THIS is how you advertise the Prius

Only if first time owners are upgrading.... Couldn't find a used Prius when I was ready to buy...but no regrets...

 

OK... back to advertising... love the "new" Raphael Saadiq commercial with the red Prius. Stated the facts, made the car look "fun" and the music was to die for - wish the song just wasn't for the commercial. Hope someone is listening out there in marketing land....

 

Now we're getting somewhere!

 

"Up to..." the phrase invented by advertising for advertising. It promises much and guarantees nothing. Are you saying it GOT 40MPG? Then just say it.

"For summer fun move to beautiful Fairbanks Alaska with May temperatures up to 90 degrees!"

(Avg may temp 60.4 per Wikipedia)

 

It got well over 40 mpg on multiple tanks over a ~2500 mile road trip. I believe it was 47 mph highway and 32 city. I was impressed. I just drove it like I drive a Prius, pulse & glide I had pics posted in some Elantra verses Prius comparison thread a year or so back.

Mike

 

That is very impressive, and thanks for being specific. I suspect that your gentle acceleration and braking might have had a lot to do with it. The magic of pulse and glide in the Prius is that it turns off the engine during the glide. Without that, I doubt the Hyundai really benefited from the technique.

 

Who would just leave there kid on the sidewalk while they went shopping.

 

Can we lose the bearded guy with chopsticks at the top of the PRIUSchat homepage? He's been there since I signed up as a new member in November 2012. It's a real visual downer for me whenever I hit my PRIUSchat bookmark and that dude's face comes up, front and center.

There's got to be better images that showcase our forum.

Pulse and glide on, my friends.

 

Prius commercials have zero testosterone in them. Why not advertise the torque for city driving and the long range capabilities, fuel savings as well.
The new commercial where the guy is coming up to the Toyota counter while sipping on the last of his soft drink. That's not a bad Prius commercial. I like how the guy isn't middle aged

 

If I were to guess - I would think that the reason Toyota doesn't run their racing success up the flagpole is because it's too much like GM . GM used to believe that if you win the Daytona 500, then the next day it brings customers in. . . . . but nowadays - Toyota may think racing simply exemplifies burning fuel for the sake of burning fuel ... and real customers ... average customers ... people trying to stretch gas dollars ... well those folks don't see that kind of connection. that's just my guess.

 

the hybrid in racing is nothing like the prius, other than its a hybrid. If you are going to advertise racing, you want a well handling, quickly accelerating car. The camry hybrid maybe in a stretch as the camry is used in nascar. The prius, its against type. Then again most of the prius ads are just plain bad, so advertising it racing might be better than the game of life or the people person. I'm sure the prius sold in spite of those advertisements instead of because of them.

 

Admittedly the Prius is a very long way from the TS030, but the technology is the connection, and I look on the TS030 as the racing cousin of the Prius. Take a look at a YouTube video entitled "TOYOTA Racing Drivers Impressions of Hybrid Technology" in which team driver Alex Wurz talks about racing as a way of improving Toyota's hybrid technology to benefit future production cars. A recent article about the updated 2013 version of the TS030 states that "Toyota's Motor Sport Division in Higashifuji has fine-tuned the powertrain to improve power, efficiency, management of component usage and reliability." Constant development and improvement of the technology is what racing is all about. And by the way, that powertrain won the WEC's Powertrain of the Year award in 2012.

I'm sure if Toyota really wanted to it could make the case that the TS030 is as much a test-bed to improve fuel saving technology as it is an outright competition car, but unfortunately the company doesn't seem to want to make any case for the TS030 at all, at least not in North America. The car will appear in the only North American round of the World Endurance Championship in September at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin (are you going, Austingreen?) but there's not any mention of it at all on the ToyotaRacing website (just NASCAR, NHRA etc.).

I just don't get it.

 

sure, but the prius goes for atkinson and old school nimh, and toyota stresses efficiency and reliability in its design. The TS030 is supercaps mainly for acceleration. I think you could do a racing - TS030 with LMP and Camry with Nascar, then prius and camry hybrid technological leadership. Audi has been able to move some of the race tech into its engines Hopefully Toyota will be able to do that. IT would be nice if they offered a performance version of a prius, with better suspension, tires, lowered for aerodynamics, and stronger battery, then you could make the connection. I think there would be a market for that, whether it is called a lexus or toyota.

I will probably go to the endurance championship at COTA, unfortunately I won't have the good credentials that I used to get. I'll post some pictures of the event.

 

I'm planning on doing a few of those mods to my PiP. And I'll check with my parts manager to see if he can order up one of those capacitors and a stronger electric motor.

I'd love to go down there myself although not likely (but one can never tell; my wife has a nephew in Houston).[/quote]

 

Message me if you make it to Austin for a race.

 

On the subject of Advertising, here is a Creepy Transmission Repair Commercial!
"Hey baby, how does your car run?"
Watch the most amazing and creepy transmission shop ad ever made

 

I detest most advertising and immediately reach for the mute button when TV ads come on. What sold me on the Prius was talking to people who own them, then going to a dealer, sitting in and driving one. Now, I've had people ask me about the car and, depending on how much time I have, will spend anywhere from a minute to half an hour talking about it. I also tell them to check out Prius Chat!

There is nothing like word-of-mouth...still the best form of advertising.

 

That was hilarious, thanks for sharing!

 

For Toyota ads, those around 1998 - 2000 with Steve Young were a bit up to standard. Then when Steve fade out from the ad, Toyota ad are the worst. Spending cheap to hire the third grade ad. company to do the promotion. 99% were junk ad. As someone said, reach for the remote to change channel. Toyota is lucky to have us buying their cars by not looking their ad. We buy their cars by their reliability, quality control, less defects( as always praised by CR), Toyota repetition, humble style... People looking at their ad. will never buy one. May be Toyota has enough confidence to keep hiring the third grade ad. company. It's at risk.

 

I found the sushi ad. What were they thinking?