What are your thoughts on the Gen. 4 Prius?

There should be a museum of bad marketing decisions: Edsel, new Coke and the "fine bone china" Prius interior would top the list.

 

Last night, I test drove Level 4.... just putt, putting around. I was smitten.

1st impressions:

What nice feel through the steering wheel!!
Refined ride.
Superbly comfortable seat. (but, you have to buy level 4 to get adjustable lumbar)
Beautiful dashboard.... gauges in the center(?) .... I'll get used to it......
LED headlights - pattern, projection, intensity, color temp - excellent across the board.

 

Ok, so I test drove a 2016 Prius Three non-touring Blue with the light gray / black. Cool patterns by the way. Fremont Toyota with Julie Chang. Huge dealer but they only had like 2 gen4's set out. They have 120 2015's. Argh.
Test drove it just after ruling out 2016 Civic across street. Accord sedan still in the running.

Windshield more upriight, not so slanted back. Front door sill is neat how it angles up going into the front dash. If you want to really lower down in driver's seat, can do that which makes view out front quite good for tall drivers. Seat position, steering wheel and controls look very well laid out. White console tray? Ah, cover that bedpan.

Takes off from stop better than my gen3 both in normal mode. Ever notice how the gen3 has that lazy feeling on electric rollout? That's gone, gen4 gets on with its electric acceleration then brings in gas very smoothly.
Steering is more responsive: small inputs get a reaction. Car felt lower to the ground, more connected to the road. Handling much better, stiffer and mutes out bumps well. Didn't notice road noise cause it was easy to talk to salesperson.

edit - just got back from store on somewhat bumpy road in my 2011 Prius, and as always, I kept saying, WOW, this car is rather unimpressive to drive. I shake my head when PCers claim their gen3 Prius drives so great. yeah, compared to a Yaris or Chevrolet Aveo

It drove great, but seat bottom cushion a deal breaker: Flat portion narrow for my tastes, bottom side bolsters firm jut into hips and legs. But that's just me. In Prius' defense, driver's cushion feels on par with 2016 Civic and seatback is better than Civic's. Rather not have a car that looks like Prius anyway and prefer a trunk. Move to Accord sedan (this time no coupe!) looking good this year.

Don't worry folks, not going to complain now, buy a gen4 and complain for years. No way.

 

Is that After applying the cover-up? I thought it covered all of the nastiness of the white.

Gross

 

If by "that" you mean the $199 cost, then yes. But be aware that this is the factory installed applique. I called my dealer and they indicated the window sticker accessories are all from the Factory. If the car was not built with the applique then it can be applied by the dealer or owner. The PriusChat marketplace is selling the applique for $299. The applique does not cover all the white (cupholders remain their native white), but most of it.

 

Frankly, $200+ for a few 'nice stickers' is pretty outrageous. I'd bet that aftermarket providers will fill this gap pretty quickly.

 

Just received my Motor Trend magazine, March 2016. 2016 Prius Touring model, pg #58. On their test they achieved in real mpg rating of; 56.4 city / 57.3 hwy / 56.3 combined. EPA is 54 / 50 / 52. This is unheard of mpg's in my book. These editors I believe don't drive like Wayne Gerdes from cleanmpg.com. Just imagine what the 2016 Prius Eco model will do. I thought our 2010 Prius getting 45 mpg winter 55 mpg summer was the top of the ceiling for mpg...

 

What irks me is just the absurdity of the situation: a near universally panned "feature", and an expensive patch to fix it. Hmm, sounds like the reverse beep.

 

It is not cheap, but then again the applique is not a "sticker" either. The applique us a plastic overlay that fits tightly around the console. Is it worth $200 USD, no probably not but it does fit nicely over the existing console. The only place I could see the underlying white (aside from the cup holders, which is by design) is if you lift the top on the console storage compartment, where it is slightly visible.

 

and you still have the steering wheel, steering you in the face.

 

Mat black plasti-dip on the lot?

 

there has to be a cheap and easy, someone will do it in the modders forum.

 

Spotted my 1st Gen 4 in the flesh, saw it from the rear with the brake lights on. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the term fugly kept running through what's left of my brain, yup, Fugly --IMHO

 

I would spray paint the heck out of it.
Merged

Cheap and easy would be for Toyota to eliminate it during a production run.

 

new Prius owner - only test drove a previous Prius 1X - but that test drive was enough for me to know i didn't want to buy one. All I can say is all the reviews are spot on - this thing is actually fun to drive and there doesn't feel like any sacrifice going hybrid with this car. And if you allow yourself to try POWER MODE ... well.. that can be a bit addictive as it is a fun mode to drive with.

So far I'm getting 60mpg and that's mostly freeway and decently fast driving (for break-in) between 65-80 (which is what we drive out here in NorCal, the 75-80 or more range).

Absolutely love it.

 

Got my first look at the '16 today at my local dealership. I'm still trying to process my disappointment. Some of it is personal preference but there's one thing I can't get past.

First the preferences: I found the interior cheap and tacky looking. The shiny black surfaces don't have a luxury look, more like what I would expect from Dodge. The same with the body color inserts. They look like cheap plastic, which I suppose they are.

I also don't care for the black panels between the side windows and rear hatch, and the black panel above the hatch. This same treatment has been tried by everyone from Ford to Mitsubishi and it looks cheap every time... This one looks just as cheap.

My biggest beef, visually, are the vents in the cabin. They look like they came from a cheap American car, and the little chrome knobs really don't help. Overall the look is more PT Cruiser than I'd like.

I was disappointed that there is only one accessory socket although there is also one USB so I can understand why. The exposed cupholders don't look as cool as the older model's ones, which hid away.

But all that is preference. I could come around on that.

The big problem is that the hatch opens so high that I wouldn't be able to fit it in my garage. The hatch would hit the garage door when it is open and that's ridiculous. My garage isn't special, and therefore my problem isn't unique. It's not deep enough for me to drive forward far enough to open the hatch when it's closed either.

Toyota could solve this problem with optional struts that limited the height of the open hatch. I doubt they will, and unless there is a third party solution I probably won't be looking any more at this car.

Real shame because I have totally enjoyed my '10. If these things aren't a problem for you, that's great, but they are for me.

 

if you back the car into the garage you will be able to open the hatch without hitting the door,biggest problem solved, go get one, I hear the white paint looks really good this year

 

FWIW my Gen2 has 10-in clearance to garage door when both garage door and hatch are open.
When hatch is closed I got 46-inch from Hatch to Door. Closing garage door gives me 12in more to ceiling. I have 8-ft ceiling but garage looks like 8.5-ft as the floor sits a bit lower.

 

both my gen 2's and gen 3 hit my garage door. i glued a piece of foam to it. you can get shorter aftermarket struts.

 

My garage still isn't deep enough to comfortably open the hatch when the door's closed, doesn't matter if I back in or "front" in.

I am curious about replacement struts though... Bisco do you have a link?