Mini-review of my 2006 vs my 2004 Prius....

[benbethel]

I was the first person to take delivery of a 2004 Prius in Arizona back in October of 2003 (or so I was told), and I had a fully loaded model with all the bells and whistles, and it was Silver. I loved it. The Silver was great and with tinted windows looked pretty cool - it rarely looked dirty and I could go for 2-3 months without washing it. Everything worked, including the bluetooth and nav system, but not as if they were finished products, in my opinion.

So, as my car reached 40K miles I ordered a BLUE 2006 Prius, put it up for sale privately and sold it for $22K with 38,600 miles on it. Originally I ordered a fully loaded model and switched to package 3 at the last minute, and two weeks later it arrived at the dealership - I took delivery on my birthday, June 14th.

I'm extremely happy with Package 3 over any other package and here's why - and this is coming from someone who's experienced all the other stuff before:

* Headlights! I like the warmth and the coverage of the regular headlights over the HID lights. On bright they shine over a much larger area, on low they show me more of the road in front of me - I'm 35, call me old, but I like the sensation that there's more light out there, even if there isn't. Why don't they turn on automatically?

* Stereo - the new 'basic' stereo is wonderful, and truthfully I don't see enough difference over the 11 speaker JBL system to warrant the extra expense. Who listens to CDs anymore? 1 CD slot is good enough for me. The mp3 input in the armrest... hmm... the jury is still out on this one - it's definitely nice, but there should be an additional one in the little fold-down CD holder under the stereo.... I think most of us want our MP3 players (tangent: I have a Zen Vision:M and think it's a million times better than an ipod as you can play all the music you want for $15/mo on Rhapsody and other music services rather than pay for each song) WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM, so having it on my armrest is okay, but I'd like the option of another port.

* Nav System - the Nav system in the Prius was pretty bad, admit it. And completely expensive. I ended up purchasing a TomTom Go 910 and it fits PERFECTLY on the cover for the CD storage area under the stereo when the cover is down, you can enter stuff while driving, it has bluetooth, speakerphone, reads text messages to you, has live traffic updates and automatic traffic re-routing, a 20gb hard drive for pictures and music, ipod control interface (if you have one), you can take it with you, you can hand it to someone in the passenger seat or rear seats to enter stuff, and even down on the new little 'shelf' it still receives 12 satellites so it does not have to be mounted to the windshield. It has a ton of entertaining voices in dozens of languages, you can download new stuff, there's a million great color schemes, it even reads street names out loud! The PC interface is excellent too. I'm extremely happy with this product, and at $799 including shipping it's a lot cheaper than getting a system built-in. Oh... it comes preloaded with maps of the US, all of Europe, Canada, Guam, and the Canary Islands - so you can just take it with you when you travel. There's even satellite imagery!

* VSC - works better than before - it would kick in a LOT on the 2004 model, including times when turning left in major intersections before big trucks... Phoenix streets can have a lot of grit in them. I've only seen it kick in once now - in a period of over two weeks.

* Backup Camera - I thought this was going to be one of the coolest things ever. It is impressive to people getting into the car for the first time, but sheesh, it's really useless. There needs to be two major things: a marker that shows where the heck the side of the car is when parking close to curbs, and a distance measurement - the image is such a fish-eye lens version that I'd swear I'm 2 inches from the car behind me when I'm still 4 feet away!

* Seats - same old seats, they've got to be improved - I don't care if they're manual or electric, but hey, lets go the extra distance and make them really comfy. How about lumbar support? Wish list: massage option and air conditioning vents in the back of the seat... in Arizona it would be awesome to have cool air blowing on you.

* A/C - still works great, but I think the vents need to be bigger to drop the noise of the air rushing through them. And how hard would it be to provide rear-seat vents under the cupholder?

* Cruise Control - it's almost 2007, why doesn't this car have adaptive cruise control? It sure would be nice for the Prius to have this feature!

* Overall interior - the finish on the dash is much nicer. I think there should be a mini-visor around the rearview mirror areas to block the sun from coming in.

* Auto-dimming rearview mirror - this was actually a great feature, I don't have it any more but I'll live. I think it's possible to get after-market however.

* Windshield wipers - this is just a small peeve, but I'd really like them to be able to get to every corner of the windshield - it's totally possible, so it should have been done.

* Color - I love the blue, but I'll have to wash it more often than just once every 3 months like the silver. Don't believe the color/heat myth - all cars, no matter the color, get the same temperature inside after about 30 minutes. White cars get there more slowly than black ones, but it's really the windows that make the car hot. Get tint with ceramic bits in it, like huperoptik, it helps.

* My biggest suggestion with the Prius - get polarized sunglasses! The windshield has to be one of the biggest in the industry. (believe me, when I had mine replaced two years ago I was looking at the guy's truck and said "wow - what kind of vehicle uses *this* huge windshield? It's giant!", the guy said, "that's yours") So you get all that dash glare on the windshield and on the dash. With polarized glasses, the dash looks velvety and the windshield has no reflection on it.

* Other gripes - there's stillllll no electric-only switch. Even if a sunroof isn't going to happen (that's fine with me for fuel economy), I'd still really like the option of a crystal clear GLASS roof so that I could see out and about when driving in urban areas to check out buildings and scenic drives to check out trees and the like.

Overall - if you want to save a LOT of money and have a better overall experience, get package three and get your own nav system.

[highroute]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(benbethel @ Jul 1 2006, 09:24 AM) [snapback]279706[/snapback]</div>

... I'm extremely happy with Package 3 over any other package ...

* VSC - works better than before - it would kick in a LOT on the 2004 model, including times when turning left in major intersections before big trucks... Phoenix streets can have a lot of grit in them. I've only seen it kick in once now - in a period of over two weeks.
[/b]

Hm? Package 3 does not have VSC:

Package #3 -- includes driver and front passenger front seat-mounted side and front and rear side curtain airbags [2], AM/FM CD with six speakers, auxiliary audio jack and MP3/WMA playback capability, Smart Key System, and backup camera [3].
[/b]

By the way, please remember to update your forum profile to reflect your new vehicle!

[benbethel]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(highroute @ Jul 1 2006, 09:39 AM) [snapback]279712[/snapback]</div>

Hm? Package 3 does not have VSC!
[/b]

I didn't think that it did either but I went through a patch of gravel a few days ago and hit the gas, and lo and behold the picture of the car with the swervy marks under it came on! Oh, wait, is that Traction Control? Maybe I have them confused? Anyway, I like it better than in the 2004 model.

[finman]

Yep, the 'swervy' car icon is traction control, stadard on ALL Prii.

VSC would beep at you if the rear end was skidding, trying to come around up front (think black ice...wait, you're in AZ...uh..think curvy gravel road or even a paved road with ball-bearing gravel over the top...VSC prevents you from skidding on such surfaces).

I've convinced my big bro that he needs a Prius. Thanks for the great compare.

Cheers,

Curt.

[Tideland Prius]

Thanks for the comparo.

The JBL actually has 9 speakers - two extra tweeters in the rear doors and the centre speaker. I wonder if the JBL audio speakers have also received an update along with the standard speakers.

[hycamguy07]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Jul 1 2006, 01:06 PM) [snapback]279726[/snapback]</div>

Thanks for the comparo.

The JBL actually has 9 speakers - two extra tweeters in the rear doors and the centre speaker. I wonder if the JBL audio speakers have also received an update along with the standard speakers.
[/b]

They need a 8-10" subwoofer inadition to the speaker upgrade.

[xlarimer]

That's AWESOME ... another 2004 and 2006 owner. I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

But I didn't change it that much I went from a 2004 BC (#9?) to a 2006 #7. (Then I added aftermarket leather with seat heaters and lumbar.)

I would like to add the 2006 navigation control is about 100% better than in my 2004. In fact, it is so much more accurate it feels like a different car. You can actually TALK to the car and put in the destination while you are driving as opposed to stopping or doing the override easter egg. The map window is much more readable since they changed the fonts of the street names so that they are seen and understood faster. When on the highway, it has a new exit feature that shows icons and milage to next gas/food/lodging which actually looks and works so amazing that I've found it to be my favorite screen now.

The VSC/Traction control IS much better integrated even with the OEM tires. (I had to swap out he OEM tires to keep from Traction Control all the way up my hilly california (badly maintained) road.) So, you're actually correct that the VSC isn't has subborn. I've noticed that when I would come to stop on slippery painted roads that it would start chirping the traction. 2006 doesn't do it as much.

The seats on mine sit really harder now ... and taller. I find that maybe the afermarket MAY have changed out the lower seat cusions ... but I was thinking that Toyota was just trying to update the horrible seats. That I think is the Prius' weakest feature. I'm all for air/cooled and heated seats. I loved my Volvo seats that I could sit in hours. It makes me irritated that I actually enjoy sitting in my friends Honda Insight for long trips than I do for my Prius. What's up with that right? ... I've contemplated changing out for Recaros but I really want Air Bags...

Anyway, ... that's pretty much the differences that I want to add.

Oh ... the high end JBL stereo actually rocks WAY better than the older higher zoot stereo. They learned about putting insulation behind or just better installation and selection of speakers.

Please don't attack me too much but I found that the fit and finish on '04 Prius was pretty darn good compared to the 06. This one has a little more loosy goosy feel. Not as precisely done. It doesn't rattle and it is a little quieter at road speed, so I guess that's good.

OH ... another thing, I HATE the "PASSENGER" printing on the airbag switch side ... it's very badly tacked on. Why do they need that? ... I am contemplating rubbing off the print or finding a way of switching with the '04 before I sell her.

[captnslur]

I, too, have an '06 after driving an '04 for 48,000 miles. traded only because of the $3150 Bush hybrid incentive. We found that the used car prices were depressed here, Minnesota in May of '06, and got only $18,000 for the '04. We have again a silver after having an '04 silver, the '06 color is slightly brighter and a pkg. 4 which has all of the pkg. 7 from the '04 except the HIDs.

I love the mp3 capability and have recently gotten an mp3 player, a ZEN Microphoto, which is fun to have.

Yes, the rear camera takes a bit of getting used too, it is not a good parking aid, but certailny does give a great view of things behind.

I'm a little disapointed in the change in the instrumentation in that the fuel level and miles minder has been tucked in to the right side of the view and the passenger can't read it to write down the fueling detail and remind the driver of a low fuel situation.

Another item I only recently discovered driving at night. There is a faint reflection up on to the windshield from the blue high beam indicator and the ready-headlight-cruise control indicator lights and those cannot be dimmed as the recessed spedometer readings can be.

Other wise the '06 is just a cool as the '04 only more s o. Love it.

[toyotablackbox]

Headlights~
"Why don't they turn on automatically?"

> I have a 2006 pack 0 silver and I am totally in love with it. I liked the purple dash in the 04-05 but it was so hard to keep clean and scratched easily, the black textured dash is 100x better. Anyways about those non-automatic halogen headlights... I found a trick: They are auto-off (even though the brochure doesn't list this feature) I just keep the headlights in the "ON" position all the time and when I open the drivers door after shutting her off, the lights turn off. And when powered on, the headlights jump back to life. It acts as DRL too I guess as I keep them on all the time. It is really convenient, almost even more than auto-on/off as the lights are on in those dawn/dusk iffy times when I used to be like "come on auto headlights, switch on!!!" I don't have to worry about that now. And its not like the halogens are $200 a bulb like the HID, maybe $10 each and they will last for at least a couple years. I don't worry about bulb life at all...

[flareak]

tangent: I have a Zen Vision:M and think it's a million times better than an ipod as you can play all the music you want for $15/mo on Rhapsody and other music services rather than pay for each song [/b]

having an ipod has nothing to do with paying music services. ipod owners do not need to buy songs from itunes in order for those songs to be put onto the ipod, HOWEVER, those who decide to purchase the higher quality AAC from itunes (128AAC=196mp3, Rhapsody is 160mp3) can only put them onto an ipod