2010 Prius Driving Impressions Thread

[brad_rules_man]

I have seen many reviews and don't want to cover a lot of what already has been covered. So I just want to give my impressions after driving the 2010 500 miles. I have noticed it seems MUCH easier to manipulate the car and make it do what you want it to. I can push the EV button and accelerate pretty quickly with electric and not have the gas engine kick on. I find it's easier to maximize your regeneration and your gliding. The more powerful electrics seem to help immensely.

Despite the 17" wheels it rides so much better. The seats aren't the best in the world, but still awesome. I like and dislike the LEDs. They seem an unnatural blueish purple color, and they do not seem as bright as normal HID lights, but they are definitely fine. I just don't understand how they couldn't have made them a little brighter and whiter. The new tail lights are much needed, as the old taillights had a wimpy 5w bulb. (Less than most night-lights for children.) The radar cruise control is extremely worth it. The Lane Keep Assist is definitely not something that will steer the car for you. If you let it try, it might keep you out of the ditch but will get you pulled over for suspicion of DUI. It does however assist you. As you get near the edges it just sort of applies a little bit of wheel pressure that nudges you in the right direction. Sometimes it's so light that the wheel doesn't turn, you just feel it tighten up and it gets back in the middle of the lane. I didn't find the beeps when it "looses the road lines" annoying at all.

I've never had satellite radio before, but now know that I won't live without it. SO entertaining. The new navigation works REALLY good compared to the older ones. I have seen some criticism and it might depend on what one favors, but it is a perfect match for me. Overall driving rating =[A-]. Overall rating compared to other hybrids =[A+].

[Wintergrey]

I've had my III w/ nav for a few days, and I'd like to share my initial impressions. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with this car!

This is my first hybrid, and I've driven stick shift my whole life so I have some adjusting to do. I also occasionally get to drive my girlfriend's Mini Cooper S -- a car with a ton of zip -- so it makes comparisons... interesting.

Driving:

As others have mentioned, the steering isn't as "mushy" as on a Gen2 Prius (I've driven some friends' Gen2s for comparison) and in fact feels like just about any other car to me. It does take slightly more revolutions of the steering wheel to do a u-turn compared to most other cars I've driven, but I don't find this bad or distracting. It's odd, but the steering wheel itself is slightly oblong and not true round -- again not a bad thing, just unusual.

Our first night with the car we took it on a long drive in narrow, twisty hills (up Highway 9 from Silicon Valley to Santa Cruz, for those of you familiar with the area). The car performed very well. Not super-zippy-amazing like a Mini Cooper of course, but not anything like a station wagon or minivan might. This was definitely a situation that called for PWR mode though, and the car cornered much better on twisty roads after I made the switch. ECO mode is not recommended for twisty hill driving.

On the way back (from Santa Cruz to Silicon Valley via Highway 17) I let my girlfriend take the wheel and she proceeded to drive it like she would her Mini. Highway 17 is a somewhat narrow freeway where the traffic was flowing at 50-ish mph with lots of curves, and she found the car performed surprisingly well -- not "whiptastic" like her Mini, but not as far off as we'd imagined it would be! (And for those of you concerned that we were pushing my Prius beyond the boundaries of the break-in driving recommendations, the geography of the road prevented this -- but we were definitely riding the upper-edge of the recommendation).

Around town this is definitely a cruiser car. It's quiet, it's pretty tight (though not as tight as the Mini, obviously). Of the four driving modes (regular/EV/ECO/PWR) I find myself leaving it in ECO most of the time. Frankly, there's usually no reason not to; the only thing I imagine that's wrong with that is me pissing off the people behind me that I'm not leaping off the line when a stoplight turns green.

As I drive around town I find myself looking at the MID too much. I know there's a whole thread on the forum devoted to that topic, and as posters there point out I'll probably get used to hybrid driving style after I've driven the car for a while. I'm definitely driving like a little old man in this car, as I'm quickly getting sucked into achieving the best mileage possible (59.3 mpg is my best so far).

Another thing that will take some getting used to is a sense for where the front corners are on the car. The seat position is very far back from the bottom of the front windshield, and the hood of the car is very steep (part of what gives the Gen3 it's iconic arrowhead shape). One consequence of this design is that the driver can't see the front corners of the car at all. This makes me a little nervous on sharp corners. It also makes it a bit tricky to pull the car all the way into my garage, and several times I've noticed I didn't pull it far enough forward into a spot in a parking lot. This is something else I expect I'll adjust to over time, but for now it's definitely weird.

The Prius' famous blind spot seems to have been reduced from the Gen2. I think it's been virtually eliminated looking over the left shoulder, and reduced looking over the right shoulder.


Looks, Interior, & Accessories:

First off, one of the most fun things about being an early adopter of the Gen3 Prius in Silicon Valley, where the Gen2s are so popular they line the roads from horizon to horizon and are so thick you need a machete to chop through them, is that it's a head turner. In less than a week, I've had a lot of people do double-takes at my car.

I had a chance a couple of days ago to park behind a friend's Gen2 and we compared exteriors. Hers was definitely more of a bubble shape, and mine was definitely more of an arrow shape. I think mine looks cooler. Several of my friends and coworkers have told me they think it looks like a space ship -- a look that is only enhanced my the swooping center console between the front seats.

Speaking of that center console, I like it. It's fun, it gives me great access to all the buttons, it doesn't get in my way. My girlfriend appreciates the spot under the console for her to stick her purse. If I was given the opportunity to change one thing about the design of the car, however, it would be the position of the EV/ECO/PWR buttons -- those are simply too far away from the driver, and there's no way to tell which one you're pressing unless you take your eyes off the road to look at them.

The stereo system sounds great to my non-audiophile ears, and it's nice to finally own a car with an aux jack I can plug an iPod into. I'll definitely shell out for the iPod/nav integration when it becomes available. I'm enjoying the satellite radio, but I don't know if I'll actually pay for a subscription after my free trial ends; I mostly drive my 20-minute commute and errands around town so I'm not convinced it's worth it. The stereo controls on the steering wheel are fine, I just wish the Mode button let you cycle backwards through modes as well as forward.

The nav system is cool, complex, and will take some getting used to. It has so many menus that learning to navigate them, especially by voice, will take a while. But it does work well; the other night I wanted to find a Quizno's sandwich shop near my friend's house, and it guided me right there. I was pleasantly surprised it had such fine detail in its database.

Since I've got the nav system I have a backup camera, which I haven't had much use for yet. I left the backup alarm beep set to constant, since I'm a hybrid newbie and I wanted the reminder (which I think will be doubly important when I loan the car to someone else). My car also happened to have a port-installed backup sensor (the person who originally ordered the car had it installed, then backed out of the deal at the last second which is how I got my car so fast) which is more useful than the camera. Parallel parking a new car is always tricky and the backup sensor helps me more than the backup camera. Why? Because the camera's fish-eye lens distorts the image so much that it's very difficult to judge true distance, whereas the sensor just beeps at me to let me know how far back I have to go. Of course, with both the backup alarm and backup sensor, this can lead to a whole lot of beepin' goin' on.

I'm quite happy with my choice of colors. You can see a bunch of photos here. The Blue Ribbon was so very, very tempting but (as you can see from my username) I've got a thing for gray so it was fate. The gray exterior matches very well with the dark gray interior. I also got floor mats, and those also match well (not so awkward as the photos I've seen of the misty gray interior with the dark-colored mats).


Final Thoughts:

Boy am I happy with this car! My last car was a 1995 Honda Civic which I purchased brand new and drove for more than a decade. Unless all of us early adopters discover something horribly wrong with the Gen3 Prius, I expect I'll keep this car for many, many years. By the time I'm done with this car, I hope the next generation of eco-friendly cars (plug-ins, fuel cells, cold fusion, whatever) are into their 2nd or 3rd generation and I'll move on to that happy and guilt-free.

[priuslaw]

Great post man! I couldn't have said it better myself. Well at least i am going to try in a few days. I'll be writing a review of the Prius through the eyes of a photographer to be posted on my blog.

[eldiee]

I just got home from getting our new Prius 2010 V. It is so much different than our old Prius 2005 that it does not seem to be related but in name only. It has a totally different feel to the steering. It is really quiet and handles like a dream compared to our 2005. I drove home in eco mode and it is a little doggy. Just push power and your off! Looking forward to learning about the nav and radio. The new dash is awesome. I will write more after I drive it for a couple of weeks.

[sagoff]

I too just drove home my Blizzard Pearl/Misty Gray II Prius. For a total strippo (no floormats, no decal), it has more features than the 13 year old deluxe Audi A4 I traded in.

As a newb, it will take me a while to master all the controls; however, when my wife took it out, the 5minute gauge showed 100mpg for two segments (best I got was around 75). I tried Eco and Power drive options; the best mileage was definitely in Eco, and it also charged the battery from half to 3/4 in the 15-mile trip home.

On the handling side, it was smooth, even on bumpy Colorado roads. A little sluggish in the turns, but I was not trying to drive it like my Audi TT. Now comes the challenge, as I add floormats, winter tires and rims, sheepskin seatcovers, and a hatch mat.

A caution: more experienced PC folks already know this, but it is a bit too easy for the very quiet cabin to cause excessive speed; and I relate to the comments elsewhere about spending too much time watching the gauges, rather than the road.

Bottom Line: Nice work, Prius team!
And thanks to Jeff Patterson, Internet Sales Manager at Liberty Toyota (Colorado Springs), and Bryant, the very nice Finance guy.

[Ray2121]

Got my 2010 two days ago. After driving just over 100 miles I love this car. The decision to get a 2010 over an 2009 was well worth the wait. The only complaint I have received is the seats are little tighter than my previous vehicle. The ride is much better and closer to the quality of the Camry. My anti-Prius friends were more impressed over the styling. I expect this car to have little to no problems and to last a very long time.

[fred garvin]

only have 120 miles so far (and 110 was driving it home last night) but two observations - keep in mind i am going from a gen 1 to a gen 3 and only ever passenged in a gen 2 a couple times:

1. waaaaay more power, especially in "power mode" - in that mode there is a lot of juice, actually feels sporty and torquey
2. i will get used to the shifter but it is definitely odd at first. especially when you stop, and with your foot on the brake just press the power button shutting down the car AND automatically placing it in "park"
3. i know i said 2 but i remembered another one - the kids think the best part is how the MFD opens up and pivots like inspector gadget or a transformer when you insert a CD

[av8harrier]

My car is due in this week.

I needed a rental while my current car (Jaguar X-type) was in the shop. Having never owned or driven a Prius I rented a 2009 to savor the joys of future Prius ownership.

Well I was blown away with the car. I drove my usual weekly habit from Silver Spring to Arlington on a daily basis. 80% city traffic and 20% beltway. Over 350 miles I averaged 53 mpg!!!!!!

I really can't wait for my 2010 now. I turned in the rental yesterday reluctantly.

[resoh02]

My first drive, to solar is not worth it., instrument panel way to busy, disapointed can't get display without buy nav pkge. The acceleration was difinately better that previous models. Alsoo while in ECO mode will still go to gas when when increased gas peddle instead of staying on electiric. I think that it is very pricy. Overall I was disappointed and new pricing and the way options are bundled. Sorry happy 2006 owner

[fgp]

i have had "smiling red" for about a week now. this is my third prius. im a real car guy and have had every thing form porsches to mb etc etc. i always admired prius engineering. like miles ahead of anything. BUT as a car guy the handling was to put it politely abismal. my new prius is vastly(!) improved. it feels very substantial and handles extrmely well in everyday traffic always feeling surefooted. the cornering is now ok instead of CRAPPY. i am extremely pleased with the improvements in handling and feel. for a lot of folks who are not car guys the old prii were just fine but if you are or were a car guy you will deeply appreciate the improvements
fred from nashville