Geek Squad gets a new look – and new Geekmobiles

The Geekmobile is getting a makeover.

Instead of rolling up in VW Beetles, Best Buy's Geek Squad "agents" will be driving Toyota Prius C hybrid cars to their in-home visits, the company announced Monday.

Best Buy is dispatching more than 1,000 of these new Geekmobiles nationwide.

Switching to the Prius – which features a revamped Geek Squad logo – is meant to signal how the company continues to "evolve along with technology," Geek Squad Chief Inspector Nate Bauer said in the release.

They're not just there to help people with their home computers anymore. Now Geek Squad is "more likely to help clients with a new home theater experience, improve Wi-Fi performance or install a security solution," Bauer notes.

That's also the focus of Geek Squad's new marketing campaign, which was unveiled along with the new cars.

Geek Squad chose the Prius because of its "innovative engineer and environmental advantages," the release notes, adding the Prius C produces about half the emissions of the previous Geekmobile over the life of the vehicle.

The new vehicles also help Best Buy with its goal to reduce its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2020.

Company officials say the switch to the Prius has nothing to do with Volkswagen's recent emissions scandal, USA Today reports.

The Star Tribune says details about the Prius announcement were kept secret – except from the California Highway Patrol. The agency had issues with previous Geek Squad vehicles because they looked a lot like the patrol vehicles.

The California Highway Patrol OK'd the vehicles with a slight change – the white part of the logo will be tinted gray in California, the paper says.

Geek Squad was founded in 1994 by Robert Stephens and purchased by Best Buy in 2002, the company's website says. Now, Geek Squad makes more than 5 million house calls every year and the agents drive roughly 12.6 million miles to help customers with technology, the release notes.

Here's a look at the original Geekmobile:

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