Avoidable Contact #30: Prius is very iPad! Prius is real luxury! HS250h is more like a Sears Tele-Games! You’ll buy anything!
“…is going to buy whatever Apple unveils today, right at 5pm, no matter what it is.” — Seen on Facebook, January 27, 2010
As I write this, it has been fourteen hours since Apple’s Steve Jobs revealed the iPad to a crowd of cheering followers, er, customers, this morning. For what it’s worth, I’m in no way impressed with the new iProduct. I’ve been working with Apple systems since I hacked up a “worm race” program for the Apple ][+ back in 1982, and I am writing this column on a 24″ iMac, so I’m very far from being anti-Apple — but this new tablet doesn’t do it for me.
Not that Mr. Jobs would care. As a company, Apple is very far from being the hacker-friendly maker of expansion-slot-packed beige wedges I knew as a child. One could argue that Apple isn’t even really a computer company any more, insofar as they don’t devote a lot of attention to making computers. Instead, Apple is a producer of design-centric goods which offer little more utility than their competitors while commanding significantly higher prices. Hmm… I think that means that Apple is a luxury brand. Don’t you?
After all, “luxury” doesn’t necessarily mean Brioni suits, megayachts, or any of the verses from Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain”. Rather, a luxury is simply something that one does not need, but that one wants, often for no other reason than the social standing or perceived prestige associated with the item. Luxury, in other words, is something that offers a boost in self-image and image within a community. The iPad will be a luxury item. Nobody needs an iPad. The functionality of the iPad doesn’t justify the price. There are cheaper, uglier, more drab devices that provide about the same utility for less money.
I would suggest that most iPad purchasers will be people who identify with the Apple brand and its cultural associations. If iPads were invisible, or if they looked exactly like Dell laptops, they would collect dust on the brightly lit Apple Store shelves. Instead, they will fly off those shelves and into the hands of people who want to be seen with the “right” product. Regardless of price. Regardless of function. Regardless of utility. Image is the key. And that is why the Toyota Prius is a successful luxury product. It’s also why the Honda Insight has cratered in the market, and it’s why the Prius spinoff, the hopelessly dumpy HS250h, is utterly doomed.
I can see your lips moving. “What? A $23,000 hatchback with a battery pack is a luxury car? Are you kidding?” Now waiiiiiiiit a minute. I didn’t say that the Prius was a luxury car. I said it was a luxury product. There’s an important distinction between the two. I’ve written quite a bit about the traditional luxury car and its uncertain fate. I’m a devoted student of velour seats, Landau tops, and crystal hood ornaments. What we’re discussing here, however, has nothing to do with Cadillacs or Camargues. Luxury cars are primarily purchased to convey the impression of wealth, and although the Prius has stellar demographics, it’s not just a car for the wealthy. Middle-class families buy them. Fixed-income retirees buy them. Feature for feature, a Prius is no more expensive than a Camry.
On the other hand, by that same feature-by-feature yardstick, a Prius is much more expensive than a Hyundai Elantra, and that’s where the issue of “luxury” comes in. The actual mathematics of the so-called hybrid tax are too involved to get into here, but I think it’s fair to say that nobody has yet convincingly argued that Prius ownership is as economically sensible as Elantra ownership, at least not in a world where gas sells for two or three bucks a gallon and replacement battery packs are far from cheap.
No, people don’t buy the Toyopod for financial reasons. If you asked Prius owners why they made the choice to buy their car, I imagine you would hear a lot about the environment, sustainability, reducing dependence on foreign oil, blah blah blah. That’s all crap. I know that’s all crap because the Honda Insight is rusting on dealer lots as we speak. That’s right. The Insight is nearly as efficient as the Prius, is just as reliable, and sells for less — but nobody wants one. And if you think the Insight is a marketplace failure, look at the car rusting on the lot next to it, which is probably a Honda Civic Hybrid. If you want to know if the Civic you are examining is a Hybrid, look for the two telltale signs: disc-like polished aluminum wheels, and thick, dusty cobwebs between those polished wheels and the fenders surrounding them. Nobody buys Civic Hybrids. Nobody bought Accord Hybrids, either. They are (or were, as the case may be) good cars, but they are not Priuses.
When I think of the current Insight, I think of the many “all-in-one” computers introduced in the wake of the original iMac’s roaring success. There was a time when every computer manufacturer on the planet made an all-in-one, from the now-defunct Monorail to Dell. Most of them had far more computing power than the iMac, even if they suffered from the clunky Windows OS of the time. And they all cost far less. But none of them had the sheer magic design or peerless pedigree of the iMac, so they failed. Nobody wants to be seen with an imitation iMac. The iMac is associated with “cool” people — designers, freelancers, artsy folks who live in San Francisco and bicycle to work. Imitation iMacs are issued to corporate drones in dank cubicles in order to compete the destruction of their worthless souls. Which end user would you rather be? I thought so.
Over time, that perceived coolness spread to the rest of Apple’s insanely great lineup, and it’s now a self-fulfilling stereotype. Hipsters buy Apple products because they are cool, and those products are cool because they are used by hipsters. Simple as that. If you want to know how Apple’s core demographic views the people who buy imitation Apple stuff, try pulling a Microsoft Zune out of your pocket in the middle of People’s Park. You will be lucky if the gentle, loving souls around you don’t kick your flyover-country ass all the way back to Wal-Mart. Cool people don’t want uncool people around them. The uncoolness might be catching, and it’s a real bummer anyway, man. So if you want to be cool, you’d better be prepared to pay the Cupertino Tax, because the cool people all pay it without hesitation, and the cool people are buying Apple.
What comes next will be tough for some of us to accept. Take a deep breath, then read this next sentence. The cool people out there are buying the Prius. No, they aren’t “cool” in the Steve McQueen sense of the term. Many of them are actively frightened by everything from trans fats to mild thunderstorms. I’ve never seen a Prius in a rap video, and I’ve never seen anybody driving one who looks like they could bench their own salad-starved weight. We all know the stereotypes about hybrid drivers, and these stereotypes are, frankly, usually true. If James Dean were here, he’d flick his cigarette in their lemon-sucking, tobacco-averse faces.
Unfortunately for me, and for many of you, this ain’t 1955 any more. Kids aren’t having fumbling, terrified sex in the back of hopped-up Chevrolets; they’re creating shot-by-shot remakes of gonzo porn in their own rooms, surrounded by iMacs, the Internet, and their amicably-separated parents’ indulgent approval. Hot, sweaty, bad-ass speed is for old men and white trash. The cool kids don’t want cars, and if they have to have a car, they want it to be one that is as un-car-like as possible. Which means buying a Prius, and paying extra for the name and the design. They have no problem paying extra for a name and a design, because most of them have been doing it ever since they got their first iPod.
If all you want is an economical, affordable car, Hyundai and Kia have you covered. If you want a greenwash on that, Honda would love to sell you an Insight. Really, they would. Call today. There’s a deal. I promise. But if you want the right look… if you want to be associated with the right people… if you want the same sense of ironclad consumer rightness that every iPad owner in North America will have, then you need to buy a Prius. Nothing else will do. If you buy an Insight, you’ll have to explain why you didn’t buy a Prius. People will ask you if you own a Zune. If you buy a Civic Hybrid, then some self-righteous woman in cat-eye glasses will stop you in the university parking lot and tell you that your sports car is killing the environment. If you buy a plain Corolla and save seven grand, the word will spread that you stole the car from your fresh-off-the-boat Pakistani roommate. Don’t bother to “think different” here. Put an iPod and an iPad in your Prius and relax, knowing that you are just as unique as everyone else in your social group.
And if your parents tell you that they are considering a Lexus HS250h, for the love of the God in which your yoga teacher professes not to believe, stop them. Tell them about the Sears Tele-Games. You see, back in 1977, the Atari VCS game system came out. They called it the 2600 later, but to begin with it was just the VCS. It was cool and every kid had to have one. Sears wanted in on the action, and they were in the habit of re-branding things, which is why you can still buy a KitchenAid microwave with “Kenmore” on the door. So they took the Atari VCS and relabeled it as the “Sears Tele-Games”. Loving parents brought Tele-Games consoles home to incandescently furious kids. “WHAT THE HELL, MOM! THIS IS NOT AN ATARI!”
“The man at Sears said it was the same, and it plays Atari games.”
“DOES IT SAY ATARI ON IT? MOMMMMMMMMMMMM!”
The Lexus HS250h is a Prius with a trunk. It costs ten grand more, and although it has a nicer interior than its cousin, the Sears Tele-Games had cool-ass burl walnut trim and it still sucked, so be aware. Worst of all, it doesn’t say “Prius” on it, which means you will have to explain to everybody why your parents hate the environment. Don’t buy one. Nobody’s buying one, which is why Lexus is leasing that model for just about free right now. Toyota is learning the hard way what Honda, Ford, and GM already know. “Hybrid” is a pretty meaningless badge. It’s the “Prius” one that counts.
Amazingly, Toyota is going to capitalize on this success by drafting in a smaller “Prius” in a year or so. We saw it as the “FT-CH Concept” in Detroit. It’s a hell of an idea, and I know it’s a hell of an idea, because Apple already had it. It was called the iPod Nano. Look for the little Prius to be as hot as the Nano. And the likely success of the iPad makes me think there’s room for a bigger, more expensive Prius in the future. Not as a Lexus, but as a Prius Plus. In the space of a few years, “Prius” has joined Apple on the List Of Perfect Brands. I think you will be able to buy all sorts of Prius-branded cars in the future. But if what I saw today is any indication, don’t expect them to come with, er, complete plug-in capability.
Excellent article Jack!
The FB status update made me chuckle. I saw that yesterday, too.
Awesome. Just Awesome.
In your post about "fake luxury", you define luxury: "I would suggest that luxury is simply something beyond what the common man can afford", but here you talk of all of these luxury items that anyone can afford.
Based on the argument you put forth here, your oft-mentioned preference for fine watches and shoes is only because you're interested in an outward display of status, your own personal Prius badge. Why else would someone pay several times what an equally functional set of Rockports run?
Perhaps a different explanation: people pay more for design and craftsmanship. They shop because of personal preference for a superior item. Apple products offer superior design. Few PC manufacturers' products are on-par with Apple's hardware design and OS-X is considered preferable to many (myself not among them).
By the same argument, the comparison between a Prius and an Elantra doesn't really hold up. Remove all the badges and the Prius is still a vastly superior car in terms of fit, finish, design and quality. After all, the comparable Corolla handily outsells its Korean competition without the benefit of a green aura.
A different explanation for why hybrid versions of other cars sit unsold: under direct cost comparison, the hybrid premium rarely pays for itself in terms of economy. You'd have to drive a ton of miles in a Civic hybrid to recoup the cost over a base model. (at $3/gal, a 20mpg difference is $0.04/mile or $4k over 100k miles)
The Prius has no such affliction. It's bigger and significantly differentiated from the Corolla. The hybrid Vs non math still doesn't add up, but at least at this point you're buying a different product, subject to its own rationalizations.
And what of the current Insight? After all, it's its own product. Not speaking from personal experience, but it's been widely panned as a crappy car, even by econobox standards. There's a chance people just don't want one.
This isn't to say that both Apple and Toyota aren't riding on brand recognition to some degree. Ask most people to name a non-iPod mp3 player or a non-Prius hybrid and they'll come up blank. There's obviously a benefit to establishing yourself as the default in a product category. I'm just saying that often times that default position is well-earned.
You clearly have a crush on Jack.
The comparison between apple products and the prius is apt. Both are typically well-engineered, premium-priced luxo-consumer goods that (coincidentally) are favored by the hipster slant and wanna-be hipsters alike.
A couple of points:
* The primary reason for the poor sales of civic hybrid and the accord hybrid is very likely their lack of utility as a holier-than-thou billboard. However, Honda's IMA is significantly less clever and efficient than toyota's complex combination of motors, engines, and gearboxes. The only hybrid with IMA that has been exceptional is the Honda Insight 1st gen, and that's due more to uncompromosing aerodynamics and a curb weight that makes a modern Exige look like a porker. Rip the IMA system out and replace it with a non-hybrid turbodiesel, and you'll get 80-90 mpg, including (some) city driving.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/em-fuel-log.php?vehicl...
* The claimed 5 year cost-to-own (ripping from Edmunds) is comparable for the 2010 prius (II, $0.47/mile) and the 2010 Hyundai Elantra (Blue, 5MT, $0.41/mile). Drop back to a 2008 prius vs a 2008 GLS 5MT, and the difference drops to $0.40/mile vs $0.38/mile, respectively. A 2008 LE camry 2.4 5A is $0.43/mile. The Prius costs more up front, and is cheaper to operate over a period of time. It's a little disingenuous to claim "a Prius is much more expensive than a Hyundai Elantra". A realistic cost analysis might be a different story, however.
* There's a good analogy to be made between the people that hack up Honda Insights (1st gen) and the people that make hackintoshes.
* I still have no idea what the utility behind a biggie-size ipod touch (with optional 3g wireless) is. I think it's going to be a miserable failure, but time will tell.
Point being, yeah the Prius is a faddy hipster-mobile. And for all of that, it's still a well-engineered, thrifty transportation appliance; its popularity is not without technical merit.
With respect to shoes, one thing about an expensive pair is that they tend to last for years (decades even) and you can always send them back to the factory for a "rebuild". Not so with $100 square toed douche-clogs. Watches are more about the mechanical sophistication of the movement – unless it's a diamond encrusted Rolex President.
Jack, I will buy you a beer if I ever meet you!
Funny – I just got back from driving three people in a coworker's Prius for about 2 hours, and I was just thinking about why the Lexus version was worth a damn.
When I first got a ride in a friend's Prius, I thought, "this is the perfect car for people who don't really like cars." It was apparently built better than a Camry of that vintage, and looked different, and it reduced the environmental impact of a task some people hate (driving). Fine.
About a year later, I worked at a company that had Priuses for salespeople and I drove one a few times. The driving experience drove me nuts; the motor and electronics are anything but seamless. Still, I thought, "these are good cars for people who don't notice their own cars, who are just on and off the throttle all the time and let the car figure it out." Not my cup of tea, but I know many people who could care less. Still fine.
And just now, driving that Prius with probably 50K on the odo, I thought, "If I had to buy one of these, it would be the Lexus version." The thing, never much in the way of handling, now cornered like a wet rag. The interior had far more vibration, rattle, and looseness than I would have expected from a few year old Toyota. On the way back, a coworker was trying to talk on the phone, but could hardly carry on a conversation because it was so loud on the highway. That's not very Toyota-like.
The Lexus would presumably at least have some better sound dampening – it's what they're known for, after all. And I would hope it would have a tighter interior so that it didn't turn Chrysler-creaky after 50K miles.
The Prius sure didn't felt like luxury to me. Hipster toy yes, but that's what iPods are – annoying, slightly marked-up crap that tries to manage you. I don't think either are luxury goods.
So the iPad it is!
I struggle with you definition of luxury. As far as cars go, nobody 'needs' anything more than the cheapest car on the market to get them and their families and their luggage around. So ANYTHING more than the absolute cheapest car on the market could, by your definition, be called a luxury car.
Your interpretation of the hipster more closely resembles a suburban soccer mom. Non-smoking, salad eating, Prius driving, Target "frugalistas".
All the San Francisco designer/biker types I know chain smoke, initiated the burger/bacon craze of 2009, get around in home-built fixies, and would rather be seen with an old paperback than a MacBook at the local cafe.
Jack, I think there is a typo in the 2nd to last paragraph.
"Toyota is learning the hard way what Toyota, Ford, and GM already know. “Hybrid” is a pretty meaningless badge. It’s the “Prius” one that counts"
I think the 2nd "Toyota" in that sentence is supposed to say "Honda".
But otherwise an outstanding article. "Prius Nano"… I'm going to start using that.
ooh… thanks… late night when I wrote this!
Your absolutely correct Jack! And apparently I'm one of the least cool people in the world! I work out, eat red meat, use Opera over FireFox, own a $499 Toshiba laptop that is more than twice as powerful than the iPad, use Windows 7 by choice, use a crappy MS Zune(I got it for free) which I'll be replacing with a Creative Zen X-Fi2, drink brewed sweet tea over herbal green tea, drive a crappy S10 that will be replaced with a used 2002+ Jaguar XJR(hopefully within the next 3 years), and I don't have any plans to change.
don't worry about it. sounds like you would fit right in with the prevailing thought at Jalopnik (not saying you don't fit in here, just you have some Jalop attitude) how old are you, just curious?
Steve Job’s revolutionary product will soon grow after the first over-hype period during it’s launch. The lack of keyboard and Mac’s potential to fix hardware will start to make the iTablet a monster in the futuire.
I wonder what is so remarkable about Kindle that Amazon is promoting it so much. Yes, ability to view blogs on it is remarkable, but to what extent? To the extent of annoying bloggers with no revenue? The revenue model Kindle promotes lacks luster and does not promise great revenue. Better if Amazon revises its plans to benefit bloggers greatly.
I'm buying round two after Kai, Jack.
I'd say the Prius does certainly have a lot in common with the iPad– both are fairly useless for any practical purpose one would care to use them for. iPad doesn't fit in your pocket, and the Prius is.. well, a Prius.
That said, I wouldn't dump all Apple products into a similar pot. iPad not withstanding, the fact that their products often simply just work the best have as much, if not more to do with their popularity than the trend of the day. Is the iPod trendy? Sure. But it also works a lot better than every other music player on the market. So too most of the other computers and gadgets Apple makes.
Whereas the Prius does just about nothing right, with the exception of exploding and protecting pavement from falling pianos.
Sounds like it was written by a (typically) cynical conservative. What's life like being so bitter, Jack?
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[...] The story of the Prius, of course, is the hybrid story you know – the one where Toyota “invents” the hybrid as a totally original idea, brings the car to market before anyone else, and steals the limelight, eventually turning the Prius badge into a luxury nameplate synonymous with the words “modern,&….” [...]