There'd be no need to "hijack" if you didn't use confusing and incorrect nomenclature, which has demonstrably caused confusion in this thread and many others. It's a waste of time for people to correct you and it's a waste of time for people who get confused.
Sigh... look at all the confusion you've caused already by your incorrect and confusing nomenclature. If a newbie went to dealer w/the intent of buying the cheapest new (or used 3rd generation) Prius liftback (aka regular Prius) and asked for a "Prius III", salesman would probably respond "Oh, you're looking for a Prius Three?" Well, they could be potentially overpaying by ~$1500 for a new one and might put them out of the running for the liftback at all. If they asked for a "Prius III/2" (probably would sound like Prius Three Two said aloud) or a "Prius III/4" (sounds like Prius Three Four) or the other nonsense you're using, that's also confusing as there's no such thing. Toyota does NOT use this nomenclature anywhere on toyota.com that I'm aware of.
So anyway, The Scream is Munch's masterpiece, interpreted to represent the universal anxiety of modern man. The piece came to him as he was walking with some friends at sunset. Suddenly the sky turned blood red and he said: "I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired... My friends went on and I stood there, trembling with fear. I sensed a great infinite scream pass through nature." A few weeks ago there were a couple of pictures of Greenland taken from a NASA satellite. The first showed most of Greenland covered in ice; the other showed the ice all but gone. A great infinite scream passing through nature. Ironic that this painting, done over 100 years ago has such currency today.
Okay I have just thought of another reason to convince someone to buy a C- no argument over what it is called.
The US should adopt the UK trim level labels: T3 T4 T-Spirit We don't go for this 'model year' thing either. It is just 3rd gen, 'face lift' or 'pre-face lift'. There is no expectation that each year is a different model.
Interesting... so how would you distinguish between what we'd call a 2010 model and a 2011 model? How about 2011 vs. 2012? How would a dealer distinguish? How about a potential buyer of a new or used one? In the US, there is no expectation that a new model year has significant or any changes, at least, not by itself. There were no changes between the '10 and '11 model years other than Roman numerals to spelling out the numbers. '12 was a mid-cycle refresh that brought numerous changes but definitely not even close to the caliber of 2nd gen vs. 3rd gen.
Here in Australia this "Model Year" concept is very slowly starting to appear. We tend to be more prone to identifying models by series and in most cases expect there to be at least some alteration to the series designation if there's a facelift or some other reason to see a difference. The "year" can be the year of manufacture or sometimes when they refer to "2012 plated" they may be referring to the date on the Australian compliance plate (supposedly) attached to the vehicle when it arrives here. This said, they do appear to be now using "ZVW30R MY12" for the current Gen 3 Prius, but it feels kind of weird and creepy. Here our trim level system is even simpler. You can get base model or i-tech. Both the c and liftback have these grades, while the v only comes in one flavour - base model. This said, our base models are reasonably spec'ed.
LOL! Over here, the manufacture year isn't a good substitute at all for model year since in most cars, the next model year's vehicles start showing up in late August/early September (so '13 cars should be showing up now). However, that's the normal case. Sometimes automakers decide to introduce a car at weird times or not have the next model year available until a weird time. Example: The 2010 (ZVW30) Prius (IIRC) became available to customers on ~May 09. A bunch of us, including myself were in Detroit for its unveiling in January 09. The 2012 (ZVW30 again) Prius didn't become available until (IIRC) mid to late January 2012. The '13 Chevy Malibu Eco (eAssist aka 2nd gen BAS mild hyrbid system) has been selling for awhile, I believe as early as Q1 2012. You could call this the next gen as it's quite different inside and out. Chevy sold it alongside the previous/current gen (depending on how you look at it) '12 Malibus (that have no eAssist). I believe Chevy was actively manufacturing both at the same time. Eventually, '12 Malibu supply will run out and all will be '13 Malibus, including both Eco (eAssist) and non-eAssist versions, when the newer non-eAssist powertrain is ready. Ferrari supposedly does something bizarre w/their model years. Per Long-Term Test: 2001 Ferrari 550M Maranello LOL!
But mfg.s do change year to year. A Prius 2011 is different than a 2012 even though both fit into the Prius III generation nomenclature. Most accurate is simply year and trim level. 2012/1-5 for example.
Not necessarily. The recent facelift changes to the Prius came mid-year here. Cars from a certain build date are simply the 'face lift' model.
You've reminded me that often the Australian brochures will just have footnotes that say "<feature> available from <month> <year> production".
