Comments on: Revealed: Toyota’s new Sai dedicated hybrid

By: iluvamcars

iluvamcars — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:13:20 +0000

And people say Toyota doesn’t rebadge! It doesn’t matter if Lexus is not sold in Japan, its still badge engineering. Now if Lexus was sold in Japan, it would be overlapping, as if this was sold here.

-iluvamcars

By: SERSteve

SERSteve — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:23:16 +0000

To me this is MUCH better looking than the Prius, and with the bigger motor, it will be more powerful. I actually like ti better than the Lexus version, the side looks less forced, (it doesn’t have the little kick up at the rear doors like the Lexus) I think they don’t use Lithium batteries because there is a greater potential for a battery fire type failure with those batteries, not sure but I believe I’ve read that somewhere. Also, from what I’ve read Li/Poly batteries have a kind of special recharging requirement that probably wouldn’t work well in an on/off/on/off hybrid charging system. But might be okay in a plug-in hybrid. (Just my two cents I researched Li/Poly batteries when I was searching for an MP3 player…) I actually kind of like this car. (not really fond of the name, could just call it the Hybrid 2.4 or something simple like that…)

By: The Stig

The Stig — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:35:42 +0000

Toyota, always pushing forward, still uses NiMH batteries instead of Lithium Ion/Polymer. Conservative to a fault.

By: superman

superman — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:21:03 +0000

sai is a stupid name btw but then again so is cruze, or chevette, or volt

By: superman

superman — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 23:17:01 +0000

^^ I wouldn’t worry about what most of the squirming fanboys on this site have to say…its mostly mouth foaming and egocentric bias to comfort their frustrated souls, which indeed is a lot of fun to observe =]

By: boogeyman0906

boogeyman0906 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:56:36 +0000

So, when somebody says (here especially) that a car is boring, then it wouldnt sell. isnt the Camry boring, Accord boring, Malibu boring, Taurus of old boring, Fusion boring. So those cars are not selling.????

Since 2000 how many carmys, accords, malibus have been sold ??? Compare that to the exciting, Jetta ?? I have driven the Jetta is handles real well. Nice car. but compare the sales of the Jetta to the boring cars. Hmmmm….

Maybe exciting is not on the top of the list of most buyers when they buy a car, maybe it is function.
Hmmmmm

Heck have you seen the sales of Hyundai lately ? sounds scary huh. Any of their cars excite any of you? Well i take that back, the Genesis coupe looks promising. But still. How can Hyundai do better than Toyota, Honda, any of the Big 3 this year. (Im talking about comparative sales ok), with such boring cars ???

Boring sells, do i like it no. but it is a fact..

By: zoomzoomer

zoomzoomer — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:26:31 +0000

This is nothing more than the HS with Toyotized front and rear fasciae. A4: I’d rather pay mid-to-high $20s for this than the $37K sticker price that Lexus is trying to charge for the same basic vehicle!

By: 09Accord

09Accord — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:56:45 +0000

Well it looks better then the prius..I guess? I’ll take the Fusion hybrid.

By: HoosierHero

HoosierHero — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:16:21 +0000

That center stack HAS to go. It looks like it’s propped-up with a painted 2×4…

By: KarLoveBoy88

KarLoveBoy88 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:02:15 +0000

Wow another Boryota. Whats the point of this car? To steal sales from the even more boring HS counterpart? Its like they aren’t even trying anymore. This isn’t anything one would die over. Just a sad excuse for them to make more money. KEEP YOUR CRAP!!!

By: NRG

NRG — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:15:55 +0000

I agree with the comments on here. It’s just very bland looking. Any reason why a hybrid cannot be designed to be better looking? Most of them are bland. The Fusion is only slightly better looking. The start up companies making eco friendly cars seem to do a much better job, although they are much more expensive. Fisker comes to mind. So if a car looks great and has a high appeal to the public, then I guess that means it has to cost a lot more. I’m sure these cars can look a lot better and not have to have 300 plus horsepower to look good. A lower horsepower eco friendly car does not have to be bland looking.

Anyway, I’m probably talking to a wall. Like Toyota will ever read this. So in essence, I just wasted my time typing all this B.S. Lol.

By: And The Winner Is...

And The Winner Is... — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:57:53 +0000

This looks almost (unfortunately) identical to the Lexus vesion, and has the same dorky proportions. The front end overhang seems too long, it looks like it’s falling forward

By: Gantra

Gantra — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:42:19 +0000

Don’t care for this or the HS250 design wise. Don’t understand why they would offer another hybrid that gets worse gas mileage than the Prius.

The only car i might consider buying from Toyota is the upcoming PEV version of the Prius.

By: adrian8806

adrian8806 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:28:42 +0000

Wow, so it looks as though they took a Subaru front end a Sentra back end, and gave it a prius tweak. Great Job Toyota, with your deceiving marketing strategies. Do yourself a favor and step down from the US Chamber of Commerce.

By: IIL

IIL — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:56:50 +0000

And the name should have been “Sigh,” not Sai

By: IIL

IIL — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:56:09 +0000

Does toyota get some sick pleasure out of seeing people buy their fugly cars.. I think they do, because my 11 year old cousin can design better looking cars then this..

By: SomeGreek

SomeGreek — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:34:27 +0000

Original interior, looks practical! Anything trully new and improved is welcomed.

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:33:47 +0000

A4, that’s a no-brainer. Now raise your hand if you would choose that Avenger Elias just tested over this. Oh what a feeling that is…

By: dirtfarmer

dirtfarmer — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:30:59 +0000

The outside actually looks… OK, they stole the headlights from a Astra, and the taillights from a Sentra. As for whatever that is on the inside (I just thew-up a little in my mouth), I agree with 2WheeledSpeed, give me a fusion. Why oh why toyota can’t you design anything to look decent?

By: A4

A4 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:07:14 +0000

Raise your hand if you would rather pay in the mid to high $20k range for this monstrosity, or pay $22-23k for a very well equipped Jetta TDI. Not to mention this sedan body style is hideously awful. I’m beginning to see more and more sedans that are just a waste of time.

By: 05Z88Path

05Z88Path — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:58:04 +0000

@LWA. Agreed. I haven’t seen the interiors in the current generation Prius, but the last generation Prius had a shockingly “economy” type of interior. Not sure who wants to drive off the lot in a brand new car with plastics and cloth circa the 1980′s (and that goes for other cars out there as well…some Chrysler’s come to mind…)

By: leftwingagenda

leftwingagenda — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:47:12 +0000

upscale-ish (relative to the prius), non-wedge shape, full hybrid…it’s a bit higher scale than i expected, but i wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a market for it…

By: Need More Oil For Imports

Need More Oil For Imports — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:44:03 +0000

I thought they had a 2.4L hybrid called the toyota camry hybrid?

By: HINKS

HINKS — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:22:43 +0000

Wow its a Priusentra. What’s the point? Only looks a little bit bigger than the Prius.

By: 05Z88Path

05Z88Path — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:17:22 +0000

Damnit you beat me too it johnny…that’s what I was going to say! haha

By: vvmasterdrfan

vvmasterdrfan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:16:51 +0000

i agree with 2WheeledSpeed.
and what the hell is going on with that center console? and i thought the floormats thing was bad enough.. another toyota design failure…

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:35 +0000

Can’t Sai as I really give a sh*t.

By: idrinorbarsaku

idrinorbarsaku — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:10:03 +0000

huh? So is this now the new toyota version(copy) of the hs250h, or just a new version of the corolla?

By: 2WheeledSpeed

2WheeledSpeed — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:02:59 +0000

Thanks but no thanks Toyota, I’d rather own a Fusion hybrid…