Guess What Make And Model Our Brand New Car Is?

[1990LS400]

All the usual safety features ... ABS, traction control, stability control, multiple brake assisting features, a gazillion air bags.

It can parallel park itself and back into a straight-in parking place on its own. It has a backup camera.

It will brake to a complete stop on its own if the car in front of you stops or if it senses that a crash is about to occur while tightening the seat belts before contact is made.

It senses if you are wandering out of your lane and does steering corrections to keep you in it.

It's cruise control follows the car in front of you at a distance you choose.

It has automatic climate control and heated seats.

It has an unusually large in-dash navigation screen - voice controlled and with standard traffic informaiton. It can play video DVD when parked.

It has Bluetooth for phone and audio streaming and has built-in iPod control - all can be voice controlled.

It has standard satellite radio and all sorts of stock quote, weather, etc. information on the nav screen - more if linked to a smart phone.

It has standard emergency help - like On-Star but not that brand.

It has a panoramic roof, foglights, LED headlights and taillights and headlight washers.

It has reclining rear seats.

It is very cool!

Any guesses?

A photo of it will be posted on Sunday, Aug 19.

[lenore]

a ford taurus....?

[1990LS400]

Hint: Our new car is not made in America.

[1990LS400]

I can see there is incredible curosity about our new car. ^_^

Additional hints:

Its conventually rear opening rear doors are 5 inches longer than the ones on my 2000 LS400.

It is made by a Japanese company whose name everyone on this forum should know well.

It is a electric/gas hybrid.

This model is rare around here. My wife and I each think we have seen one other of the same model as ours on the road.

Photo tomorrow ...

[SW03ES]

Hmmm....tough one...the made in Japan thing is what really has me thrown...

[SW03ES]

I've got a good guess....a Toyota Prius v...

[1990LS400]

I've got a good guess....a Toyota Prius v...

Of course it is a Prius v and of course Steve would be the one to know - should be disqualified for excess intelligence.

Yep, I know I should have put this thread in Car Chat instead of here.

Specifically, the new car it is a Prius v Five with the Advanced Technology Package and a few accessory items that were either installed at the factory or at the port of entry since they are listed on the window sticker. The car is white as were the past few cars we have bought.

The Prius replaces the beautiful high spec 98 Camry V6 my wife has been barely driving the past 14 years - delivered yesterday to the 14 year old Iowa nephew who got his provisional drivers license on Friday.

The Prius being a hybrid had nothing to do with why my wife wanted this car. She didn't didn't show any interest when I mentioned that she could be buying a base ES350 for less than the tricked out Prius. I didn't have much to do with the purchase other than to enjoy the F&I salesman's change in demeanor when I told him the name of the company from which I retired. (We insured the dealership and trained F&I salesmen to maximize profits.)

The Prius V seems very different from the "regular" Prius - what a difference three to five more inches of height, wheelbase and length make. It looks and drives like a much bigger car - way heavier than a regular Prius and geared differenty to make up for it.

I drove it for the first time last night when we practiced letting it parallel park itself. Using that system is a skill in itself - manually adjusting the target parking space on the nav screen. The Prius v is very "zippy" - accelleraties quickly and quietly. I drove it essentially like I drive my 00 LS without having to adjust for what I thought would be a lack of power. The absolute quiet between zero and about 15 mph is eerie.

And of course the Prius V is a station wagon - something we have talked about buying for many years. In Japan and Europe, the Prius V (sold under different model names in other markets) is marketed as a "van" and has a smaller, more expensive battery pack that allows for a third row of seats and turns it into a 7-seater.

It will take us weeks to explore all the features. Wife's Blackberry sync'ed easily with the car's Bluetooth. The second tier nav system is easier to use than I expected it would be and reliably responds to voice control. I even enjoy that the cruise control speed does not reset to zero when the speed falls a minimum -- first Toyota product I've ever seen that doesn't lose its cruise control speed setting.

The main negative I've found so far is the lack of side turn signals - something mandatory for us geezer drivers .... nothing a trip to a body shop and side turn signals from an older Scion Xb won't solve. (The same XB side turn signals were used on the Prius in other markets before they were superceded by mirror turn signals.) And power front seats with memory would have been nice - the only power seat adjustment is the lumbar adjustment. A bumper mounted extendable "parking pole" would sure be handy - the dramatic hood slope makes it difficult to see here the front of the Prius ends.

I can see another Prius v Five replacing my 00 LS when it departs sometime in the next few years. Maybe by then power memory seats will be available.

[SW03ES]

Congrats! They're very cool, one of our neighbors has a brand new black one. We need pics!

Of course it is a Prius v and of course Steve would be the one to know - should be disqualified for excess intelligence.

Happens all the time! Its really more of a burden ;)

[1990LS400]

Congrats! They're very cool, one of our neighbors has a brand new black one. We need pics!

The only photo I currently have of it is a low-res my wife took with her Blackberry.

Although my driving of the Prius will be mainly limited to refueling once a month or so and taking it the car wash occasionally, I can tell that it having so much technology is going to make it harder to tolerate my 00 LS.

Yesterday it took no more than 15 minutes to dump four of my favorite CD's to USB flash memory. I plugged the flash drive into the Prius's USB port and, voila, I could access the music through the nav screen or steering wheel controls by artist, album and other categories I can't remember. I never realised it was so easy.

We can't put Entune on a corporate Blackberry so we'll be off to buy one or two smart phones - definitely Android and probably Samsung Galaxy S III.

An odd thing about the Prius v I discovered yesterday is that it is one of the most labor intensive cars to wash and dry I have experienced. I think it is the sculpted body work that creates all sorts of little nooks and crannies for dirt to hide. I can't see how it could but it seems like there is more exterior surface area than on the LS.

It will be interesting to do a side by side comparison of the Prius V to a coworker's standard Prius tomorrow. I always thought his car looked tiny but maybe it's bigger than i thought.