Visual Tables of Gen4 Package Combinations

I don't remember seeing "touring specific suspension" on the touring models before. What does that mean other than the 17" wheels?

 

Or the brochure could be in error. It would be nice if the Prius team would participate here more often like they used to. I wonder if Danny could get the inside scoop.

 

Forgive me if it's been asked already, but choosing the Three Touring comes out slightly cheaper than going with the Three with the ATP package. Does adding the ATP package give any more, or possibly less, as compared to the Touring? I really don't want a sunroof, but then again I don't want 17" wheels. Looks like I'll wind up with one or the other going with the Three.

 

Okay, so near as I can figure, I have some decisions to make, like:

- Spare tire (NOT on Four) or heated seats (ONLY on Four)?
- Fog lights (Touring only) or moonroof (ATP only)?

There are some others that I care about less (e.g., HUD), but the above make absolutely no sense. The idea that I have to give up a properly stowed donut spare tire in order to get heated seats seems idiotic. Like many here, I'd definitely buy a spare to carry in the trunk, so the 4" lowered cargo floor winds up a net loss once I'm hauling the donut on top of it, plus whatever straps are needed to secure it (for 2-person road trips I might try to put that in rear passenger foot well, though danged if I know how I'd secure that). The tire repair kit is a non-starter; the incident that left my wife on the roadside a couple years back shredded the tire beyond any such repair, so having the donut proved essential.

Fog lights are a meaningful safety feature (well, real ones are anyway, as opposed to the dim flashlights Toyota put on our Gen2 as some sort of practical joke), so I can't understand why they're tied up with all these other equipment choices. If I could get the damned fog lights added, a Three w/ATP would probably be ideal, since I'm no fan of SofTex, and it'd be easier to give up the heated/cooled seats if they were fabric instead.

We had to make some similarly idiotic choices with our Gen2 (this was 2005 and a cassette deck would have been helpful since there was no integrated MP3 player, aux-in, USB, or Bluetooth, but that deck was only on a trim level missing a lot of features we wanted/needed or bundled with a huge tech package full of expensive gadgets we didn't want). It seems that Toyota wants to make sure that nobody's fully satisfied with any trim level. That's kind of understandable for a Two, but why screw high-end Four customers like this? In what way is losing a proper spare tire a desirable feature?

In all honesty, this might well make us sit the decision out a little longer to see if Toyota makes a course correction here. We're going to have this car a long time, and there are some compromises I don't want to have to live with.

 

While I think the Fog lights are aesthetically pleasing on the car, I've never found them to be of any real value on my gen 3 Prius. I'm pretty sure there will be aftermarket options, or even plug and play OEM fogs that would be easy to install on the gen 4. I agree the packaging is pretty messed up, not to mention, someone probably got paid lots of money to come up with it.

 

That is not what the table indicates. The 3/4 Touring models include the ATP as standard equipment (i.e., it is included in the base price). The Prius 4 does not include the ATP (it is an option, just as the non-Touring Prius 3).

 

Looks like practically no one will get exactly what they want. Looks like for me the Three Touring is the way to go. I'll have two things I didn't want, a black interior and 17" wheels. All else is great. The interior I'm stuck with, but the wheels can be swapped. I may even find someone in this forum that would do an even swap on the wheels. Now to see one in a showroom!

 

Huh?

The Prius Four and Prius Four with ATP should not have the same MSRP.

 

Correct. Thanks for catching that (Excel formula did not copy correctly).See update below. The "w/ ATP" pricing simply adds $1935 to the non-ATP MSRP. The invoice ATP cost (per Edmunds) is $1722.

Now that the Toyota Build site is active, these figures should be vetted against that site (which they have not)

2016_Pricing_table by BigFan posted Jan 6, 2016 at 9:09 AM

p.s.: All: How do you insert a table in a post? This would have been my choice rather than a graphic.

 

Okay, so now we're just making stuff up - let's skip that.

Face it, someone just got drunk and screwed this up, perhaps in the mistaken impression that "extra cargo space" was an upgrade (mistaken because, as I've noted, the extra space is more than lost when prudent buyers elect to secure a spare ABOVE the trunk floor). Unlike the hyper-miler special Two Eco, the Four is supposed to be a mainstream offering with premium features. But I will under no circumstances buy a Four if Toyota doesn't offer it with a spare, and I doubt I'm alone in that sentiment. Unless you've got run-flat tires (and I've read nothing indicating that the Four has those), there will always be many who consider traveling without a spare to be reckless and stupid. "Repair" gunk is no substitute. This isn't a small screw-up - it's major.

I should note, as I've seen several comments on it, that the "bone china" porcelain bathroom fixtures also have no place in any car I'd drive. Though I've no interest in a Two, I still don't consider that a showstopper, since this was such a horrendous aesthetic misstep on such a high-volume car that I expect it will be corrected with overlays/covers from Toyota or 3rd parties. The steering wheel might be more problematic, but that doesn't bother me as much anyway.

 

Why isn't anyone else losing it over the lack of heated seats on the Three Touring? I suppose you'll have a toasty rear waiting on AAA/ToyotaCare to save you when your Four's tire gets gouged…

 

There very well might have been a weight limit. The Eco trim has the differences that it does because it got it down to a lower weight class that allowed it to be tested for fueleconomy with lower resistance on the test machine for Japan's tests. A spare could have put the 4 over the limit into a tougher class for testing.

 

I am kind of losing it over that, really, but expressing it backwards - I'm more incensed over the loss of a spare tire in the Four. If you look at my original post in this thread, a key complaint was about being forced to choose between heated seats and a spare tire when I wanted both, which seemed to me inexplicable (silly claims about weight considerations notwithstanding).

So to the packaging geniuses at Toyota, let me be very clear - I'm perfectly willing to pay the money for the Four Touring's features, but I am not willing to give up a spare tire for those extra amenities. Practically speaking, that probably means I'm going to get a Three w/ATP instead (so I can lose that crap uncooled SofTex interior), perhaps adding seat covers w/warmers and maybe even fog lights aftermarket. In other words, Toyota is refusing to take all the money I want to give them, and making me give it to somebody else.

I guess they're still smarter than Volkswagen, but not by a lot . . .

[As replying separately to separate comments violates some local notions of forum economy, I guess I now have to reply to an unrelated issue below.....]

We're talking about cars for the U.S. market, which are configured differently in many ways - so is that kind of weight sensitivity even a consideration for testing here?

 

I will buy the Four and include the unwanted moonroof to get the HUD. I can do without the fog lamps. And I think the 15" wheels/tires create an advantage with increased choices when replacing.

 

My main beef with the non-Touring models is the fugly plastic inserts in lieu of fog lights. They learned their lesson with the 10s and 11s, but who amongst us wants to wait for the 2018 model year for them to correct something so minor?

 

I seems likely that you can't test a model with one weight, load it up with accessories that add up to less mpg and then say its mpg rating is unchanged but you can switch accessories so long as you stay within the same weight and there are no other changes that would substantially reduce mpg.
Assuming this is so, I'd imagine that Toyota don't want the costs of separately testing 20 variations and nor do they want the confusion associated with large number of different mpg ratings for various variations of the same car

 

I'll buy the 4 and trade you my HUD for your moonroof!