Gen 4, a disappointment?

ain't that the truth.

 

I love my nice bright white LED headlights more than any other feature on the car. That was a priority of mine, since I don't see well at night. Ever since I spotted those new Corollas on the road, (and got blinded )

I just had to have those teensie eensie weenie LED's. (Thanks, Mendle.) I think they should be standard equipment on ALL vehicles.

Ok, but about my noisy tires....

And about my driver's seat that keeps slowly sinking over a couple days...

And about my Blizzard Pearl paint that I've discovered scratches / dings / chips way too easily...

And about my dirty filthy door sills...

That's enough for today.

 

Yeah but, under ALL that sculpture, the headlight is this eensy, round thing. I know: fashion.

 

I think Toyota has a real challenge with The Prius and more specifically with a lot of the Prius owning audience.
That is, maybe more than with other vehicles I think people who have owned Prius have very high expectations in regards to improvement and the evolution of The Prius.

The Generational jumps with previous Prius have been jumps of the Jesse Owens type.

But even though I have no desire to run out tomorrow and buy one, I am impressed with the Gen 4.
From what I've read, and heard, there are a lot of improvements.

It seems clear that Toyota realizes that "Prius" itself is now an established product. It can't be the next "new" thing. Owning a hybrid no longer has the "fringe" panache that perhaps it had 5-10 years ago.
So in the last 2 evolution's the aim seems to be to mainstream The Prius. To that end, I think the primary aspect of evolution with this Prius was to make it more of a drivers vehicle. And I'm fine with that.

If I was disappointed in anything, it is that I don't think Toyota really pushed the envelope at all in adding any "new" gadgetry to The Prius.
In the past Prius, To Go Before, has been a Halo Vehicle for introducing to wider audience some new or rarer for the mainstream gadgetry. Maybe that is just becoming harder to do, but there is no electronic or functional Prius extra that I went "Wow! that's neat" available.

 

I was in Norway for 4 months during fall and winter during 2014. I noticed people that live in major cities they adapt/adopt electric vehicles, while outside major cities are more reciprocating engine SUVs. I was told that Norway has most electric cars than any other individual EU country, and while I was there, VW eGulf was very popular and purchased. Most of the Norway people are environmental conscious with this in mind and taxes which is heavily imposed by the government on reciprocating engine, I was told 25% VAT + government taxes non recurring vehicle fees are incentive to purchase electric vehicles. I did not see too much infrastructure on battery charging station at that time, but I was told is/are making stride due to increase in volume purchase. If I were living in Norway I would buy diesel hybrid.

 

actually, the gen 2 to 3 'jump' wasn't that impressive.

 

I disagree.
The styling change alone, foreshadowed the jump to the Gen 4.
I think most people would admit the Gen 2, had the now Iconic but "geekish" look that was really polarizing. ( I always liked it).

Plus Toyota made a considerable amount of changes in terms of subtracting the Coolant Thermos, and adding a heat reclamation system, moving away from the fuel bladder.

And if you compare interiors between Gen 2 and Gen 3 it's also a huge jump.

I think it was a considerable evolution between the two Generations. And the Gen 3 really did foreshadow the movement we continue to see with the Gen 4.

 

for all the technical improvements, the mpg's barely changed. and there were almost as many negatives as positives, such as the flying bridge, and loss of storage. but it was an improvement, i just think gen 4 is a much bigger leap.

 

Not saying everyone took the changes as being positive.
Not everyone is taking the changes from Gen 3 to 4 as positive either.
The debate over whether the Gen 3 to 4 leap is "bigger" is a separate debate.

But I disagree with the statement " The Gen 2 to 3 jump wasn't that impressive".

There was quite a lot of impressive change, between the two Generations.

I would say Gen 3 was a BIG first step towards what we see continued with the Gen 4.

 

you said, 'the past generational jumps have been of the jesse owens type'. i think this one is bigger than the last. just my opinion, we can agree to disagree.

 

Glad you're happy with that anyway - I know it's always the first thing I look for in a car.

I strongly agree. We probably would have got a new car a couple of years ago, but we found the Gen3 worse in every way we cared about (rear legroom, front cabin/buttress, craptastic electrofluorescent displays), and knew the Gen4 would soon be available (then later, then a bit later still...). Some of our biggest gripes with the Gen4 come from having skipped the miscues of the Gen3 and come directly from a Gen2. One exception - rear seat headroom, not a strong suit of the Gen2, seems fine to us in the Gen4.

 

New Prius is a major let down for me, as usual Toyota does great for everything else except design and options, and they really cheapen it for the American market, they have options in the Japanese market you can't get here. Who ever they have on the design team needs to fired in my opinion, the white looks cheap and horrible, the Volt found that out.

 

Clearly you should not buy one. I'm very very pleased with my Gen 4 Model 2 ECO on almost all fronts.

P.S. The Model 2 ECO does not have the white porcelain that seems to get so many folks all riled up.

 

The 2 dodges the white trim too. That'd be my pick, to also get a spare. But not shopping.

 

I'm quite disappointed that Toyota isn't offering a panoramic sunroof.

We have a Panoramic sunroof on our Hyundai Sonata and our Hyundai Elantra GT. I really like how it 'opens up' the interior, especially in a smaller car.

For example : http://www.drivingmamas.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014-hyundai-elantra-gt-03.jpg

I think it would work great with the 2016 Prius, and would look great too!

 

i don't see anything from the competition that rivals it. ionique will be interesting when it gets here, but looks to be more of a 'me too' than a huge leap.