4 Months - A Few Nits

[PriusCrazy]

I took delivery of my Blizzard Pearl IV (no options) on 6/12/09; just had the free 5K oil change yesterday (4,550 miles) and I must say I'm still in love with this car! My wife likes it so much, now she wants one!

There are a few minor things I would change/add though:

1. Ability to turn off stats screen (that stays off between restarts)
2. Fan speed instead of temperature on the steering wheel.
3. Hidden coin holder
4. Longer delay on front wiper (10 second max now)
5. USB connection that allows complete steering wheel control.
6. Touch tracer isn't very useful. I used it the other night in the dark, but I mostly do a quick glance at the steering wheel to "spot" the button I want... My eyes are actually off the road less using this "quick spot" method than trying to look at the tracer.

Well, that's it. Nothing I can't live with. Fantastic car all-in-all. Who knows, maybe my wife's 2015 Prius will have all this covered!

[adamace1]

May i ask your reason for #2. I would keep it the same, considering when on auto i can tell it what temp i want and it adjusts the speed to make it so.

[creativeguy]

By design, the temp buttons should be more commonly used. But I understand what you are saying. On my Acura, if I leave the system on Auto, but turn off the AC, the fan goes to high speed and I must manually turn it down to eliminate the noise.

[PriusCrazy]

Originally Posted by adamace1

May i ask your reason for #2. I would keep it the same, considering when on auto i can tell it what temp i want and it adjusts the speed to make it so.

This is new to me; hadn't thought about that. I have never used the Auto button. Typically this summer I would get in my car, the A/C temperature is always set at a comfortable (for me) 78 degrees, once the car is switched on I'd push the fan speed up two notches. If it's real hot, maybe three or four. In about 10 minutes it's nice and cool and I'd click the fan speed down a notch or two.

Don't know why I prefer not to use the Auto button, maybe it's that initial "roar" of the fan? Habit? It's kinda funny, my Dad won't buy a car unless it has this feature.

[johnkodem]

Originally Posted by PriusCrazy

This is new to me; hadn't thought about that. I have never used the Auto button. Typically this summer I would get in my car, the A/C temperature is always set at a comfortable (for me) 78 degrees, once the car is switched on I'd push the fan speed up two notches. If it's real hot, maybe three or four. In about 10 minutes it's nice and cool and I'd click the fan speed down a notch or two.

Don't know why I prefer not to use the Auto button, maybe it's that initial "roar" of the fan? Habit? It's kinda funny, my Dad won't buy a car unless it has this feature.

I don't use "auto" either. My son thinks that I am crazy, but I find it easier to set the temp and control the airflow with the "fan speed" and "mode' buttons.

[adamace1]

Originally Posted by johnkodem

I don't use "auto" either. My son thinks that I am crazy, but I find it easier to set the temp and control the airflow with the "fan speed" and "mode' buttons.

It can't be easier to do it your way. I would understand if you just like having the fan speed be the one you want. in the summer my car was on auto at 72 and i never had to touch any buttons unless i wanted to change the temp. When the car gets down to temp the fan slows to hold the temp. No wasted energey.

[chrisj428]

I've always been one to use "Auto", regardless of which vehicle I'm in. The system is going to bring the temperature as close to your set temp as possible as quickly as possible. Then, like we do when approaching red lights, it's going to slide it's way into the set temp as smoothly as possible.

I'm pretty smart. However, I can't imagine that, with the amount of information available to the controller regarding interior temperature, duct temperature, OAT, sunload & direction, etc., that I could possibly do a better job of accomplishing that goal any more efficiently than by leaving the system to it's own devices.

Besides which, I paid for that feature -- might as well let it do it's thing.

[Pugsy]

I agree with #2 because I always turn down the fan, no matter how hot it is in the car. It may not be the most efficient use of the AC, but I absolutely hate cold air blowing on me at full blast. I'd rather it take longer to cool down than have that.

I don't use the touch tracer either. My fingers have memorized where my most commonly used buttons are.

[pakitt]

I have my Prius since 1 month now - things I think should be changed/improved:

- bad FM reception
- when pushing ECO mode, the display turns to the HSI bar - why? I can already see it in the HUD if I want and it is distracting - I set screen XYZ, why change it to HSI
- difficult to get used to front body dimensions
- rear visibility a mess when raining at night - moreover the hatch wiper is almost useless - it clears a *very* small area of what can be seen through the rear-view mirror and it's on the right side, rather on the left (looking in the mirror) where it would be at least a bit more useful
- rear seatbelt screen can be selected when flipping through the different screens, even if none of the rear doors have been opened (no need to show it if nobody has entered the car since it was opened only from the front doors, right?)
- "Settings" screen useless (not the settings themselves!) - they could simply have made some key combination on the tracer to access the settings, instead of having one extra screen to flip through...
- energy monitor sometimes not displaying reality - ie. when stopped and the engine is running to heat up or charge the battery, no arrow displayed or indication whatsoever that the engine is running; and you are certainly using energy!
- instead of green for the illumination of the AC/Radio and the screen, they could have used a more cool blue or white; green illumination is *so* 80s
- need to find a way to remove the double reflection of the display - it is annoying (there is a whole thread on this forum about it with pictures).

As for the AC, I always use Auto, as that is the most efficient way to control the climate in the car - manual I hardly use it, if ever, as I cannot control the climate as well as the computer with all the inputs it gets from the sensors, and it is distracting to touch every now and then to set the flow of air, the temperature of the fan speed - I need to drive while looking at the road, Auto is the best way of doing it. I do find myself though wondering whether I set or not air Recycle and need to distract myself to check if it is on or not - you are so much looking forward on this car (especially because of the HUD), that looking down is really distracting. The only thing I might set manually is whether or not to use the AC at all (while in Auto) when the climate is already cool and dry - in that case the AC is not necessary, though it might well be useless doing that manually since Auto will probably take care of this already and turn the AC on only when really necessary.

Other than the above annoyances, and the really bad FM reception (the real true defect ), the car is a pure joy to ride.