The colors for the Reservoir Blue are all over the place.

Neither the color chips by what I saw of the Tideland Pearl.

 

We saw a Prius LE in reservoir blue today, and this reservoir blue sure looked darker than that of the Camry hybrid we saw a few weeks ago

 

The Europe price tiers seem like they "should" be - blue is the only plain colour, the metallics cost more, and the 3-coat pearlescent red and white are the most expensive.

They hadn't put any blue ones onto the initial shipment here, thus discouraging it by order time. The red and white pearlescent seem like Toyota's "staple" premium colours, with almost every model having those 2 paints among the most expensive choices.

I think grey and white are most popular in general on the road at the moment. Always plenty of silver too. Blue is weirdly rare - the only actual colour you tend to see in car parks is red.

 

i think the pics on page one and our hycam reservoir blue are similar enough that angle and lighting makes all the difference.
ours looks very different in sun and shade

 

Interesting, there seems to be some disagreement on the forums about whether or not reservoir blue is metallic or solid/flat this year. Perhaps it is also different in europe vs america.

i would think rarity indicates exclusivity, but if it is flat it isnt for me

 

i wouldn't call it flat, but definitely not metallic

 

I have to admit it still looks nice in the pics…lol im having buyers remorse over my silver.

the light interior looks great too, ill sadly be receiving gradient black fabric lol

 

we like it, but the options are minimal. red was my other choice, but mrs b didn't want a red car.

 

One of the early press events with cars of all six US colors was at late afternoon on the California Pacific coast. One of the reviewers started filming with the sun fairly high in the sky and finished at late sunset. IIRC, they said the blue changed the most of all the colors as the light shifted. I'll try to find the video to confirm, but it might be too much of a needle in the YouTube haystack.

edit: I found the video I was thinking of, but it didn't include the comment about the blue I thought it did. So either the comment comes from a different video or I made it up myself. No way to know for sure. The press event was in Del Mar, California back in late December. It was the one where they made YouTubers pair up for the test drives.

edit2: The Toyota rep at the event called the color "more of a matte blue". She was speaking of the base color, not the clearcoat(which is still full gloss). Guardian Gray is in the same category.

 

I've not seen the blue on the car, but the paint chip in the dealer was certainly not metallic. Brochure doesn't say what it is, just what it isn't - not metallic or "premium".



Edit - actually, the text calls it a "perusväri" - a basic or normal colour.

The blue paint code is the same as the USA; I don't think it's available for any other Toyota or Lexus on sale here at the moment.

The paint chip the dealer had certainly was dark blue, even in a well-lit show room. (Whereas the pearl white chip was dazzling, and the pearl white RAV4 was just ridiculous).

 

yes the pearl white is where its at..just could not find a dealer with one in stock and without a $2.5k markup. Do you have markups in europe?

 

No, dealers don't generally stock new cars, except that they will have demo models they will sell or pre-sell - everything is usually ordered from the factory for specific customers.

So you shouldn't normally ever pay more than the standard price - you might just have to wait. You're definitely on a firm order list. Cars are assigned to customers, not dealers.

In the case of the Prius, it seems the first batch of non-demo Priuses to multiple countries were all already on the boat when I placed my July order, choosing one of those cars for September delivery. Anything else had estimated December delivery. So that was a case where the importer was getting ahead of the customer orders. Maybe that's normal at model introduction?

The Prius is currently flagged on the local Toyota site as "available for fast delivery" indicating that they still have stock from that first boat, so it won't be the usual factory order.

The Prius has so few factory options here (and always has) that there's no real need for them to actually be factory orders, but that's the way the dealer network and buyers are accustomed to working, so the Prius works like that regardless. We don't get a choice of interior colour, or touchscreen, many countries don't give you a panoramic roof choice, etc. Here there's just 3 trim levels, no options aside from paint colour. Top trim always has solar panel. The first batch on the boat were all mid-trim.

 

Wow, you have no idea how perfect that system sounds compared to what we have in the States. And sadly I think most people here are too stupid to organize to demand something similar to what you have, so even with $10k markups this will continue indefinitely…

Strangely I notice on the webstie that the regular prius (non-PHEV) is not even offered in many euro countries like DE, NL, FR, and neither is offered in Sweden, unless my translation tool was confusing me

 

You call their system perfect, while you call ours stupid, yet we have all the choices.

Free markets have many benefits. But caveat emptor.

$10k markups do not continue indefinitely.

Patience.

 

Yeah that’s true. Honestly, the Tesla model is perfect, although elon can go to hell. Individuals should be able to factory order whatever they want, like you do with a MacBook Pro (or a Tesla)

 

Paint chips can be way off for some colors. It is why I decided to not go with Tideland Pearl, as it looked almost black on the chip in the showroom.

'Matte' colors seem to be the current trend for cars these days.

Most of Europe has the choice of the Corolla hybrid in sedan, hatchback, and wagon flavors. The Prius hybrid, with potentially higher price for being an import, was cancelled there with this generation.

The US system isn't free market. Dealer associations got their state governments to pass laws that made it illegal for the manufacturers to directly sell their products.

 

exactly! The dealers have a cartel thing going on now, it is not a free market. I heard that on NPR, manufacturers arent allowed to do direct sales in most of the country. Tesla gets around it with various loopholes, in some cases putting dealerships on indian reservations

i dont understand why more people in the US do not organize to eliminate dealerships’ monopoly on car sales.

it is having HUGE economic effects. One of the leading causes of inflation is *car prices*.

inflation is all anyone ever talks about these days. Why cant anyone see that stealerships are one of the leading causes. Most of the papers arguing for negative economic effects of dealers’ monopoly on sales date to 2015..it is like no one can see how this is bad.

these markups are inflation.

 

I wouldn't call it a monopoly - the dealerships still have to compete with each other, they aren't one entity. But they do have more leverage than they would if direct to consumer was available. Of course, the same idea can work in reverse - during periods where average car prices are less than MSRP, if buying direct, you probably would not be able to haggle the price down. I would prefer it that way, but then you'd get angry folks who would say they never buy cars at MSRP and wanted it the old way.

 

Isn't that like saying grocery stores have a monopoly on selling food?

 

Pleased with the blue... In Canada it's not a very common colour. The blue stands out in a sea of silver and white.