Things Overheard at the 2010 Prius Detroit Event

Well, they look cool. I'm a bit worried about the cost, which we don't know. Then again, HIDs are expensive, and in the case of the Prius, troublesome.

I can't say how effective the LED lights are, since we were inside a building with lights, but they appear bright and focused.

Tom

 

Sounds like you've been reading Men Are Stupid ... And They Like Big Boobs - Joan Rivers' new book about plastic surgery. She's been interviewed on several NPR shows in the last week.

Or maybe you were the inspiration for the title

 

Maybe not relevant to your conversation with the CE but some years ago friends of mine went to Japan for a 2 year work assignment. They were VERY frustrated trying to get appliances for the apartment. Is seems a 'yes' or 'ok' response to any question meant "I heard you" NOT "yes, we'll have it here tomorrow as you just requested".

 

Did it bring back bad memories of when he worked for Toyota and the service manager wouldn't let him go on his well deserved (and probably 2 hour late) breaks?

I have to wonder, just WHAT percentage of people attending the show were crawling UNDER the cars? And was anyone crawling under any car except the Prii??

 

OH SNAP!!!! Nuff Said!

 

First off, just to be clear, at the Event that the Prius Chatters were invited to, there were NO OTHER VEHICLES, just the 2010 Prius that they wanted to show us.

There were SEVERAL people crawling under the cars. Into the cars. Taking things OUT of the cars (like Galaxy, lifting out the plastic tub in the back to access the battery, and Hyo removing the cabin air filter. FireEngineer taking off the ICE cover under the hood; FireEngineer taking out the rear seat), taking pictures UNDER the car, etc.

Toyota was HAPPY about it. They were absolutely grinning, asking US questions, answering OUR questions, bringing over the head engineer to consult his bulging notebook of goodness, etc.

One thing that I heard, more than once, when meeting a Toyota "dignitary":

"Oh, YOU'RE Rae Vynn!!" :huh:

 

Taking OUT the rear seat? I guess they really meant it when they said you could disassemble the car. Did you have to bring your own tools, or did Toyota provide them?

Whoa, I hope he said it with a HAPPY face!

 

Did anyone have any shots of the car underside, or was that even possible? I am interested in how Toyota managed to get the G3's drag coefficient down a point to 0.25 from the 0.26 level of our current G2 model. Looking at some of the pics here it does appear that the underside of the car has a smoother appearance than the current model's undersurface.

 

FireEngineer, taking out the rear seat (I'm still uploading photos. They will be on Flickr as I get them uploaded):

 

I managed to capture them in this 2010 Prius horn video.

YouTube - 2010 Prius: Horn and Auto Up/Down power windows

 

The way I heard this story, you had an even smaller car in your pocket, and said "Here's a Tony-sized version." Nicely done, my friend.

The hostesses I talked with seemed impressed that the hotel showers were big enough for three.

 

They always look better when they're on, don't they?

 

...and at the end of the evening, when I shook hands with Doug Coleman, the organizer/head dude, he said, "You are the most expressive person here."

Such incredible tact. I'm sure he wanted to say, "Do you EVER shut up?"

 

My favorite was when Doug asked me, "So Darell... have we convinced you that this is good enough yet?" That began a longer conversation than he was looking for, but hey.

 

and this came up how? by way of an invitation up to hyo's room? :lol:

 

Well, when I was in hyo's room...

 

As well as being majorly jealous of all those who got to go, I'm quite impressed that Toyota put this on. It gives us a pretty clear idea how seriously they take their customers, particularly the devoted ones! Its one thing to let you guys come see it. Its another all together to give you unrestricted access to the cars and some of the actual designers. Its really just dawning on me how cool that is.

Rob

 

I'm pretty sure Toyota has a video of me fondling the shifter and saying "Oooh, that's nice!"