Toyota's shortened styling cycle

My dealer advised me that the next Prius will be a 2008-1/2, as Toyota
is moving to 4-1/2 year styling cycle from its present 5. That
certainly will complicate model designations, not to mention the year
designator in the VIN.

"Oh yes, I have a 2009 Frabis."
"And would that be the April or the August edition?"

--
Lady Purse-Wader
YahooUK disallows hyphens

On Sun, 01 Oct 2006 20:37:02 -0400, Masked wrote:
[color=blue]
> My dealer advised me that the next Prius will be a 2008-1/2, as Toyota
> is moving to 4-1/2 year styling cycle from its present 5. That
> certainly will complicate model designations, not to mention the year
> designator in the VIN.
>
> "Oh yes, I have a 2009 Frabis."
> "And would that be the April or the August edition?"[/color]


Um, internally, it's that way now.

I have an '85 Corolla GTS. "What month was it made?" "April" "Oh,
boy...what's the last 6 digits in the VIN?"

In April of '85 the Corolla GTS was differentiated further from the
Corolla SR-5, somewhere around the 3rd week of the month. So, for Sept '84
to Sept '85, there were TOW models, even though it was the same car.
Further changes were made in Sept '85, so even though the car carried
through the '87 model year, there were 4 different models.

The same goes with my '85 Celica, and my '88 Supra.

"Masked" <Masked@mm.m> wrote in message
news:011020062037026686%Masked@mm.m...[color=blue]
> My dealer advised me that the next Prius will be a 2008-1/2, as Toyota
> is moving to 4-1/2 year styling cycle from its present 5.[/color]

I was under the impression that each styling cycle/generation was (has been)
on a 4 year basis.

Cathy



That[color=blue]
> certainly will complicate model designations, not to mention the year
> designator in the VIN.
>
> "Oh yes, I have a 2009 Frabis."
> "And would that be the April or the August edition?"
>
> --
> Lady Purse-Wader
> YahooUK disallows hyphens[/color]

In article <Y6mdnU0Cvb8ZHr3YnZ2dnUVZ_rOdnZ2d@giganews.com>, Cathy F.
<clfr@adelphiadot.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
> "Masked" <Masked@mm.m> wrote in message
> news:011020062037026686%Masked@mm.m...[color=green]
> > My dealer advised me that the next Prius will be a 2008-1/2, as Toyota
> > is moving to 4-1/2 year styling cycle from its present 5.[/color]
>
> I was under the impression that each styling cycle/generation was (has been)
> on a 4 year basis.[/color]

It's been a 5-year cycle for Camry and Avalon. I can't speak about the
other marques. Years 1 - 3 are essentially identical. Year 4 introduces
a facelift that carries into year 5. Then a wholly new design cycle is
introduced in what would have been year 6.

The Prius is settling into a 4.5 year cycle, if my dealer is correct.
The first Prius spanned 2001 - 2003. Technological advances made a new
design defencible, so there were no years 4 and 5 for that first
generation. The current Prius came in 2004 and will survive with tweaks
(no facelifts, he says) until mid-2008.

I have no inside information beyond my dealer's prating. Come to think
of it, he prates for a living. <g>

--
Lady Purse-Wader
YahooUK disallows hyphens

In article <021020060020270991%Masked@mm.m>
[email]Lady_Purse-Wader@yahoo.co.uk[/email] "Masked" writes:
[color=blue]
> The Prius is settling into a 4.5 year cycle, if my dealer is
> correct. [...]
>
> I have no inside information beyond my dealer's prating. Come
> to think of it, he prates for a living. <g>[/color]

That matches my info of a few days ago. (See the thread "Dealer
Courtesies": about 1 - 1.5 years from now for the next Prius.)
--
Andrew Stephenson