Poll for your reaction of the Gen 4 - so far.

If the Rav4 hybrid comes out at 30/34 as some have estimated they might just as well push the whole shipload into the ocean. There's no reason to buy a hybrid with the extra cost and an HV battery that only barely does better than the Honda CR-V. Toyota would be embarrassed to put all of that design effort into the Rav4 and have it suck for mileage. For me to buy a Rav4 Hybrid it would have to be somewhere around 40 mpg combined. Like you I doubt that is going to happen.

It really irritates me that Toyota teases the Rav4 Hybrid way back at the beginning of the year, then holds back on the EPA estimates - the only thing that the hybrid brings to the party as the rest of the car will be the same as the non hybrid.

We had a CR-V and loved it. We'd be giving up a lot in mileage but it meets all of our other demands. Cargo space is very important to us.

 

One of the exact initial thoughts I had when I saw that Picture! Definitely an overheated design.

I've been worried about the design direction that Toyota has been producing in the last couple or three years. When the Mirai was shown, I couldn't believe that a car manufacturer could come up with something that looked like an amateur rendition of a 1950s box of a looking car. When I first saw the tail lights on the new Prius in the cargo hold of a plane, I was hoping someone had photoshopped those lights as a joke. I never figured that Toyota would actually do this to such a popular and well regarded car.

As I mentioned before, I'm sure that many will probably like this design and have no problem buying it. I hope they sell a lot of them, since it's still one of the most efficient cars to operate. I also hope the redesign comes very quickly. This coming week would be good, but at least before our Prius wears out!

 

I've posted several times that the looks of the car aren't all that interesting to me. However I find I do like the Gen IV - no big LOVE IT or anything like that. It's just okay - I don't hate it and I do find it a step up from the Gen II and Gen III. My big hope is other people will like it more - non Prius owners. I can say that I've received zero positive comments about the looks of our Gen II, and if people do make a comment it is negative. Perhaps with this car there will be at least a few positive comments.

My 21 year old son has refused to drive the Prius because he said it was ugly. The only time I ever saw him behind the wheel was on a 550 mile trip when I asked him to relieve me for a stretch.

 

9-11-15 The Star-Wars influenced frontal styling in the complete Toyota line as well as the 2016 Prius is the wrong trend to mimic. Each grille reflects an ugly frown which is off-putting to a consumer who wishes to purchase a dependable Toyota. I foresee a backlash from the styling and expect comments from the public in the vein of the 1958 Edsel grill--it was decried as a horse-collar and worse when it debuted.
The rear styling looks like a political committee designed it with the concept of a "new and improved version."
Toyota, you have made a serious mistake in the 2016 Prius and the rest of your car line.
We voted with our wallet when we bought the 2013 Prius v Five model. It has and will continue to be stylish, swoopy and handsome, complimenting the roomy, comfortable and economical package worthy of the Toyota brand.

 

Isn't giving up at life's challenges what ages us to begin with?

 

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OH NO!! - this view reminds me of the Aztec The triangular bumper; the large split rear window; the vertical panel, the height.

Seriously:
Anyone that has seen the vehicle, what is the purpose of the lower black panel?
Does it have a functional, useful purpose?
Is it for cooling?
Does the exhaust exit through the panel?
Or it just D'-sign?

It appears to me they couldn't think of anything to do with the area., so they applied a black panel.
I'm waiting for someone to say, "I really love the black rear panel. That closed the deal for me."

I am a retired architect. I once worked for a man, and when, for example, a column appeared in a inappropriate place, he would say "Paint it out." Make it disappear is what the black area reminds me of.

 

I think you've got, it's trying to reduce the acres of painted zone in the back.

Is there a reason the bottom of window line climbs like that? It's very common now, 3rd gen has it, albeit a little less pronounced.

 

Wth?? Getting in and out of a car isn't a hike through the woods, and contributes nothing to my well-being - on the contrary, assuming unnatural and uncomfortable positions to perform simple tasks solely for style's sake is fundamentally unhealthy behavior. We're talking about bad ergonomics here, not the virtues of daily exercise.

For future reference, the expression of a preference for a vehicle configuration is not a request for third-rate simplistic life coaching. Keep the Jonathan Livingston Seagull blather to yourself.

 

They call that the "beltline". Lowering the front end of it generally aids driver visibility, but lowering the entire thing is at-odds with maintaining side impact protection. In some vehicles (notably trucks), they add a relief near the side mirrors while keeping the beltline high and level. In cars with sporty pretensions, they slope the entire line to give the impression of a front-low, rear-high "wedge" profile that tries to evoke the rear-substantial presence of rear-wheel-drive and mid-rear-engined sports cars. Aside from being a largely styling thing (with no real functional justification) it's not terrible when it's not overdone.

But I think the 3rd-gen's beltline cant was already on the cusp of overdone, as seen in the difficulty reconciling the slope against necessarily horizontal lines, such as the sill. It was probably the reason why the 3rd-gen lost the needs-to-be-mostly-horizontal-to-be-useful door bumper strip that was present on the 2nd-gen. The 4th-gen is definitely overdone in this aspect, which is why they had to add that lower scallop near the sill that adds a line to closer echo the now really-canted beltline.

 

Stupid and simple question, and if it's already been asked and answered I apologize in advance.

But looking at pictures of the interior I have to ask.

Is the steering wheel still Elliptical? In the pictures it appears rounder?
My imagination? Eyes going? Both?

 

I hope you are not this bitter and angry in person. For some reason, there are a lot of angry posters on PriusChat.

My comment was general, about attitude. It doesn't specifically apply to getting in and out of a car. When people start complaining too much, it shows that their attitude toward life has changed and they want everything the easy way, which speeds up the aging process, as the body needs stimulus to stay young, and if you refuse the stimuli, taking a hike in the woods or even going to the gym won't help.

 

I do have to say...

If one is trying to nullify somebody else's criticism/personal preference at vehicular ingress/egress by advocating/chiding this as some challenge that can be faced as a means to stay young (as opposed to recognizing it as merely an unnecessary annoyance en route to some actual challenge of some consequence and worth for facing/overcoming)...

One either lives a really lame life, or is just concocting an exceedingly shallow and facetious argument in advocacy of one's own preference by "defeating" the other's criticism.

I mean, seriously.

"Hey, let's order the wrong things at Starbucks so that we can get annoyed at our order and keep our lives rich and challenging!"

 

Well I doubt it will be as hard to get out of as this hybrid:

 

You were the one who said that you were too old to lower your bottom another inch to get into a car in your original post, and then you got mad when I suggested that perhaps you aren't as old as you think but it won't help you stay young if you give in so easily.

So, again, it sounds like you need to complain at everything and everyone.

One thing that is for sure is that you are angry and bitter.

 

No, smart guy. I am NOT the one who has any ingress/egress issues with ANY car. (That would be Vike.) You just wrote something so mind-blowingly ridiculous (that apparently still seemed to you as a valid rationale to argue from) that I had to take offense even as a 3rd-party observer. All minds hurt and shrunk a little because of you. That's how stupid it was.

 

That's your opinion and speak for yourself. You too belong to the class of angry and bitter posters. Vike didn't cite the in/out issue as a preference but he did so as an age issue. I just made a single comment that wasn't meant to offend anyone. If you have nothing good to say, just don't say anything. No one on this forum needs to be told if their comments were smart or stupid as I can assure you that all posters here are at least as smart as you are.

 

Now, now. This is a Thread to discuss our reactions to the new 2016 Gen IV Prius Hatchback, and not to each other's comments. A car's physical appearance and how it fits the driver is a darned personal thing. Let's vent about how we love the looks of this new version or the way it makes some of us a bit woozy when we look at it for more than a couple of nanoseconds.

Seems to me that the top 2 categories Very Pleased and Pleased are running a tad behind the total number of the Not Pleased and *Very Displeased bunch. Haven't quite figured out the reason for the little asterisk and the bold on the last choice. Gives it more gravitas? Anyway the fence sitters will need more time to see the Gen IV in the actual metal, plastic and rubber components before they can tell if it's a thing of beauty or not quite, so it will be a while before we know if this thing's is a hit or not.

 

it's not a pius