Prime in Super White

I prefer white cars for utilitarian reasons (mainly summer heat). I can't stand Blizzard Pearl. My PiP was sea glass pearl because I preferred to bake than pay for a color I can't stand. Every time I got into that hot car for 7 years I cursed Toyota and occasionally extended a digit at the emblem on the steering wheel. 1,700 times is a lot of times to feel animosity towards the person or persons who decide the Prius drivers get the privilege of being denied white cars.

I got lucky finding my 2018 Prime in Super White, but looking at 2020 for potential upgrade for the wife's car it looks like it's not an option again. What does Toyota have against offering the Prius in white? Or is it available, but difficult to find?

 

If the issue was lack of popularity Toyota wouldn't offer just about every other Toyota in Super White, at least not if they follow any kind of logic. It's like there are two diametrically opposed factions within Toyota: the engineers and the "others." The engineers are superb beyond words, but it seems almost as if the people responsible for making non-engineering decisions intentionally antagonize customers.

"Let's make the car capable of receiving time signals from GPS, and let's use that hardware to set the clock on one display but leave the other one controlled by cheap quartz crystals just to drive them crazy."

"Hey, let's make the Prius family available in colors found across the Toyota lineup ... except white. They can't have white."

"Let's build the Prime with one less rear seat for no reason in particular."

"Let's conceal the total EV miles from the customer."

"Let's drop the 12V system voltage down to 12V or below while driving (instead of the 14V we have in park and that every other car on the planet has while running) to make sure that the voltage drop in the system wiring is sufficient to get us below 10V when drawing 7A at the power outlets. We'll make a lot of the driver's 12V devices useless in the Prius."

"Let's give the throttle sensitivity different values for EV and HV modes. It will be fun when the EV runs out and the car suddenly decelerates like the driver took their feet off the pedal."

 

I can only answer that I got a non-fleet 2018 Prime Plus in Super White without having to look too hard. I hate the metallic bad enough that I'm almost willing to pay someone to strip the car and paint it white, but to do it right would easily cost $5,000 and I'm not willing to pay that much, so I bake in some other color and curse Toyota every day from May through October.

 

That's what prompted this post. They let us have just a little taste and then yanked it away again. Now I know I have to keep this one until the wheels fall off. I was going to pass up buying a Prius this last time based about 50% on the lack of white as an option, but luckily it was available at the time.

 

It's quite literally true. Every time I would get into my not white PiP I would be reminded about how my current discomfort was the direct result of Toyota's marketing choices. Every single time.

About 20 -30 degrees difference in the temperature at the paint surface according to an infrared thermometer. I used to drive a black car and on those days that it's 110°F+ the A/C couldn't even keep up, but my white cars could be kept cool as a cucumber. It's not about how hot it will get sitting there (all vehicles will reach equilibrium at the same temperature at some point), but the rate at which it heats up. The slower the rate the cooler you can keep the car.

 

Does Toyota make a lighter color on the Prius that's not metallic? As far as I can tell your choices for non-metallic paint are blue, red, and black.

You know the feeling when you open the oven to take a look at whatever food is baking in there? That's what it feels like to roll down the window when it's 115°F outside, no hyperbole. Plus, in our traffic I will not roll windows down or allow "fresh air" setting on A/C.

For cleaner air, set car vents to 'recirculate' study says - Los Angeles Times

I even use a HEPA filter in the car because my commute can be two hours each way, sitting behind Diesel trucks.

 

I think if we could force the people who make these choices to spend a summer driving a Prius around Tucson, Phoenix, Blythe, or Needles not another year would pass with white being unavailable.