Featured Toyota Prius Was a Trendsetter 15 Years Ago. Now What?

I lived in NYC for 7 years. I owned a car for about half of that time. I found myself parking between Suburbans and Expeditions just as often as Civics and Minis. I stand by my assertion.

 

Or a reason to simply get rid of the distinction and treat all passenger vehicles together.

I've always considered short bed/extended cab trucks as basically large cars masquerading as trucks. Its long past the point that we treat all passenger vehicles by the same standards.

 

Wholehearted agreement.

 

I'm on board with that. A lot of those Escalades and H2s I saw in NYC were personal solo transportation for recently-divorced dentists using the tax credit as was fashionable at the time.

 

No, apparently a different platform altogether. Built in Japan, but styled in USA.

 

The vastly abridged history: Toyota retired the successful and long-lived Tercel subcompact for a new generation: the Echo. The Echo bombed, so they threw mad resources into the Prius project, and the Echo was the best developed and most available platform to pillage for it.

 

That Echo was one ugly duckling. Remember sitting in one at a local auto fair at the mall: the instrument cluster over in the centre of the dash, not impressed. From the outside, it looked like a diminutive doorstop on wheels.

How we progress...

 

You have any idea where you first heard that rewrite of history? It's always interesting to find out how mixed up information originates. Sometimes, it's as simple as a market getting different schedules & names. Other times, it is with the intent to undermine... ugh, I remember those days.

Anywho, to make Prius profitable, Toyota had the brilliant idea of detuning the engine and connecting it to an traditional transmission. They reused the frame and used a less expensive body for it. The name given was Echo. That sharing of components and base design was a great move too. It worked. Toyota did indeed achieve profit from Prius as a result, shortly before the next-gen model was rolled out.

Think about it. Toyota engineers are quite resourceful. Toyota management is willing to try new things. The first Prius was sold in December 1997.

 

No, I don't. While I welcome the updates and corrections in the name of accuracy, I'm utterly fascinated (and occasionally frightened) by the level of importance you usually assign to the minutiae of the Prius story carried through to a commonfolk retelling on a web forum.

I'm laughing now because I saw one in a showroom around 1999 and it was the very first Toyota that made me think I was missing out on something good. It stopped me in my tracks.

 

When you have nearly 1,000 webpages filled with 20 years of history, documented as it was playing out, being able to look up an event to retrieve detail accurately is quite handy. I figured someday all that blogging would serve to help prevent mistakes from being repeated and to make sure lessons learned are clearly conveyed.

It's difficult to find the right balance of posting, having such a resource available. Everyone should get an opportunity to share their observation & feelings. But at some point, you have to nudge them back on the path if they lose sight of the destination or end up wasting resources on something already proven ineffective. Notice how frequently I ask about audience & goals?

 

Well I'm good to put that one down to what I think you've identified as "market getting different schedules."

In 1999 the Tercel was gone and the Echo was available in the USA even if I was the only person who actually wanted one. And no Prius had yet appeared in the USA.

 

Maybe. (just to add more to the history of the early Prius)

I took delivery of a 2001 Prius in Oct 2000. I got one of the first ones. However, sometime in 1999 (I think) I entered a Toyota online contest or drawing of some kind to get a chance to drive one of a few Prius's they were bringing to CA. They were right hand drive cars from Japan. I don't recall if they arrived in 1999 or 2000. But I did see one and sat in it in early Jan 2000 at an auto show. The Honda Insight was there as well.

Mike

 

Thanks.

I attended a memorial on Saturday and this article reminded me of what was said about my deceased friend. No, the Prius is not dead but my friends son has picked up Beau’s work. Identical to his Dad, no, but another clever kid with an unknown but happy future.

So do I have to turn-in my cranky old man club card?

Bob Wilson

 

My son was in NYC a few years ago with his Prius and left it in a parking lot with the fob and instruction card. The attendant chased him down because he did not know how to start and move it.

I was just thinking this morning, here in VA, that you used to see a lot of F-150 pickup trucks solo with the "macho" ones buying F-250. Now you see a lot of F-250 with the "macho" ones driving F-350 solo.