2019 Prius Wish List

I think you'll find the brake and tail lights are a compliance issue. I've followed a Gen 4 at night in the rain, and they were plenty bright enough. I think the limitation in olden days was 21w for brake, and only 5w for taillight - of course nowdays with LEDs, that's all different. It's now defined as "INTENSITY OF LIGHT EMITTED".

 

I should have mentioned I was actually referring to daytime visibility. When a GEN 3 steps on his brakes in bright sun, it really gets my attention.

 

I was listening to a local PODCAST by a motoring journalist today, he said he'd been in Vanuatu this week and his rental was a TOYOTA HiLux twin cab (I think you call it TACOMA).

Here, they are the 2nd best selling "car" in the country and the basic model is well equipped, and top model comes with just about everything, leather etc. I suspect your USA models are the same.

But his brand new rental in Vanuatu had vinyl seats, Manual windows, only a lap centre rear seatbelt (not seen here for 10-15 yrs), and he said the entertainment screen was small AND grainy. I had a look at their website and it lists "Radio, Cassette, CD, 4 Speakers". Obviously built for a price for a market which will stand it. Not sure - but the specifications sheet it even looked like the base model didn't have ABS or Airbags.

 

The A/C ONLY runs from the Hybrid Battery.

When the charge goes down low enough for it not to be able to continue running the A/C, it has to start the engine - there is no other option. It is limited as to how low the charge will go (and how high) as using the extremes of full and empty are what would destroy the battery. That's how they're getting upwards of 12 years out of batteries.

Once it is down, the ICE will run - driving MG1 (though I could be wrong, it might be MG2 which is bigger) which isn't a "small" alternator like on a Golf/Camry, but it's a beast of a motor which produces 31HP when it's a motor. For the ICE to drive it as a GENERATOR, it would need somewhere in the same ballpark to run it. Just idling the ICE would do less than nothing - the HYBRID Battery would continue to go down, you'd get hotter and hotter because the A/C would just stop.

Negative vibes?? That's a myth - promulgated by anti-hybrid lobby. There's a similar bunch of myths around EVs too. I've never heard anything negative about hybrid batteries, at least by people who know what they're talking about (yes, TAXI drivers) - they're relatively cheap. And many are going for the life of the vehicle. If you look at the savings in other repairs - gearboxes (some of the new fancy ones are extremely expensive to repair), brakes etc by having a PRIUS, - plus massive savings in fuel which will fund a battery every 3 years - a battery every 10 or 12 years is very cheap.

Have a look at how the HYBRID SYNERGY DRIVE works - what you're proposing would be an impossible. The car ONLY goes backwards in EV Mode. It always starts in EV Mode, even if for just a few nano-seconds. It's not like having 2 separate drives, but 3 carefully integrated engines/motors.

 

Nicely explained, Alan. Perhaps @TexAmi needs to know that MG1 and MG2 are electric motor/generators one and two

 

Yep true. I sort of explained it in Message #12, but you've said it a bit better.

The Weber Auto videos are excellent - a bit long, but very indepth. They're made as a training video.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++​

Totally off-subject - I was particularly intrigued by his interrogation of the steel belt in a CVT - which is totally different from what journalists call PRIUS drive - which is sort of CVT, but technically an eCVT. I've sent this - and the one I posted above to a few people I knew who were convinced that PRIUS ran off a belt. I got a reaction back - ahhh, that explains it, they ARE very different.

 

Maybe partially, but: do we really need to buy into this? This extra charge for certain colours seems to have "hatched" in the last decade, at least I'd never heard of it before. In 2010 up here the pearl white was an extra $250 (CDN). Now it's $400 (US)? Sounds like a cash cow.

Similarly: the $500+ for the parts department will charge if you want to upgrade to the roller style cargo cover.

 

looks like my old timex wristband. twistoflex.

 

It's definitely more intensive to apply. Metallic paint has an extra step of clear-coat over the base coat which includes the metallic bits. But Pearl has an extra step of pearl after the colour coat before the clear-coat. For motor manufacturing where some they'll put in a rear centre lap belt to save a little, extra steps (and extra drying and processing time) in the spray booth would probably justify the extra cost.

Plus it's become more and more expensive with the new water-based basecoat, low-VOC products requiring better performing equipment to be able to make as good a paint job as before the new emissions regulations came into force.

Pearl white cars cost more because of extra steps | Mail Tribune

 

Pearl white and fancy red colors used to only be available on high end luxury or sport cars, now they are commonly available as an option on mid-level cars which is why you run into them more often now.

Of course not. Like I said you negotiate a selling price that cuts into these various cash cows, including $125 door edge guards, $395 tri-stage paint, and $500 documentation fees.

 

Maybe it's something new to you in USA - but Metallic Paint has always been an expensive extra here. I found a DATSUN price list from 1980 - I'd guess that SKYLINE would be today's equivalent to a PRIUS $$$ wise:


Extrapolate the 2 figures against a PRIUS 2018 price ($39,000 drive-away approx here) - and the Metallic would be $358, the "Special" would be $858 in today's money.

 

I agree with this posting..... I had a 2007 prius and currently have a 2017 plug in. My current prius plug in has about 160,000 on it.... I looked at a prime a few months ago, and it did nothing for me... What is next? I don't know.. Maybe a 2019 Rav4Hybrid,.... Maybe a Volvo XC40 plug in hybrid... Would go with t

 

I'd suggest rent a Gen 4 or PRIME for a few days. It and a 2012 (I assume that's what you meant) are chalk and cheese as far as driving is concerned. Yes, the Gen has got a better glovebox, but that's about all. And a RAV4 would have to have improved drastically over a 2016 (non-hybrid) RAV4 for it to be at all comparable.

I haven't seen the XC40 Plug-In - but from reports, it should be appreciably better than a RAV4.

 

I don't think we ever had an extra charge in the U.S. for metallic colors, at least not that I remember. And it's possible that even three-stage colors were not always an extra charge on higher end cars, although I don't know having never been in the market for a high end car . I think it started when tri-coats moved into the lower price brackets. And to Mendel's point the price seems to have creeped up a bit over the years.

 

In 2010 the pearl was an extra $250 (CDN) up here IIRC.

 

Yeah, but ..... Nah, but ....

It's funny then that some of the colours that were standard on the left side of the Atlantic cost extra on the rhs! These extra numbers on the cost of paint are almost impossible to justify except in the case of expensive additives - non of which should cost more than ~USD100 extra per car. Think about it for a moment.....

 

We don't get offered "Thermo-Tect Lime Green" - only available only in Japan as a $350 option there.