Never seen a Gen 5 on the road

@Mendel Leisk would love the spare tire.

 

Yeah noticed that. Not enamoured of Camry, but nice to see Toyota reversing their “disappearing act”.

 

Did the Camry ever lose the spare?

 

A lot of us like sedan hatchbacks. SUVs are bigger than what the matrix was, even if they are small SUVs like the RAV4.

The Vibe was basically a matrix.

I still have my 2003 matrix as our second car. Great little thing. Getting up in age and rust is gonna take it soon. Rock chips along the roof I didn't see before the winter are turning orange, and one of my fenders is bubbling and will probably perforate/flake chunks off soon. Sadly the edge of the fender near my rockers is rusting too which means the rocker on that side is probably infected now too and I didn't notice. So the clock is well and truly ticking on the old girl. And not just from a general safety feature creep perspective but rust related concerns now too.

All I can do is get a mismatched on colour junkyard not as bad fender and keep getting it oil sprayed to slow down the rust and hope it can drive for a few more years as a second car while we pay off the prius.

And a lot of us don't want SUVs, even if they are smaller. While the RAV4 hybrid is obviously going to be better on gas than a 21 year old crossover, I still would prefer something smaller. Though as our kids get older maybe we change our minds and want a bit more space for storing things on road trips. If we ever did go a bit bigger it would be a used Rav4 hybrid so it wouldn't be the redesign. But I don't think the car would fit in our garage. And it'd be driven so little compared to the prius that it wouldn't make sense to buy new.

 

Well, yeah, I've never been an SUV person myself either.

 

Coming back to the original topic, I saw a black Gen 5 Prius/Prius Prime for the first time last night.

The light bar on the black car looked great! That was what made the car look impressive at night. It sucks and makes no sense that the LE/SE trims don't get it.

It is a moot issue because I am no longer considering to buy one at the moment, but I would only buy an SE if I bought one, likely a black one, and I would have a lot of disappointment for not having the light bar afterwards.

 

I keep seeing the same white Gen 5 Prius Prime with 19" wheels a few times a week now. It also has body side moldings. Those 19" wheels are too big—way too big!

 

The 19 inch wheels aren't a problem in real life. They smooth out some of the highway bumps, the pot-holes and occasional curb too.

As for appearances...

Most of the people who have seen my 2024 XSE premium have liked the tires and commented directly on how good they looked. No one has found anything unlikable about the tires.

 

What? ..... Doesn't a big(er) wheel necessitate lower profile tires to ensure the tire isn't rubbing on the fender well? Doesn't a lower profile tire make it more likely that a pothole bottoming out likely hits rim - causing MORE shock & possibly damage the wheel & alignment in some manner?

Discount Tire | Tires and Wheels for Sale | Online & In-Person.

Yea - no thanks
.

 

Yes, but the thicker sidewall would keep the actual rim from hitting.

When the factory wheel size increases, they also get wider. That width could prevent the wheel from falling into a pot hole that the smaller would.. The new Prius is an exception, where the tire is the same width for all the wheel sizes.

 

Thank goodness toyo has figured potholes not being wider than their rims .... mostly

curb rash seems more prevalent on low profile tires too. Maybe taller tires balloon outward more - collaterally protecting the rim?
.

 

A typical tire of the past may have had sidewalls tall enough to keep the rim out of reach of most curbs. Even the 17" Prius wheels have short sidewalls.

Could always let air out to bulge the tires more.

 

saw my first one today while out walking

 

At the time when I was looking for a Matrix I found out about the Vibe and actually preferred the look of the Vibe so I bought it instead. I was really happy with it until a large metal ladder fell off a truck and landed in my grill. Looked like something out of a cartoon…close call!

 

I saw a gray higher trim today. The car doesn't look very good from the back or front, but it looks very good from the side. I am not a fan of the gray, but from the side, it looks good even with the gray.

Also saw the new Model 3 with T E S L A spelled on the rear. Now, it looks a lot worse than the previous Model 3; so, go figure that.

 

I finally saw my first one in guardian gray (on the Autobahn) - surprisingly I saw like 6 Mirais already in the meantime

 

I really don't think hydrogen fuel cell is gonna take off. The infrastructure is unlikely to get built out for it, and I don't think anyone else is making big pushes there.

Cool idea for the mirai, but I just don't see a market for it.

Hydrogen fuel cell for large vehicles that have a depot they go back to, like public transit busses - I can see that though. You don't need huge infrastructure to support public transit fleets with hydrogen for fuel cells.

 

Yeah I think all the Mirais I saw were probably given away for super cheap and used for city ride sharing within the range of a hydrogen station.

 

maybe in 10years

 

I am not a big fan of the gray/silver either, though it still looks great. I saw one today near the hospital. Was going out the lot or I would have chatted with the driver.