2012 Toyota Prius: What's New

For the 2012 model year, the Toyota Prius gets slight revisions to its exterior and adds more standard equipped and a new multimedia system. It is expected to hit dealers late this year.

The front gets a redesigned bumper with more stylized lower openings on each end, now filled with new standard LED automatic daytime running lights. The fog lights, when equipped, have been moved to the lower grille. The front and rear lamp designs are redesigned, too.

The 2012 Prius will be widely available in the numerically named Two, Three, Four and Five trim levels. There likely will be an unadvertised Prius One trim, too. Last year, Toyota said the Prius One was primarily sold to fleet customers but could be bought at retail, though availability was extremely rare.

For 2012, the Two trim gets redesigned 15-inch wheels, a revised multi-information display and, most importantly, a standard 6.1-inch touch-screen display that includes a USB port and Bluetooth phone connectivity and audio streaming.

The Three trim now has a standard navigation system with integrated backup camera; previously it was an option. The Three also gets Toyota’s new Entune multimedia system. The passive entry system has been upgraded to work with three doors on the vehicle instead of just one.

The Four trim now has the standard navigation, too, along with Toyota’s new SofTex upholstery, a leatherette material the carmaker says is as durable as cloth and more environmentally friendly to produce than leather. There’s also a new eight-way power driver’s seat (up from six) and a redesigned eight-speaker JBL stereo.

The Five trim gets no new updates, excluding the features that were added to the Three and Four trims. The trim tops the lineup with automatic LED headlamps and 17-inch alloy wheels. Head-up display, premium navigation, adaptive cruise control, lane mitigation software and a pre-collision warning system are available on the Five trim only.

Toyota hasn’t released pricing for the 2012 Prius yet. There are nearly 6,000 2011 Prius models in Cars.com's new car inventory.

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More Car Shoppers Leasing Again

We’ve been beating this drum for at least six months now: Leasing is back with a vengeance. After a painful lull in 2009, attractive lease rates and high trade-in values are reviving leasing as a viable option for some car buyers, according to R.L. Polk & Co. That’s good news for shoppers looking to get more car at a lower monthly payment.

Nearly 19% of all car shoppers leased in 2010, up 5.8 percentage points from 2009 (13.1%), according to Polk.

The biggest beneficiaries are luxury carmakers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, which relied on leasing for more than 50 percent of their business in 2010. Leasing is an attractive option for folks trying to get into a luxury vehicle.

Large automakers like Ford, General Motors and Chrysler also saw dramatic improvements with their lease rates in 2010. GM and Chrysler were effectively out of the leasing equation in 2009 when their mutual lending firm (Ally Financial, formerly GMAC) struggled to stay solvent. Leasing ratings and approvals fell dramatically for all automakers in 2008 and 2009 because of the collapse of used-car prices for SUVs and other inefficient luxury cars, as well as the ensuing credit crisis.

Leasing plays a more critical role in the car industry depending on where you live. Nearly a third of all car shoppers in mid-Atlantic states — such as New York and Maryland — rely on leasing. Great Lakes states, once the largest region for leasing, recorded the highest rate of growth in 2010, but they still haven’t recovered from the lows of 2009.

Other tidbits from Polk: Honda has the largest lease penetration rates of any Asian automaker (over 30%). While most automakers have seen leasing rates improve, Volvo is a notable exception. The Swedish automaker saw rates drop from 30% to 40% in early 2009 to about 10% in late 2010, only shortly after the automaker was sold to Chinese carmaker Geely by Ford.

Below we include same historical lease rates. Make sure to check out Polk’s full article for more details.

Automotive Leasing Rebounds in the U.S. in 2010, According to Polk (R.L. Polk & Co.)

National Lease Rates 2005-2010

2005: 15.7%
2006: 18.5%
2007: 19.1%
2008: 18.6%
2009: 13.1%
2010: 18.9%

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