New Commercial. Who Wants To Drift?

Or the traditional Prius buyer has jumped ship to ever more eco friendly alternatives such as the Leaf, Tesla, plug in's etc, so Toyota now have to appeal to other buyers? Isn't it a ridiculous percentage of Leaf owners that came from a Prius?

And are Toyota still considered 'green' or eco? The Mirai, the mocking of plug in's in commercials etc. They offer fuel efficient hybrids for sure, but are they the super green and economical choice they once were? And as others have said, petrol is cheap at the moment (even in the UK where it's the cheapest since 2009), so fuel economy is far from many peoples eyes. If they want a cheap to run car, they get a plug in. With rebates these are often about the same price as a Prius anyway.

Finally, the new Prius is absolutely no use as a taxi, a role the car has in cities around the world. Whether this was deliberate or not, it'll affect sales and used prices. Rear head room is slightly lower, but the roof line on the back doors is now too extreme and people will be banging their heads when they get in or out - with resultant legal shenanigans that involves. Toyota have lost another market, and the Prius+/Prius V is too expensive for what it is.

I fear this gen4 won't be the same sales success as earlier models.

 

GenI - Function over form
GenII - Function over form
GenIII - Most notable improvements in form, not function
GenIV - Form over Function
GenV - Form over Function
GenVI - Discontinued due to lack of sales...

 

Best one yet - that's true. But with the giant doll made of humans/prior POS's they put out, heck, the bar was set mighty low.

That said, yea, it was kind of puffed when you see a prius doing burn outs.
.

 

i chirped the from tyres from a red-light in the rain yesterday.

 

I didn't think it through, but was wondering the same thing: it's looking very untaxilike.

 

whatever.

 

Perhaps we need to let it 'get born' before we write the obituary.

If the 'Prius+/Prius V' comes with sliding rear doors or 'suicide' rear doors that swing the "B" pillar, I would have a very easy decision. This would make it much easier to get my wife's wheel chair in and out.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm not writing it's obituary...as a whole.
I think the evolution could be great. In any case, it's inevitable.

If I'm writing it's obituary, it's only for something that evidently has died. That is an obituary for The Prius that was somewhat "geeky".

I for one, loved The Prius for what it wasn't as much as what it was....a horse of a different color, a hybrid with hybrid fuel efficiency.

If Hollywood wanted to riddle the Prius with bullets, if Southpark wanted to portray ownership as a delusional exercise in self righteous self indulgence, if Jeff Dunham wanted to wax comedic poetic about his unmanly baby blue Prius? I didn't care.

If "they" thought the joke was on us? I could laugh right along with them, knowing the real punchline was on them. The Prius is a great vehicle. And it was a great vehicle without posing like a fashion model, or squealing tires and hair pin turns. And part of the reason I liked The Prius was that it wasn't these things, and seemingly "we" the owners didn't care, and in fact took some pride in the difference.

That at least from Toyota's perspective- with advertising- is something they seem to want to kill. That it seems is something that has died. Toyota seems focused on wanting to kill it.

In the end however, with all the new sheet metal and creases, and the improved suspension, and a whole new advertising campaign embracing a more "mainstream" view of a Prius, it will be the buyers, and owners that will define what a Prius means to themselves.
As much as Toyota seems to NOT want to mention it, it's still a 50 mpg +, efficient hybrid. Even if Toyota wants me to know The Gen 4 is a chick magnet and capable of zero gravity turns at high speed.

It's all good. I'm happy for improvement. I hope Toyota does reach a new, broader and perhaps younger audience for The Prius. But it does seem to me, for a vehicle that arrived in the US, with a flashing "Turtle" icon? .....something has died.

 

Yeah but hooboy, that's a BIG part of it up here, maybe 50% of sales??

I think if the Prius is going to sell, it'll be in spite of the sales campaign. Oh, I do not know...., it's starting to feel like "Who Killed the Electric Car".

 

This commercial is spot on. I like how it appeals to the younger crowd. Toyota already has a good reputation with the older mature generation, they need to convince the young people to buy this. It's marketing right?

 

Agreed, but look on any taxi rank the world over and what do you see in increasing numbers? The US, Canada, Australia, the UK, France etc all have thousands of vehicles. Are we sure that public buyers will be flocking to make up the number?

It could be that Toyota wanted to get away from the taxi image, but it was also good for advertising. How many people have said that "if it's good for hard taxi work, it'll be fine for what I use it for"? Lots. It proved a point on the technology and also the brand. If people start seeing Tesla's and Leaf's (with bigger batteries) on the ranks in future, which car are they going to turn to?

 

Slightly off topic, but we'll have self driving taxi's in a few years anyway.


More on topic, Toyota needs a director's cut of that commercial where the little green plant gets crushed at the end.

 

maybe we should wait to see it, to decide if it will work for taxi's. there's no question that the future in large cities is alt fuel all the time. if toyota really wants it, they'll get it. maybe they're tired of the whining cabbies.

 

Very well said!

 

Problem is, you can not get cheap long range ev. Batteries are not cheap and you can't get efficiency of evs up by much. That will mean that the vehicle that tesla will make will need a battery like one in tesla atm and that is one expensive battery. Not to mention that the cost of eventualy replacing that expensive battery after some years of use. Those batteries are using deeper cycles meaning that they can be charged less times than for e.g. ones in Prius. I still want to see how well Teslas will work 3-4 years for now when people realise that they have to replace an expensive battery o an old car.

 

Interesting read: Tesla Model S 85kw Battery Replacement Cost | Forums | Tesla Motors
So how will they make a 30k$ car if the batteries on current tesla cost more then that would be car....confused I am.

 

government subsidies? seriously though, their new battery factory is supposed to have a profound impact on battery costs.

 

Not sure about the others but I saw Gen 3 as having significant improvements in function but a step backwards in form.