Complete Toyota Press information Prius 2016

i believe toyota's goal is to increase market penetration. to that end, if some current users are unhappy, so be it. that's the nature of the beast. if continuous posting of imagined or real personal negatives are an attempt to make toyota backtrack, or just some sort of mental health exercise, good luck with that.

 

I agree with this. Car is only lower by 20mm, but seat is lowered by approx 60mm. That is considerably lower than current Prius. One reason my kids hate my BMW but Love Prius is, they can simply slide in Prius, and step out easily vs in BMW they have to stoop down.

 

agreed, most kids hate bmw and love prius. this lower design will drive them to camry, accord and malibu.

 

mid-november is when worldwide media is going to first drive new Prius... I suspect they might be embargoed until later on in December... PR has rules on when they want maximum exposure for their models. Still, we will certainly get some small info at that time, and afterall, Japanese sales start early January.

 

Prius will not have sports car - coupe-like seating position. What will have is optimized angle of seat that allows for more natural seating position, no matter what you set your seat height to (you can always rise it). This includes different position of steering wheel and gas pedals for overall more natural driving position. They even have pictures showing how much lesser the pressure is on your butt and legs in new Prius vs old.

Many Toyota's have previously optimized overall cabin space instead of driving position. That lead to unnatural driving position where you felt like you were sitting on a bench (instead of "in the seat"), and where you could never feel completely comfortable because seat-wheel-pedals positioning was always somewhat wrong. By far the biggest complaint of G3 Prius has been the seats.

On the other hand, Lexus always optimized for driving position and result is that their seats are way more comfortable for long drives.

I have had Lexus IS and GS, and no Toyota can remotely compare to the comfort and optimized driving position of IS/GS (since I worked with Toyota, I have extensivly driven every car they sold in Europe for 10 years). It is just nowhere the same.

Just 2 days ago I went to test drive new Avensis and Auris Hybrid and got reminded how worse Toyota seats are, even if those models got better ones in facelift and much was made of new position, it is nowhere close to optimal seating position you find in Lexus. Then I sat in new IS and NX at same dealership, and it is a world of difference.

 

We'll see. I already lift the back of the seat two detents from my wife's driving position so I can be more vertical. It seems if I want to be in the same vertical orientation in the IV as in my Gen II I will be more bent at the hip than would be comfortable.

 

That's kind of the attitude I'm taking.
I welcome as much information as is released, leaked, stolen or available.
I welcome the speculation.
I welcome the debate.

But at this point? I'm kind of at a sprint to the finish line mentality. Many of the questions, and aspects of opinion in regards to available technology, pricing points, packages and even subjective looks, will all be answerable in the real consumer world in a pretty short time. And that IMO is where all new vehicles are actually vetted.

 

i'm already think it's going to be very uncomfortable, based on what i don't know.

 

I won't know anything until I test drive one.

 

i'll know when i see the monroney. i bought my gen III sight unseen, just on the specs. never looked back.

 

so you are getting two these then?

 

I did the same thing...

I would do it for the GEN4 too, but I'm not sure which color I want.

 

I don't need another sedan right now, but I'd be interested in trading the 2012 PiP for a 2016/2017 PiP if they beef up the EV part of it. I've bought 5 priuses so far. All 3 kids got one after college - they saved me more than the price of the Prius in scholarships, so I figured they deserved some of the saved money.