The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

in the Vehicle Development Center III.
The Head Office Design Division in Toyota City
specializes in model molding and pre-development. It is in
charge of designing motor show concept cars, and had
designed the 1995 auto show Prius. It also is responsible for
managing the three design centers in other locations.
The Design Divisions of the three Development Centers
are in charge of designing mass-production models. Although
they are capable of pre-development design, they work
mostly on future mass-production models. Only the Head
Office Design Division handles concept cars.
Toyota's design division is unlike those in other
companies because the designers also are involved in
designing the packaging. Designers used to draw the interior
placement by hand, whereas today the plans are drawn
using CAD at the Product Planning Division. Unlike
most other companies, Toyota's tradition is to have the
packaging work done by designers rather than by exterior
(body) stylists.
The most important factor to consider when designing a
passenger car is to provide ample space for people and trunk
space for luggage. There had been passenger-car designs in the
past that sacrificed space for passengers by lowering the
profile for the sake of exterior design. Today, however,
there are few cars with this type of design. Since designers
themselves have the knowledge and knowhow of total vehicle
packaging, they never sacrifice
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