Russell Frost of "What Drives Us" Interviews Prius Chief Engineer

Which part of they door frame are they referring to - it all appears black to me:

 

prius awd sales will be fascinating to follow, as will reliability

 

if it isn't obvious, is it effective? or is subliminal better?

 

What's weird, when I google interior images, I'm not seeing body colour. Most of these are Toyota published, and they've maybe been doctored? Either the actual car had touch up paint or via photoshop?

Would you happen to know, are door threshold protectors pieces still optional?

Addendum:

Yeah in the 2016 Prius brochure I see "Door Sill Protector" listed in the "Genuine Accessories" section.

 

Who else just went outside to check their own car?

After thousands of miles and countless hours sat inside it, why the hell didn't I know what it looks like? lol
Anyway, perhaps referencing the pic of my own to the side. The door frame is black, the interior is black, there is a rubber piece also partially covering the inside frame on a Gen 3, not shown in the highlighted image above of the main window frame.
To get the green body colour, they had to have had a car with green surrounding the windows.

I associate such things as in the images above with basement bargain cars from the 1980's. Can see the concern. But, it could be fixed with a bit of painters tape and some spray can Fu.

 

Yes - I just went out to look at mine. It's got what seems to be a black covering of matt plastic stuck on, you can feel the thickness - maybe the thickness of 3 sheets of paper. No, never noticed it before - and no, I don't think I'd have worried either way. Photos of my previous 2 cars appear to be blacked out too.

 

Our third gen there's black paint, sort of satin finish, all around the top of the door frame.

 

is this the whole problem with prius sales?

 

That and the loss of the double glove box.

 

They should have read some of this thread:
What I don't like about the 2016 Prius | PriusChat

Or better still - all of it. And addressed the big complaints that were mentioned. Fix them and they'd have had a perfect car.

 

I think @Prius Team has given up on learning from us here.They have not been seen in quite a while.

 

If you want a little bit of humo(u)r, turn on closed captioning, especially during the Japanese segments. They do not transliterate well into English words

 

Microphone left/right are backwards in the video, sounds a little awkward in stereo.

Great interview.

 

OK.
Let me admit to a sophomoric, juvenile tendency of which I should be ashamed.
But whenever I listen to a 3 party interpreter interview, I instantly imagine an entirely different dialogue.
That is when Russell Frost asks about the AWDe system, I imagine the interpreter looking at the Prius chief engineer, Shoichi Kaneko and relaying somthing like:
"Jack Frost asks whether you like Fruit Cake, and if so would it be suitable as an appropriate gift?"
To which Mr. Kaneko replies:
"Tell George Clooney, I find Game of Thrones to be engrossing and highly entertaining, but I worry about a conclusion that is commensurate with the quality of the entire series" .

And so forth and so on...

So I have to really concentrate to take anything from this format.
But the fault is all mine. My untrained mind and psyche instantly applies a Mystery Science Theater dialogue.

That being said, it was a good interview. There is a blurring of the line between engineering realities, and marketing priorities, but the two go hand and hand, and I thought it revealing what design ques Toyota was striving for, and made.

When I first heard about the Prius with the AWD-e system, I was impressed that Toyota was able to offer it, and maintain a 50 mpg standard.

Recently had a thread about Toyota "Saving" the Prius.
I'm not sure Toyota has to "save" the Prius. I think Toyota is still very committed to what the Prius represents as a Toyota product and a global product.
But I'm not also sure AWD-e, is enough of a offering to generate a lot of renewed or new interest in the Prius.
I think it's great. But how much of an market is created by its existence? Are repeat, regular owners of Prius going to be enticed enough by AWD-e to want to purchase it?
Does it capture some market from buyers looking at AWD Subaru's or similar vehicles?
Again, to be honest, I don't know. I think it's great, but I want some real world feedback. How good is it? How much more robust a Winter vehicle does AWD-e make the Prius?

Maybe I'm not the best person to comment much on refreshes. If only because I think I'm also "strange" when it comes to styling. As I have always to an extent liked the "Ugly Ducklings".
The Gen 2 was sometimes criticized for it's "Door Stop" look and utilitarian styling. But I always liked it.
So the evolution of the Prius to looking more and more sporty and mainstream, while understandable and inevitable, isn't as appealing to me personally.
I kind of liked the Prius for all the ways it was NOT like everything else on the road, than all the ways it now is more and more looking like everything else on the road.
But...again, that's just me. Toyota has to compete with competitors and evolution, which means they aren't going to embrace the Pontiac Aztec look, and they shouldn't do so, but it's still hard for me to get excited about the Prius looking more and more "mainstream" and even admittedly, better looking. So it's best I recuse myself from too much commentary on this specific inevitable evolution of the product.

It was also interesting to me that MPG was held as a irrevocable Prius standard in design. I think that's smart. Really, IMO that's the Hybrid's greatest appeal, greatest competing weapon.
I'm not an engineer, but instead of horizontal or vertical tail lights, or blacked out framed windows or non-framed windows, what I'd like to see is improvement in fuel efficiency. That is a change, if significant enough, I think could really garner a lot of enthusiasm about a new Prius product.
That or fruit cake.

 

You must have read the subtitles.