Japanese 2010 Prius information

Steering wheel is on the right, the aim of the headlights give it away.
Kidding, it's the wiper but since I posted I see a few others already picked it.

 

Interesting. So you can choose one of those options right upon ordering time? The dealer fits them for you?

I checked the 15" and 17" dimensions, and came to the curious result that the 15" wheel is in fact larger. It has a bigger perimeter, although not so wide with only 195mm instead of 210mm.

So my ideal car would have 17" or 18" rims with 195mm wide tyres, and more direct steering and suspension, to make for the best of both worlds. The 195/50R17 would be perfect. It has the same perimeter as the 195/65R15 (1.25% dif.) but has better looks and better handling.

I would get the 15" car to get the PV roof and then put these 195/50R17 rims with proper tyres, if only I could have the 15" car with sport suspension setting and direct steering with the brushless motor like the 17" version.

I don't quite buy the weight problem on the rims. There are rims out there that are quite light. The most beautiful one and perfect for the Prius (my opinion ok), is the ultraleggera:



It weights less than 7.5 kg on the 17" version, I doubt the OEM ones weight less than that. Check this out:
OZ - Inside the excellence since 1971 - Ultraleggera

On top of that, a low profile tyre weights less than a tall sidewall tyre, so the total weight should be quite less than the standard 15" wheel.

What do you all think?

 

Finally we get an LRR tyre!

The Turanza ER is a summer tyre, not all-season. The ER30 (OE on UK 2G Prius) has been pretty poor all winter and spring. I'd have replaced it, once I found this out, if I didn't want to avoid discarding perfectly good tyres.

 

Hi Ken,

In which city is this parking lot located?
How did you get past the barbed wire on top of the fence??
How did you get close enough to take photos of the labels and determine the tire brands/models???
Did you work for the Japanese equivalent of the US Central Intelligence Agency at some point earlier in your life????

If you see any NA or JDM vehicles in the future, I'd be very interested to know what the tire brands and models will be.

Thanks very much for continuing to supply this on-site intelligence that would otherwise be unavailable to those of us outside Japan...

 

Thanks Ken for your work. I love it. You are our paparazzi.

 

The Prius wheels are designed for good aerodynamic performance whereas these wheels are designed purely for lightness. Whilst they may weigh less (and so provide slightly better acceleration) one wonders what the effect the additional drag will be at highway speeds. I would assume that Toyota has taken this into account, particularly with the 17" wheels. Mind you somebody will always bling them up, my neighbour with a Black G2 has a set of black 16" alloys on it that do give it a very "stealth" look.

 

Absolutely! These OZ are not aerodynamic at all, the question is "will the reduced weight compensate for that?"

I was just arguing about the fact that some say the solar PV roof can't be fitted with 17" wheels because of the added weight.

I would say it is not impossible to have 17" wheels weighting less than the OEM 15" wheels of the new 2010.

Just out of curiosity, has someone measured the weight of our current 16" wheels on the 2G? I mean without the tyre, just the rim, has anyone take its weight? The ultraleggera in their 16" version only weight 6.46kg... I doubt our current rims are lighter...

 

damm that a lot of white new nice prius gen 3's there

i think where going to need a special forum just for the white prius owners

 

Prius Team confirmed in the other thread that those are for the Government agency only. They are the first batch to measure the quality control. I guess they did so well because they are starting the official production tomorrow.

 

ok in that case these are the plugin versions

going to france where there is going to be a plugin trail like in many places

 

No, those are the non-plugin version. I would guess our Prius Priority orders will be built the first thing tomorrow.

Ken,

Can you go back to the factory again tomorrow and take pictures for us? I want to see if you can find my order (Blue Ribbon Metallic with Solar/Sun Roof package).

 

yes you can find it by looking at the same like in the picture

al rapped up

 

On a second thought, you may be right. Those white 2010 Priuses may be the plug-in version.

 

The one that's going to France has different model number: ZVW30L-AHXEBW

Does that mean it is a plug-in version?

 

L is left hand drive. Don't know about W.

 

See Toyota ID code decoder: L = left-hand drive, W = destined for Europe.

I think the plug-in is likely to get a different 'grade' character, perhaps AHXQBn.