5th Generation Prius

Death knell for spare tire, on all levels on Prius?

Yes, I’ve seen that. (You had me looking up the definition of “pedantic”, but I’m holding back. )

 

Fortunately we didn't have it here to look at. We do get LEXUS - they're an acquired taste too. But any are better than the plethora of Twin Cab Trucks - all of which are ugly.

 

Well - that's a NOPE for me.

 

Same here, sadly. And if true I’d expect RAV4 Hybrid sales will see another jump.

Do they all sit around a table early in development, discussing “how can we eff up this gen”?

 

My plans when I bought Samantha was - pack up and head around Australia - probably 6 months on the road. Then Dad went into care - I was Mum's remote carer/daily contact & transport. After Dad's funeral 3¼ yrs ago, I thought - OK - I can head off - but 2 wks later, Mum had a massive stroke - and she's been in hospital/care ever since.

Going by myself, I was planning to carry an extra wheel in the back seat area strapped down - as well as the pretend spare. But - I just don't understand the craziness of not supplying a spare wheel with a car these days. Some have it but only on the base model - if you want the premium version so you get all the safety gear, the HUD etc - you have to go without a spare wheel.

 

Yes. Even with 4th gen pretty much no (North American) level had everything I wanted, and my list was short:

1. spare
2. 3-door touch to unlock
3. no sunroof

I’ve given up my moaning about simple, ergonomic dash controls; the iPad-in-the-dash has unpacked her bags and is here for the long haul.

 

A 'make-believe' spare tire is one of those elegant engineering/economic choices that companies LOVE to make.
It's about $50 worth of kit and about 25lbs (about 11.3 kg if you drive on the wrong side of the road) of un-sprung weight that you can eliminate from the car by just crossing out an "optional" item.

Let's face it.
Most Prius drivers are city folk whose idea of a wilderness excursion means having to get their drive thru coffee at McDonalds.
The folks at Aichi, JA know that people with three digit IQs who buy Priuses will either equip it with a spare tire according to their needs (doughnut or full size) or accept the risk of having to wait for "Al the tow truck driver" if they have an incident in an inconvenient place and time.
I mean.....tires ALWAYS fail during daylight hours, in nice weather, in good neighborhoods, and when you're not late for an important event.....riiiiiight?
Besides.....judging by the number of people I see bombing down the interstate at rush-hour speeds on a doughnut spare, there's no reason to believe that ill-prepared or foolish drivers are exclusively those who drive WITHOUT a spare.

The last car I bought (GMC Terrain) came as a base model with no sunroof, 5-door touch-to-unlock, and a spare....BUT(!)
I did not, and DO NOT consider it to be properly equipped for my daily 3-mile commute to work....so I added some stull of my own such as a first aid kit, ground mat, some gloves, flashlights, boots, etc...just in case I want to drive a little bit further than just to and from work.

As always......

ACTUAL mileage will vary.

 

...sprung weight...unless you carry a spare somewhere other than inside the car.

 

You're correct, sir! (*)

Meant to say that, but I got out over my skis on that one.

(*) No disrespect intended to those who are pronoun sensitive or think that women or humans that identify as female, in whole or in part, would not or can not flog Priuses around a race track or know the difference between....(*) ah....."sprung" and "un-sprung."

 

I have now received my recommended daily allowance of apophasis.

 

See there?
If you had followed your state government's "stay at home" order, that wouldn't have happened, now would it?


....oh wait.
You're in Indiana.....
They don't HAVE stay-at-home orders there......

 

I tried that, got a few individual words but nothing coherent. Feel free to give it a shot.

 

RMD for apophasis is 50mcg. I take it with my D3.

 

Pretty sure there was more than that in #101.

 

Trim 3 I believe had that.

 

Last time I had to use it in English, it wasn't much good. So - I scanned the document as PDF, printed it much larger - then re-scanned it with the OCR software, and almost 100% correct recognition.

 

When I drag my cursor across elements to select them, it selects as if they are characters strings, top to bottom, then right to left, just as Japanese is written.

 

Try translate.google.com?

 

He is an story about the Mag-X article that makes it clear that there isn't much of substance, just that Toyota is supposedly working on a fifth gen Prius, that it will be on the same platform as the current gen and that the base may be a PHEV with a possible EV as well. Seems like mostly speculation.

New Details About Toyota's Next Generation Prius | CarBuzz