Toyota is listening

Different beholders not only see beauty in different ways, they value different things. My major beef with the Gen3 was the interior (i.e., the infamously gimmicky flying buttress with its blind under-tray and craptastic EL dashtop visual insults - the Gen3 was never an option for us), but to me the exterior's angles, creases, and other gingerbread just seemed to "junk up" the Gen2's clean "glob in a wind tunnel" shape (a shape I imagine must drive MrM even more certainly to visions of where it might be inserted). Strong reactions are understandable - the Gen2's radically plain purpose-driven form was too extreme for many, but I guess that's what's at the heart of all this back and forth. The Gen4 amps up the filigree to the point that it manages to change the car's design language, disguising the still wind-cheating envelope with visual cues from more conventional "compact with sporty pretensions" offerings so heavily that I can no longer see enough of the Gen2 to mourn its loss - it's just a different car. It's still no beauty in any conventional sense, but it's somehow both a bit flashier and a bit more "of its time" than its Gen2/3 predecessors. I do wonder how it will age; at first I thought this might be the first generation with a significant mid-cycle exterior refresh. I'm less sure of that now, though I still think we're going to see a lot of tweaks to the hit-and-miss interior.

I definitely did not. This kind of treatment for Gen2/3 borders on vandalism, but I suppose if you've been given a car and want to add some "personality", whatever. The Gen4 is probably a more suitable candidate for this treatment, as Toyota has abandoned any pretense of elegant minimalism. They got the ball rolling far enough that it probably seems reasonable to carry it forward.

[Now, if that "industry" wants to help out with the visual eyesore afflicting the Gen4's center console, hey, I'll likely be reaching for my wallet....]

As for gussying up a Prius C, only one thought comes to mind . . .

 

Okay I kid.... it's not my thing. I just look at things like that and figure there's always a way to talk someone out of their money. Modifying the exterior of the Prius is a really interesting(?) thing to me. How much time and money did Toyota spend on the wind tunnel testing? The Prius is very purpose built, while I don't like the looks of previous generations I can appreciate fine engineering. So when someone comes along with a spoiler mounted to a Prius I wonder why they chose that particular car over any of the other many options available. It just seems silly.

But.... to each their own. I do my own fair share of silly stuff, my current plan of taking a 2-and-a-half ton truck then cutting an axle out from under it... Why? "So it can go offroad better..." They make Jeeps for that... "yes but not a deuce-and-a-half Jeep..." Once you pull out that axle it's no longer going to be a deuce-and-half.... "I know..." So why again... "because plasma cutter...."

 

There is a lot of similarity between the design in profile between Gen2/3/4. Sort of like a transition - with differing noses and tails - and interiors.

 

Quite simply, in this day and age, if a tow truck does NOT have dollies, they shouldn't be on the road. They need to be prepared for any situation, and even FWD cars could need them if the rear tires blew.

I'm trying to think of the last time I saw a tow truck on the road without dollies. It was well over a decade ago, on some ANCIENT pile.

 

I wished they asked some non US drivers too. It's not because we are not in CA that we have our opinion - and maybe can give hints as to why it doesn't sell much in EU....
Interesting they do it and so much early in the selling. It would good they did that, made the changes and substitute your old with a new one

 

I'd suspect it would be to give lead time, which can be 2 or more years before the mid-cycle refresh. I won't be holding my breath for the next iteration. This one is 3/4 year since release in Japan. Gen 3 had a refresh after about 3 years.

They're probably secretly listening in-so-far as other models are concerned too. They've got the Prime (and a hydrogen car) coming, but TOYOTA has to be working on a full Electric car as well, as just about every manufacturer in the world would be doing, and it'll undoubtedly be built on the same platform as Prius, Prime (and eventually Corolla, Auris etc).

 

isn't the Cd on the gen 4 improved over the gen 3 as well?

 

yes

 

I was always a Prius guy. Still have pictures of the gathering of 1st gen near LA in 2000. And then 4 years later saw the first silver Gen 2 in Convention Center in LA. Later I bought 2007 Gen 2 package 6 and was very happy with it. As Gen 4 came about I started to look and read this forum. A couple of things were disappointing. First was AWD, which rumored to be available in Gen 4, but never materialized, and all this crazy thing about the spare tire. So after reading your post I went to read more about the new hybrid Rav4, and found it could be everything I am missing in Prius. Including all the latest high tech features, which originally were an attribute of the Prius, but now, as I learned, propagated in all other cars. AWD is a big selling point for me, as my wife and I like going places, but many of those places were missed because they required high clearance and/or AWD. The only downside is money, or course. My rough estimate is that in 10 years it will be about $10,000 more expensive than Gen 4 Prius. $1,000 / year... It will be a consideration... But I may start reading a Rav4 forum as well And, btw, I do love the look of the new Rav4
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Sure, you can see, e.g., the headlights evolving 2->3->4 in a straight progression, and as noted earlier, the wild details disguise the fact that we certainly still have a space-efficient wind-cheating hatchback. But again, there's a fundamental change in the visuals, both in broad profile (lower hood, more upright windshield, floating roof), and those details (more and stranger character lines and colliding angles, the neon bracket tail lights), that makes the Gen3->4 a much bigger change than 2->3, more along the lines of the big move from Gen1 to Gen2 (which seemed a tad more radical than it was because of the notchback->hatchback switch). More important, however functional the Gen4's skin may be, it is undeniably adorned with a variety of styling twists and tweaks that serve no purpose but changing the car's visual intent (for want of a better term), and that does seem a change in philosophy (this is no great insight, since Toyota's said it plainly). I like it well enough, but I can understand why many find it busy, even a bit overwrought, while failing to achieve any genuine excitement. But "fugly", as said all too often here? Yeah, that I don't see at all.

Well, from your lips to Toyoda's ears, I say - hear, hear. Unfortunately, both Toyota's track record to date and the embarrassing reality of the Mirai scam (I'd still like to know who is leasing that fraudmobile??) suggest your faith is misplaced. I'd have bought an eQ in a heartbeat, but Toyota decided nah, they didn't want to be in the BEV business because 'lectro-cars are for saps, so now I drive a Mitsubishi instead. With their recent battery-powered efforts stateside being the late and unlamented Toyosla RAV4 EV and the rolling offense to reason that is the Mirai, while even "Please don't buy our BEVs because we wanna say people don't want 'em" jerks like FCA are delivering honest-to-God viable BEVs to the market, Toyota's dropped down from "need to catch up" to "Oh crap, now we're going to have to buy tech from somebody."

Not that they've gotten there yet - the current mode seems to be full-bore denial and obfuscation (hence the Mirai - yeah, I really hate H2FC).

 

Why is the Mirai a scam/fraudmobile? (I missed the whole discussion about it it seems).

 

My dad has this in the Insight from 2009. It works really well and it is good because the screen is where you would normally look, the rearview mirror.

 

You mean the display from the back up camera is on the rear view camera? Our 2010 Canadian Touring is like that, has back up camera but no Multi Function Display.

 

Sounds exactly like a Cadillac CT6. High-def rearview mirror coming to Cadillac CT6 sedan | Autoweek

 

is that legal in the u.s.?

 

not sure - but they're available as an aftermarket add-on here - which I'd assume is legal.