Never seen a Gen 5 on the road

I am personally very happy with the looks of my blue Gen 4 Prius Prime, and I can care less what other people think. Some people think that it is not acceptable to drive any car unless it is an Audi, BMW, or Mercedes–Benz, and they will look down on you unless you drive one of these cars, even an older model of them. I personally don't understand that mentality, but I guess it is a wannabe-status symbolism of some sort.

The sole reason for my trade-in would be to upgrade to TSS 3.0 from TSS 2.0. Unfortunately it would be a downgrade in many other areas, as my current trim level is Limited and I can't afford an XSE Premium.

 

At the end of the day, a car is just a tool. Yes, it can be a fun tool, but it's still just a tool.

I hate it when people do that. I guess they have to justify their own purchases.

The wife and I loved the looks of our Gen 1 Nissan Leaf we had. Of course a lot of people hated it. But the car worked ok for the most part. It's not like the new Nissan Leaf has a revolutionary drive train and battery just because it got a face lift and they ditched the funky headlights.

 

Dropping the stupid headlights had nothing to do with Nissan finally improving. They finally let some models be liquid cooled. The air-cooled ones could die in record time - & that's why there were class action suits against the company -
which claimed the leaf could get 100 miles per charge - when if you were lucky it would only get 70 miles range prior to its very quick degradation. At that junction you might only get 40 range if you were lucky on flat ground & good weather. It wouldn't be bad if Nissan exec's rot in hell .... but for the fact we're supposed to hope they repent for their vile deeds. sincerely - VIN ********069
.

 

I hadn't kept up with the news. I didn't know they had gone to liquid cooling.

That was our only real complaint about the Leaf, the range and watching it degrade in front of us the year we drove it.

What I miss about that car was:

• Twin sun visors per side. (We have a lot of curvy roads and flapping the sun visor back and forth gets to be a real irritation).
  
• Heated seats all the way around. (Why let the passengers freeze?)
  
• Heated steering wheel. (The best invention since sliced pizza).
• Preconditioning. (No getting out and sitting in a frozen car waiting for it to put out enough heat to keep the glass somewhat clean because Toyota decided you shouldn't be able to lock your car after starting it.)

 

I can't be accused of always wanting the latest if I went from a Gen1 to a Gen5! The Gen3 is my wife's car.

BTW, I finally saw another Gen5 on the road from Denver to Colorado Springs. I cheated though, it was mine! I was ferrying my old Gen1 to my nephew as a hand-me-down while my wife drove the new Toy. I'm clearly biased, but seeing it from the vantage point of another car on the road, it does look pretty cool. I'm generally not a fan of running lights (yea, understandable debate here), but for the new car they are cool looking enough and power efficient enough, I think I'm going to leave them on normally.

will

 

I guess you guys only buy the odd-numbered generations.

Since I have a Gen 4, I should wait for Gen 6 then, which will be the last Prius generation before they stop making HEVs/PHEVs for good in 2035—only twelve years from now.

 

Gokhan: Yea, I figure the next car will be BEV too. If these cars keep on lasting like they do, my wife's Gen3 will need replacing 2035-ish as well. The charging infrastructure and batteries will be a lot better by then. For our cross-country trips we like to push 500+ miles a day and current charging speeds would make that hard. Yea, all the BEV owners rationalize they "need a break anyway" every 2-ish hours, but we don't.

I had fun calculating the two charge rates for my car. For plugging in at home it is 10 hours to get 40 miles, so 4 miles per hour of charge. I can't see the need for level 2. While maybe a bit generous, I figure a quick gas stop is about 3 mins to get 450-ish miles of range, so that "charge rate" is 9,000 miles per hour!

will

 

Not just guys. My Gen 1 was sold because I got almost as much as I paid for it at 8 years old. I bought a Gen3 in 2012 because I missed its predecessor so much. I was talked into selling her last fall and sharing the cost of our hybrid Camry, but the sharing isn't working to my liking. When I saw the Gen 5 I was hooked (I loathed the sharp angles of the gen 4, I know opinion, right?). All odd generations, but mostly because when I have a car I really like, I want to drive it til the wheels fall off. When my Gen 5 gets here (fingers crossed), it will in all probability be my last car (I'm 76). I STILL love the looks of my gen 1.

 

Sharol: My wife (a fashion expert) refers to the Gen1 as "cute". I take her word for it, I'm an engineer and am the fashion equivalent of tone deaf. But yea, even I knew the Gen4 was ugly! Clearly I had a soft spot for my Gen1 after 20 years of driving it, basically half of the years I've been able to drive. Here's hoping your Gen5 shows up sooner than predicted.

will

 

It is supposed to be on the train from Portland as I type this. I'll believe it when I drive it off the lot. This is nearly as nerve wracking as the 5 months it took to get the 2001, and she has only been ordered a little over a month. It is funny because "cute" is always how I thought of my gen 1. It was that gorgeous hunter green color, and I really loved that little car.

 

What color is your Gen 5?

Yeah, it is too bad that they have got rid of all the cute colors in Gen 5. Red is the only color with some spice.

 

True. I really wanted that yellow, but not here I guess, and for me it was red or white, and when I called there was a white one (with only a few things I didn't want) in the pipeline unspoken for, so I jumped on it.

 

Sharol and Gokhan: Yellow would have been my choice too if it were available in the US. Practically (and what I told the dealer) was any color but black. Of the available colors I was secretly hoping for red. I got silver as you can see and perfectly happy with it.

We still have one of the green Gen1s wandering the neighborhood, it still looks nice.

Sharol: That looks like Cinderella's castle in the background! That is one of the destinations of my upcoming 5,000 mile road trip!

will

 

It is. I went with my daughter and grands in '16 and then back several times before 2020. Have a great time, it is truly a magic place.

The guy that bought my green gen 1 wrecked it on a round about a year after he bought it from me. I still regret the sale (as well as the one last year) I could have saved myself a potload of money if I had just kept it and saved some money up for repairs.

 

FINALLY!!! We saw another Gen5 on the road, the first ever. We live in Denver and the one we saw yesterday was on a road trip just north of Atlanta and it had Florida plates.

It was white, not a Prime, and must have been an upper trim as the (lit) tail lights spanned the back of the car. I saw it coming quite a ways back it definitely IS distinctive! Clearly biased, but that is one nice looking car! In good Prius fashion, the speed limit was 70, I was going 68 and she was probably doing 69. I wanted to honk my horn to get her attention but decided against it.

will

 

Still waiting to see one on the road

 

Finally saw one, a Guardian Gray parked outside Panera.

 

Saw my third one earlier this week, and it struck me as ordinary on the road.
Going to blame that on the commonness of Teslas around here.

 

Gen 5 Prius doesn't look like a Tesla Model 3 at all.