What are your thoughts on the Gen. 4 Prius?

I finally made it into a local dealership to see the new Fourth Generation Prius and I was left impressed. It looks better in person when comparing it to all the pictures I have been viewing on the internet. I found the interior and seats to be comfortable but it felt a bit lower than prior generation Prius'. I was happy with it in person and will still consider a Fourth generation in the future.

 

To Fearless Flyer above:
Which is worse, to have a glaring white center console that has two properly placed cupholders (gen4) which can be easily covered or have one phoney cupbolder that was placed where the lopped off armrest used to be and the only solution is to fill that in and lose a cup holder (Gen 3)?

Btw, I think I have found just as much headroom in backseat of gen4 except the rear window height is lower.

And no, I am not buying one. In fact, anyone looking to buy a low miles 33k 2011 in about May in SF Bay Area?

 

Looking at Toyota's sales brochures, the Gen4 has 1.5 inches less rear seat legroom than the Prius c.

 

Really?

 

It's really only a 1.0 inch difference, overall. The front seat slides back further. If you don't need that in front, the rear would get it.

Prius c... 41.7 (front) + 35.0 (rear) = 76.7

Prius 2016... 42.3 (front) + 33.4 (rear) = 75.7

 

Surprised on the Prius c seems so much smaller.

 

Well the c is def. smaller, plus there is hardly any trunk / hatch area to speak of.

 

The second generation Honda Fit was 41.3 x 34.5 = 75.8. It had 57.3 cu ft of cargo room with the rear seats down. I see they say the 2016 Prius has up to 65.5 cubic feet with the seats down. Is this correct?

 

pros:
- nice interior
- quieter

cons:
- same engine, same HP, roughly the same MPG as Gen 3
- Consumer Reports states the handling is a little better but still sucks
- average size touch screen for class
- claimed "advanced technology" is nothing special; everything can be had on most economy cars.

These changes amount to what most car makers would put into a mid-life LCI rather than a complete redesign. (toyota must be really struggling in their product management department - everything they brought to the LA auto show looked dated, even the new stuff. New Tacoma = old Tacoma with a bigger grill and bigger knobs.)

It will still appeal to 50+ phony green types that feel good about green-washed products. (but True Greenies don't own cars.)

Anyone younger will look towards electrics. I predict either the Bolt or the Model E (if it ever comes) will become the "new prius" - what the Prius was in the mid 2000s. Lawd knows what the Apple car is going to do to the industry.

A phone analogy: Imagine mid-2000s - Toyota Prius is a Blackberry and GM/Tesla/Apple are about to release their iphones. Dis gun be gud.

The Murai could have been the next Prius, but toyota basically put zero effort into supporting it. They could have worked on a H2 infrastructure like Tesla did w/ their charging infrastructure. But nope.

 

I didn't really expect much from toyota for $20k hybrid car, i bought Prius for its track record reliability/price performance, even if Tesla comes out with $25k affordable EV, i would still pick Prius anyday due to Tesla below-average reliability ratings plus you better have extra time for numerous dealer visits maintenance issues.

 

I love my Gen 4 model 4. It is what I had been expecting with the first 3 Priuses I bought, but not gotten. The others got about 44 mpg. This one has gotten progressively better mpg as time passes. Presently it is getting an average of 57.9 mpg. It handles and rides smoothly. My friends have commented favorably on the design. The only complaint I have is how poor the Navigation system is - especially when attempting to use voice control. Every previous model also had poor navigation, but this one was supposed to be an improvement.

 

I just can't warm up to it. The front is very nice and reminds me of my old FR-S. The back of it reminds me of the Krispy Kreme doughnut logo. And, when viewed from the side, it almost looks like they pasted the front part of one car to the back end of another. With the diminishing returns on higher mpg vehicles, I really can't see too many people jumping on an upgrade from a Gen 3...at least not for a few years.

 

i think it's gorgeous. can't wait to trade up from my g3.

 

Oh brother. If buyer has about $30k to spend on a car, the choices in electrics at $30k will get you about 80 miles range or so. What are the choices? Leaf, eGolf, a few others.

Guess what? Bolt and Model E are not here. They are not going to be here in 6 months, 9 months or a year.

'Phony green types'. Way to cop an attitude and offend people.

 

Seeing one driving around the lot yesterday made me realize how I really didn't like the looks of the Gen 3, althought it's not really a secret I didn't tell myself. The Gen 4 is simply a better ride, and looks better.

 

Coming directly from a Gen2 (and going back and forth, because we haven't delivered that to its next owner yet), the two cars are very different for ingress/egress. The combination of a significantly lower seat and more aggressive side bolsters make the Gen4 more of a climb in/out affair. It's not as bad as we'd feared after reading initial comments, and I've definitely experienced worse in a number of mid-size rentals, but it's quite noticeable next to the Gen2.

It certainly does. It's probably a bit more upright than the Gen4, which might contribute to the numbers. But no doubt, subjectively, the c gives by far the more cramped and "hemmed in" feeling, perhaps because it's narrower, though I have to say that observation from my test drive was swamped by the overall impression of it being just a godawful car. I drove it back to back with the much-maligned Scion iQ, and frankly the iQ was just more pleasant.

The Gen4 is noticeably tighter on space than the Gen2, which strikes me as the wrong way to have gone, but there may have been constraints given TNGA - "stretch" versions of the chassis are likely to come, but that's probably not what you want to do with the first one out of the gate.

Lost me after the first sentence. The Tesla's a Model 3, not E (they dropped that name in 2014), but that's a minor quibble. I can tell you as an owner of a BEV, they are not "drop in" replacements for ICEVs at this time, not by a long shot. This isn't just because of the short range of the specific minimalist vehicle I chose, but because no amount of "infrastructure" can make up for the fact that BEVs have serious disadvantages in long range travel. Even the ~300 mi. Tesla Model S is only good for road trips that can hew to the Supercharger bread crumbs, or you'll either be waiting for L2 charging or spending time diverting for SCs. That can get better with more SCs, but a network that matches the flexibility of today's petro-grid is still years away, and transportation is, generally speaking, a near term requirement, no?

PHEVs are a different matter, and while the Volt and PPrime offer reduced utility relative to the Cruze and Prius respectively, the Pacifica and Outlander PHEVs, and perhaps the upcoming Niro PHEV, point the way to more useful PHEV configurations for the future. 40mi AER, 35 mpg, plus comfortable accommodations for four adults plus a good-size trunk should be achievable with clever packaging and current tech.

While I did consider a PHEV to replace our Gen2 Prius (the Volt isn't physically enough usable car and the Gen2 PiP/Prime was too far in the future) , there is no way on earth I would have chosen to have a two-BEV garage, nor would I currently own a BEV as my only vehicle. On the other hand, the combination of a BEV for local errands and my short commute, plus a hybrid for any itinerary long enough for the HSD to be efficient, is a very effective one for us. That's not mere "green cred", and I've no idea why a versatile family car with the highest available MPG on the U.S. market should be dismissed as some kind of eco-chic fashion statement.

As for Apple, nobody in the auto industry is losing sleep over those watch-peddling dilettantes. If Apple does get in, and they don't contract manufacture a co-branded boutique car with Tesla, they're out of their minds.

Nope is right. These comments are completely divorced from reality - H2FC for the U.S. fleet is a fraud and always has been. The investment required for even a barely useful H2 infrastructure in major population centers utterly dwarfs anything Tesla's contemplating for SC nationwide. The Mirai is a combination of PR stunt and ZEV credit dodge, nothing more. I can't imagine they'll lease one more of these rolling jokes than is absolutely necessary to rack up the planned credits (see "RAV4 EV"). The notion of it being "the next Prius" can only be the product of deep confusion.

Now, now, take a breath. The Bolt is due by year end, and likely nationwide within a year, at least on the current timeline. The project seems to be hitting or beating its milestones so far, so I'm not overly skeptical. GM learned a lot from the Volt and the Spark EV - I think they can do this.

 

The fourth generation reminds me a lot of the second gen. I drove the second for five years, it was my first hybrid. Another world, coming from a Ford Focus and a Coupé Fiat, with this part time electric driving and the two (to be precise three) motors. I still love the second generation. It has a lot of space in the back, so much shelves I did used (see the picture) and two clove compartments! I used the car to move to a new apartment and often for the holidays.



The third generation was completely different. Less space in the front because of the big floating center console. A lot of buttons all over the place and poorer resolution of the screens. Coming from the second generation this was really a big step backward. I read a lot about the bad quality concerning the plastics and rattles inside the Prius. My dad had one, third generation facelift and yes, he had problems with the plastics inside and with the sun roof.

The fourth generation Prius is - for me - a modern generation two. Yes, it lacks of shelves, headroom in the back and the hidden space in the trunk. But the good looking dashboard, the nice looking, very informative and colorful screens, the center console and the futuristic design, following no mass taste, remind me a lot of the second gen. I really love the new Prius so much, I ordered it as replacement for my Lexus CT 200h. Back to beloved Prius family for me!

 

They think of everything!

 

I didn't see those comments before but everyone I know who owns a Prius are 40 and under. Also, in order to have an electric, you need a garage, which means you probably need a house. Now true, many people have roommates but often houses mean more room than you need (or on the east coast, townhomes are more common than in California and other places). The reason my husband and I bought a townhome was because a house was larger than we needed, we had no interest in having to mow a large lawn and a townhome was a good fit for us. Many townhomes with garages in our area didn't have a backyard which was a non-starter for us and the ones that did have garages and a backyard were often 3000-4000 sq ft... for a townhome.

As for the younger set (and I'll put this in the 30 and under category), many won't have a garage, especially if they happen to own a home because you need more capital for a home than you would need for a condo, which many younger people trend towards. Condos are also lower maintenance than a home. So I'm not sure why you would expect them to have electric vehicles with no where to charge it.