Prius Team invites you to meet the 2010 Prius

My wife will finally get a chance to see the new Prius. I hope I will have another chance to get my book "The Prius That Shook The World" signed. I took it to Detroit but left it in the hotel room, duh!

 

I wonder if the tour will come to Adelaide? I'd like another look.
Spent too much time taking to a camera lens.

 

:cheer2: :thumb: :whoo:

:faint: I received my invitation to the DC event. :rockon:

Since I live just a "short" drive south of DC, figure I'll slip up there and grab the metro to the Smithsonian stop rather than fighting the downtown traffic jams. :car::frusty:

 

I'll be doing the same this afternoon.

 

Just saw the post for the invite..anyone know if they are still giving out invitations.
I will just happen to be in the city that day. Figures

If anyone has an extra ticket that they are not using

 

Contact Prius Team urgently.

 

i cant go to DC, you could have my invite.

 

How good would that be, go see the Prius on Toyota, go see the Auto Show on GM.

 

JHSmith, Skwyre7 and Other Wash DC Show Attendees,

If you get a chance, it would be great if you post your reviews, comments, photos, etc. of the Wash DC show.

 

previous invites were not transferable, dont know about these

 

Haven't seen invites for LA, but if their are any left, can I get one?

 

Wow! It was a great event!

The Ronald Reagan Center lobby is amazing and they had the floor laid out very well with three cars, several open bars and lots of great food! It was very posh with little sitting areas, video everywhere and a fantastic Prius 2010 technical layout with the hybrid system on a large piece of glass in the shape of the Prius.

There were many Toyota executives there as well as a 'car girl' explaining features and answering questions. There was not much in the way of new info or speaking, just two speakers for a very short period of time.

I asked about if they were going to sell the old gen2 along with the gen3 and they basically would not answer. As to availability it was implied that there will be plenty to go around and due to the economy they are not expecting a waiting list even in the first few months during spring.

 

They had one ticket left for me in NYC
Thanks PRIUSTEAM!!!:rockon:
You are a compliment to the car you built.. that I now have 175K miles on it.

Will see you all there on Thursday!!

 

cool!! sounds pretty much identical to the Detroit show.

 

Photos -- I just took a few shots since most of the '10 has already had it's mug shots taken. I do have a couple taken from the 2nd floor mezzanine that gives a nice view of the Prius. I'll try to post them later today or tomorrow.

Presentation: Just a short presentation (mostly introductions). Not much on the actual Prius. There was a game-show type of presentation. Looked like a Prius trivia game.

Prius Team (Doug?) was on hand to answer most of the questions. (He was the with the "Platinum" model -- the car, not the platinum (blond) model -- no female models!).

Car itself: Items that I don't remember being mentioned previously:

• For SKS: The ugly black pushbutton on the exterior handle that locks the doors is gone. It's been replaced by sensors on the forward (front) end of the handle (on top and bottom) where it connects to the door panel. Real nice. There are two ribbed lines that you touch to lock the door. (You can use either the top of bottom sensors.)
• The tow-hook location has been changed. It has been relocated, here are now two (2) locations. One on either side of the license plate area. I guess this was to make the PC group ("politically correct", NOT PC chat!) happy. (One for the right-wing conservatives and one for the left-wing liberals.) I'm worried what will happen if two Hummers / SUV's / what-ever get together and want to play tug-of-war using these! :ballchain: :yield: :car:
• I commented that it was strange that the MFD still only showed fuel economy in 5 minute intervals. I was set straight, you can select either 5 minute intervals (30 minute window) OR 1 minute intervals with a 15 minute window.

Now for the most important item -- there was an OPEN bar and the buffet dinner / snacks were excellent. eace:

Questions I forgot to ask Prius Team:

• The solar panels: It seems that every year, we hear about Texas (Houston or Dallas) being attacked by damaging hail storms and cars needing to be de-dimpled. How will the solar panels handle these hail storms, since I imagine that they will cost a pretty penny to replace / repair.
• Will the '10 TPMS be able to handle two sets of sensors for those who want / need to switch over to snow tires?
• Can we (the Camry Hybrid group) look at most of these newer functions (LKA, Adaptive Cruise Control, Solar Roof, IPA, rear camera, etc) being available?

Suggestion for future shows:

• Include a presentation showing LKA, ACC, IPA and other newer features.

Overall rating: 12 out of 10. Excellent. Thank you, Toyota & Prius Connection for scheduling this.

 

I don't have much to add. I thought the event was very relaxed, but very well put together. After reading the Detroit reviews here and on CleanMPG, I didn't have any questions to ask of anyone. I just had a good time looking at just about everything. I was amused when the guy next to me was asking if the 12v was still unaccessible. We took out the rear tray and took a look at it. The "car attendant" seemed happy that people were finally "digging in," as he put it.

My first complaint is that there were other people around. When I look at a car, I prefer to be able to play with everything. I didn't feel that I could really do that because there were always about 5 people waiting to get in the car when I was done. If I was in the market for a 2010, I would have taken the time to really play with it. But I'm not, so I didn't. It's a really minor complaint.

My only other complaint is even more insignificant than the first. My friend and I came in the RR center via the metro, which brings you into the back. It took us a while to figure out the we had to go upstairs to enter so we could walk back downstairs to see the vehicles.

My one sentence review: The food and drinks were almost as awesome as the car.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean.