Prospective buyer: What changes could happen with 2017 Prius?

Several times I told my wife using the Navi, "I am not going to do that, it is wrong".

Yep, the center console is a little over kill especially on the Gen 3.

 

big improvement on gen 4, but personally, i still think it can be done better.

 

The HUD does not work with polarized sunglasses. Was able to see it as soon as I took mine off

 

I'll go out on a limb and say the 2017 Prius is going to get more than a few new colors and options. I suspect the 2016 Prius will suffer the same fate as the 2012 Civic. The 2012 Civic was a fresh redesign that landed like a lead balloon and Honda took the message from the market and offered a significant refresh in 2013 instead of waiting the normal 3 years for that refresh. (That refresh took 18 months as Honda was starting from scratch)

The 2016 Prius was delayed due to the new President of Toyota (Akio Toyoda) not liking the styling. He thought it was too conservative and wanted something bolder. The result is the current look, which has been almost universally panned. I believe the 2017 Prius Prime is the original look that was rejected by Toyoda and it was rushed into production after the styling of the standard Prius flopped. I also believe that for 2017 the regular Prius will get the nose and tail styling from the Prius Prime.

So that is my prediction. Normal history would say no changes for 3 years but desperate times call for desperate measures. Prius sales are down 10% YTD compared to 2016 and that is really bad considering it is a fresh redesign which usually sell much better as people wait for the updated model.

 

You could be right, but I would not bet on it. They could make the heat-reflecting green color available outside Japan, but I would not expect to seen any other new color options in 2017. And I would be very surprised if they made any exterior styling changes.

We can revisit this topic next March.

 

OK, never done that before but will give it a shot or two extra full.

 

I doubt they will change the styling in any significant way, i.e. change how the metal is pressed. Metal press forms are extremely expensive and they are not changed often because of this.

And everybody is saying the Prius is not selling well (based on which evidence BTW?).
I only hear people not finding the right one, that they have to wait months to get it and so on. And it is the best seller in Japan so far, already covering with sales there almost 50% of predicted sales, in the world...

And fuel prices in the USA are the lowest in the past 10-15 years, I read exactly yesterday - wait that the prices go up, and all of a sudden the Prius will have the best design in history, it will be called revolutionary...

Everybody is commenting negatively about the styling, but it is the first car in a while I see on the streets that actually says something. And being the Prius, it can and will say something. Everybody said the Gen2 and a good styling and the Gen3 too. I found the Gen2 hard to see, the Gen3 I had to digest because I needed a car with the lowest fuel consumption in city traffic. And that I could use to drive for more than 200km. The Gen4 is actually cool. It is modern. It says: I have the most advanced and modern drive train in the world, I am the future, I made the future. It is a bold design, it can be a bold design. Thank goodness the CEO of Toyota said it was dull and they restyled it! Another dull Gen3 like car would have been a total let down.
My Gen3 was "new" and nevertheless I got the Gen4 surely not for 20% less fuel consumption (which is amazing btw), but also because of the exterior design.
I got so far only 1 negative comments, among many others - actually even very positive ones. I see a lot of envy sometimes from others who would like to have a car so outspoken, with such true real life efficiency, and are stuck instead with their boring polluting TDI, dull BMW 3 or Golf (they look the same since 10 years at least), and so on. Very few cars out there say really something nowadays.

I think the Prime looks different because it is targeted to different buyers and a different business/use case. And different markets too.
I wouldn't know where to plug the Prime. I cannot do it at home, in the streets, in the office garage. And I want to see the prices of the Prime. If like the Gen3, the price difference is 5-6k€, considering 0.25€c/kWh you pay here, you need to drive zillions of km to repay for itself - it makes economically no sense and if you have get a Prius you are already doing a lot for the environment... If I think about it - half of my daily commute (half!) is done in EV mode...!

 

I agree - but can it NOT switch off when you turn off the POWER Button. My last 2 Fords and previous KIA, they stayed on forever.

 

Agree totally. I've only had the car for about a month and after seeing it one friend bought one, another is seriously thinking about replacing his GTI, and my daughter is foaming at the mouth to trade in her Prius V for a four like mine.

I will agree that looking at dealers lots it appears they aren't selling particularly well, at least in the Baltimore area. We have one dealer with 80 Prii on the lot and another with 40. However the ones sitting are mostly the base model 2. In my opinion they should have shipped a lot more 3's 4's and touring. Those seem to be the models most in demand, in these part anyway. J

 

Actually I haven't had any negative comments - and several positive ones. I pulled up at my daughter's place the other day, went inside and her 5yr old son said "Grandad's got a new car - can I go and look at it". The car wasn't parked anywhere conspicuous, but he noticed. That excited his 2 older sisters - they all went out for a look. The 2 girls (8 and 10yo) both expressed how exciting it looked. Master 5yo was more excited by the dashboard. My daughter was interested in the child restraint mounting points.

If I were got get a Prime - I'd re-work how my Solar Panels work, possibly putting in a TESLA type battery to enable "free" charging. Now I've got a new Prius, a Prime would be at least 3 or 4 years away.

 

Lot was void of Touring Fours at the local dealer. Really like the ride and drive of the Touring. Also ATP was scarce on any vehicle.

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Bingo is his name. Have to pick insert quotes or it will only do two.

So a whiskey flask or wine bottle holder would be better than a Cell Phone holder. Just ask the officer if he wants a drink. Can't be rude eh!

Fired 4 drunks at work years ago. My parting comments were, you never offered the rest of us a drink.

They would sneak down to their trunk and have a bolt 4 times a day.

 

In EU they hardly have any vehicles on the "lot" of the dealers because everything is essentially BTO (built to order). Rarely they have something available on the mini-lot most have. It is accepted that you have to wait x months before getting your new car (any brand). Actually BMW plays on this as it is possible for you to change the order up to 2 weeks before production starts. They say that this time is enough for purchasers to come back and add further options that they thought they didn't want when they first placed the order. And waiting "a lot" for a car, signifies you are ordering something special or highly requested. Anything from 1 to 3 months wait is fairly normal, I would say in all EU from all manufacturers. Japanese included. I read on a Toyota Germany FB page a post from a user who ordered the RAV Hybrid and has to wait 7 months...!

That all said, I don't expect the Prius to sell much in Germany or in particular in Munich. It stands too much out, it is weird, it doesn't have 200HP and 1232132131NM torque and it doesn't have a german badge (doesn't matter which and how bad and polluting the cars it builds are). They important thing is that is must be "german quality" - even if it breaks 1 day after the 2 year of warranty....as they usually do.
And clearly drivers here have somebody who pays for their fuel. Because even if not it is only 1.25€/L, it will eventually go back to 1,65€/L - it starts to hurt then (when it was that high, that's when I started seeing a few more Gen3s on the roads of Munich ).

PS: I really don't understand what is the marketing of Toyota and based on what sales numbers, feedback and market surveys they have decided to offer their trims here in EU (each country has a different set of trim levels, it is absurd) and as I read, in the USA.

 

Great idea - I would vote for that

 

It is visible through mine, but much fainter than without the polarized glasses. If I tilt my head about 30 degrees to the right, it shows very clearly.

 

I'm ok with them switching off, safer? You have something that requires it to stay hot? The 12 volt can get run down pretty quick.

Might even be regulated now, I believe it's the norm now for outlets to shut down.

 

Yes it is very expensive to make metal stamping dies. In this case Toyota already made them to manufacture the Prius Prime. There is not reason they can't fit parts from the Prime on the standard Prius.

The 2016 Prius is not selling well in the USA. As I noted above year to date sales in 2016 are 10% lower than 2015 sales for the same months. That is very bad considering that the 2015 Prius was a 5 year old design and the 2016 is brand new. Generally cars sell best the first year of a new design and worst the last year. People wait to buy the new design.

Prius sales in Japan may be doing great. I can see the new look being very popular there as it is very "Japanese". There is no reason Toyota couldn't keep the current look in Japan and switch to the Prius Prime look in the USA. Again they have the tooling to make both.

No they aren't. The lowest fuel price in the past 10 years (average price for unleaded nationally) was in December 2008 when the price dropped to $1.59. The lowest is the past 15 years was August 2000 when the price was $1.42. The average for the past 15 years is $2.48 This week the average price is $2.33
Data from: Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update - Energy Information Administration

I'm glad you like the new look. As you mention, that is not the majority opinion. We have 2 Prius. The 2005 was due to be replaced this year and the plan was to replace it with a 2016 Prius. That was until the new styling was revealed. I'm not big on choosing cars based on looks but the 2016 Prius was still too much for me. It got scratched off the list and we ended up purchasing a 2016 Chevy Spark EV three weeks ago. That is one sale Toyota lost.

I see you are in Germany but in the USA the Prius Prime will have a $4500 Federal tax credit and additional tax credits in some states that can completely eliminate the difference in price between a standard Prius and the Prius Prime.

 

You got me on that one, you make the point. I still believe they want to keep the 2 separate for some marketing reason.

I still believe it doesn't sell well because the design is standing out too much and because gas prices are low.

You are still paying fuel nothing actually thanks for the update, then I misread. Still the fuel is cheap, very cheap. And that Ford F-150 is really interesting, isn't it..? (Ford pickup trucks are the undisputed most sold vehicles in the USA, right?)

I checked the current price of the Gen3 plug-in (still in offer): starts at 36,6k€ - the Gen3 was priced from 26,8k€ to 31,5k€ (list prices before any options - I made a screenshot of Toyota's .de website before the Gen4 was launched).
So the delta is anything from 10k€ down to 5k€ depending on the trim. They even have a 42,9k€ trim available, I noticed just now (!!!).
The German government has finally woken up and will give you 3k€ savings till next year if you buy a P-HEV (4k€ if you get a EV), so long as funding lasts (and only until next year), but other than that, the Prius plug-in costs too much here in EU to have any economical sense. 5k€ to 10k€ delta buys you a lot of (very expensive! ) EU gas which you can burn very nicely with a much cheaper Prius.

 

Although not good for quickest reference, you can also mount a phone on a holder that fits in one of cupholders. Belkin makes a nice one