures I absolutely do not like that back end. But perhaps it will strike me differently when I actually see it.

I find it hard to say that I'm being fair in any evaluation because I admit part of my critical viewpoint is based on the fact that I personally don't like the Prius moving towards what I consider bland unity with most other vehicles being produced. I liked the oval, utilitarian shape, of Gen 2 and Gen 3 that many people considered ugly.

But no vehicle remains the same forever. Toyota had a long run with the basic look of the Gen 2 and a long run with Gen 3.
Toyota simply cannot produce the same vehicle forever. So the Prius evolves.

I continue to reserve my final opinion until I get to see one close up.

I suppose now that Prius is a family of vehicles, distinction between models becomes imperative. But perhaps I would of liked to see the standard Prius take some styling points from the Prius v. In other words, if you are going to change the back end, do you really need to keep the horizontal split window rear end?

I know it's design. To keep low coefficient of drag. But could that of been sacrificed and MPG and efficiency maintained? The Prius v, seems to be able to be a bigger vehicle, and have a more standard vertical rear window, and have good gas mileage. The Prius c, also has a more conventional rear hatch window.

Seems The Standard Prius sacrifices a lot in design flexibility in maintaining that horizontal split window configuration.

In any case, I'm not "down" on this redesign. Evolution is inevitable. To be honest? As much as Toyota has been telling us how "pretty" it looks, IMO (rear end excluded) it looks very much like a Prius. Which I always have felt was a fine looking automobile, even if I might be in the minority with that opinion.

In the end? We might look back at this Generation and conclude Toyota didn't do enough in moving forward with design, even if we don't like some of the areas they did change.

 

"...but with the official unveiling this evening in Las Vegas of the all-new 2016 model, Toyota seems to be doubling down on the quirkiness."

"And interestingly, the Mirai has taken Prius' spot as Toyota's most forward-looking eco-friendly hero vehicle, which could theoretically give the Prius room to lay off the bizarre design and blend into traffic a little better. No dice, though: if you buy this car, you're going to stand out,..."

That's what I WANT!!!

Blending in is so...horrible.

I'm pretty in to model aircraft. You know what I build and buy? Primarily airplanes that no one I know has, or at least heavily-modified versions of what people have heard of. Ever heard of a Stearman biplane? They're iconic, at every air show, and almost everyone knows them. I have a Hot Canary. Ever heard of it? Number built: 1. Well, it wasn't quite what I wanted even though it was horribly unusual, so I modified it - heavily. Ever hear of a Beech King Air (number built: 3,100+) or a Cessna 310 (number built 6,321)? There are zillions of them around. When I wanted a twin guess what I bought? A Partenavia P-68 Victor (number built: 431). Ever hear of it? And, yep, I modified it. I'm in the market for my first jet. I thought maybe I'd get an F-16, F-15 or F-14 (all readily available in the size and type I want). But, it looks like I'm going to go with a DeHavilland Venom - a quirky looking thing even though they built quite a few of them. One guess as to why I'm going with that one.

The Prius looks weird, and some people think of that as ugly, instead of unique. I find it considerably attractive. If it looked exactly like every other car out there, it would be substantially less interesting to me.

Let me quote the great "Guinan" from Star Trek TNG. "The idea of fitting in just repels me."

 

a car for the (un)masses.

 

It's strange not only how people individually react to The Prius and it's styling but also how Toyota is trying to market it.

I agree, I've always liked The Prius's look.

And yes, I think it's somewhat strange that Toyota seems to be releasing the Gen 4 with the battle cry of "It Looks So Good!"...and really? Except for the back-end, and some tweaking of the front end, and perhaps a little less egg shape, it still looks like a Prius to me.

But that's the challenge for Toyota...keep the connection but move forward. I suppose whatever you do, you're not going to be able to please everyone all the time.

Saying it's "Weirder than Ever" suggests to me a built in prejudice. Never did like it. So I'm tempted to file it under "There's No Prius This Person is going to like".

 

There is nothing wrong with the basic shape of the Prius. It is form follows function. But Hyundai takes the same shape and makes a better flavor with their upcoming Prius fighter. Even GM takes the same shape and does better (altho Hyundai still beats it).

The real fault is Toyota does not understand Japanese is good at engineering but fails miserably in styling. Japanese tastes are just too quirky for global tastes. They should just hire stylists from Europe or at least America with some European flair like Hyundai is doing.

 

I wonder if the grey tray that's holding up the rear bumper will become known as the Prius diaper.

The antenna on the roof makes it look like a radio-controlled car, and the wheels confirm my suspicion.

One of the first Prii to look like a joke in red. If you get it in black, it would mostly cover up the rear parts and C pillar.
Not much you can do about the taillights, maybe keep them lit for the holidays?

But I stand by my original comment, that the Juke is still far uglier. Toyota will have to surpass that level of fugly to get next year's top draft pick. More than likely the top pick will come from a video game college.

 

the japanese make some beautiful cars, maxima, altima, some lexus, avalon, mazda has some, etc., they can style a car as well as anyone. prius is about prius, no matter what you think of the styling, it's the way toyota wants it. they're not going to try to style it like your favorite design.

 

Mazda vehicles may look nice from the outside,but the inside looks boring,mainstream kind of old fashion and honestly I don't understand why people seem to like these awful long hoods !
I agree the Prius 4 looks just as a Prius should look .
It stands out from the crowd and yet it looks more attractive with each new generation !

 

Or is it really the truth that a large automaker Japanese or otherwise can hire designers from anywhere? I don't suspect Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mazda ONLY hire and use exclusively Japanese designers. Auto manufacturer is increasingly a global action.

And style and what you like is still very subjective. What I remember reading was that the original Scion XB...the small box, was originally a vehicle designed for use on the small narrow streets of Japan and Asian markets.

I liked it.

As Scion and the XB grew in popularity the model IMO was Amercanized, and became a bloated box. Which I actually like far less.
My biggest beef with Japanese automakers is their seeming contention with evolution that vehicles for North America need to grow in size with every incarnation.

I suppose it's a good thing that Toyota gave us a Prius family that embraces the Goldilocks philosophy of Small, Medium and Large.

 

I personally like the exterior looks of a lot of the Mazda products.
What I don't particularly like is the looks of their interiors.
To me they are squarish and 70's looking. And I don't like their MFD dash display that sits on the dash, and is an unmoveable part, but looks like it should be removable.

Also in embracing their "Zoom Zoom" philosophy, on the Mazda 3, Mazda gives you a ridiculously huge tachometer.
They do have kind of a neat pop up speedometer, but that wouldn't really be necessary if Mazda wasn't as committed to giving you a tachometer as opposed to a speedometer. I suppose it comes down to what you want, but for me a speedometer is much more important to me in my daily driving than knowing the RPM's of my engine.