I've been hearing great things about the 2005 Prius. I was wondering what changes does Toyota have for us in thier future releases?

My next car will definetly be a Prius, but probably not for a year or so, thus I'm looking forward to the new revisions.

I'm sure by 2006 Toyota will figure out thier supply problems, but what else do we have to look forward to?

 

Well, there are a couple of ways you can look at this. Buy now, assuming that is a reality for you, because you know what the vehicle is like and are familiar with the user experiences. Or you can wait. Waiting isn't such a bad thing.

If I were to guess, the 2006 Prius will remain mostly unchanged. I have heard of possibilities of factory XM radio being installed. But anything I might say regarding 2006 changes or additions would just be speculation.

 

When's the next redesign cycle for the Prius?

 

I'm just going to extrapolate on this one. In the U.S. the Prius has appeared in 2 designs. So MY 2001 through 2003 and MY 2004 through present. Based stricly on model year offerings, and not callendar appearance of the vehicles, we probably won't see an significant redesign of the prius until MY 2007, following the limited logic of a 3 MY cycle. Now, Toyota may not take this route from a sheet metal or body aspect because the 2001-2003 Prius was based on the 1997-2000 J-version of the Prius. There were few to no body changes between those two different versions, however there were a number of other pretty major performance changes between the 1997 era and the 2001 era Prii.

It is highly possible that Toyota might introduce powertrain and EV changes and adjustments in 2006 or 2007 without changing the body of the vehicle much, or any. If there are any adjustments to the drive logic without adjustments to the corresponding hardware, it is possible that any improvements made for 2006 or 2007 will be available via a TSB to existing owners.

 

The only major change that I have heard about is the drop of the bluetooth feature for 2006, if not already on 2005 due to too many problems. I don't know what kind, as I wasn't going to pay another $6000 to have a hands-free in my car...