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Pro/Con Impressions: upgrade from 08 to 13

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by MadeleineR, Dec 15, 2013.

  1. MadeleineR

    MadeleineR New Member

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    Three
    We said goodbye to our beloved touring '08 last night and drove home a '13. What we notice now...
    Day 1 w/our '13:
    Where did the interior cabin storage go? Not the end of the world, but it was nice ('08) while it lasted:
    1. doors - about 1/4th the storage
    2. glove box - where's the top "tray"? This is smaller and still has awkward positioning for accessing charging port so you have to move anything else out of the way to reach...
    3. sunglass or other small items "box" - in our '08 there were two spots for this kind of thing, one we loved for our iPhone to sit in the horizontal view where it sat securely - one for glasses... now in the '13 there is none.

    LOVE the improvement away from that shinny black console that constantly looked either fingerprint central and/or swirls from cleaning...

    Dash/Spedometer area: Giant improvements here, but still more to do Toyota design team:
    1. love that I don't see light reflected at night onto the windshield as in '08 which, at my height, really effected visibility on unlit roads... but there is still some reflectivity - they need a non-light-reflective material for the bottom of the curved part of the dash screen. Still, this is much much improved.
    2. Goodbye that weird and very hard to keep clean velveteen fabric on dash next to the windshield that was nothing short of a dust condominium!
    3. I don't know why, but on the tiny side windows they did put that velveteen fabric in a pale almost white/grey... maybe on leather car interiors they don't use it? That's going to be going in ours...

    Shift knob:
    It isn't that I don't like the color blue, but this just looks cheap - to us. Maybe if folks are doing a very sporto kind of interior... adding LED floor lights... it would be great, but for us, I just can't get past that in combo with the giant red hazard button (I get why that one needs to stand out) and then the power button in a different kind of grey-periwinkle blue... the effect of the three together not so swell.

    For safety at night - I'd love to switch the dash lights in general to red or something similarly not fighting with enhanced night vision for the road - In that case, it would be nice to get rid of the blue knob and cover the power button... I have to shop around and see... I love that multi-button flat disk Tom knob some of you have, but $300 or more is just not in the budget for a knob. Might be nice to tone down that ring around it too with something darker/flat finish...

    ADORE the moonroof and of course the solar feature. I only wish the inside cover opened that extra 3 inches for more! :) This is great though!

    Space under the console - I had to laugh, the sales rep said when I first got in to test, "and here's where your purse goes" - uh, no... impossible to get your legs enough out of the way and stuff an average satchel... maybe a very small and flexible little strap bag... but why? I am guessing this is the best place for electronic storage - phone, charging...

    HEADLIGHTS - OH THANK THE GODS these stock headlights are so much better than those '08 lights - my iPhone could have cast more light. These new ones are great and I didn't feel the need to upgrade to HID.

    Overall, this is an excellent purchase for us, and we're really happy. What color? Another black beauty for us... we couldn't resist. Once again, THANKS to priuschat members for such a great resource to use - I had it up on the laptop sitting in the "deal room" at the sale... I told them I'd use it to see if they were giving me a good deal or not. :) We got a good deal.
     
  2. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    congrats! i think you nailed it. for me, the ev is probably like the moonroof/solar for you. everything else is okay and some negatives. all the best!(y)
     
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    I find often when someone is bailing from a back seat, after dark, their door will be locked, and do you think I can find the unlock button on the arm rest? Very obscure, poorly lit. I believe there's a single point of light, going from memory.
     
  4. MadeleineR

    MadeleineR New Member

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    Oh YES... the lock on seats... yep! I forgot to list that one. :) Well, still happy with the purchase, but these seem like obvious things - I keep picturing someone in the design team room saying " yeah, let's take away storage, we know where the unlock button is so they will too..." I wonder if Toyota does focus groups?
     
  5. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    I love my Prius.
    But yeah, I came from a Honda Fit, which had an excellently designed interior.

    2 glove boxes, pull out "ash tray like" storage area, I bought a center console, and 250 cup holders. ( I exaggerate).
    But it was great.

    The Prius? Not....horrible. -But just mortal in this regard.

    Took me a long time to figure out where I was going to put change. I finally put one of those thick elastic soda pop can insulators in the drivers door cup area. This works. I've been able to live with everything else okay...if not great.

    Believe it or not what I really miss is that The Honda Fit had a cup holder right in front of one of the air vents. So in the summer one could put cold drinks in that holder and the air conditioning would keep it cold, conversely warm drinks warm in the winter.

    The Prius center mounted cup holders both in a vertical line next to each other....is a pretty poor lay out. Even if useable. But I've had lot's of vehicles....If I can't grade Prius interior layout great...I can give it an average score.
     
  6. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    average, aye. gen II was a notch above.
     
  7. BZzap!

    BZzap! Senior Member

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    You forgot to mention the console storage box almost being in the back seat area. I wrench my shoulder trying to access the USB port inside the box.
     
  8. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    good point. at least it has a usb port! but a terrible location.
     
  9. MadeleineR

    MadeleineR New Member

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    Oh YES... that terrible position to reach BACK to get into the glove box... I honestly don't get it. The cabin feels more crowded and today, on day 3 now, the console - I can't get over how overly "important" that thing pretends to be. Again, I really DO love the car overall, but the function inside the cabin isn't there as it should be. I think Toyota is understandably focused on the science/engine/body shape of the car, and they forget about the driver's experience from the inside... but really, nothing can top the nonsense of that sales person proudly announcing where Toyota thought to make a place just for women's handbags - as if. LOL... no really, STILL laughing...
     
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  10. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    even funnier are people who buy the tray for that space and claim it's easy to access a drinking cup from there while driving.:eek: i can barely get in there for the seat heater switch, another poorly thought out location.
     
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  11. sosarahsays

    sosarahsays Member

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    Agree with everything above. The seat heaters are really awkward to access and there's NO WAY my daily purse would fit in there. I fear even if I did try to wedge it in, I would probably end up irreversibly scratching the plastic. When the sales guy told me I could put my purse in that spot, I just looked at him like :confused:
     
  12. elementnomore

    elementnomore Member

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    A women's who's purse is small enough to fit there probably won't be riding in a prius. Every women is excited about the seat heater and flabbergasted when I show them
    where the switch is. My arm is long enough to comfortably rest along the right side of the strange console.

    Custom Accessories 91116 Coin Holder:Amazon:Automotive

    Turn off signatures in Tapatalk Tapatalk
     
  13. sosarahsays

    sosarahsays Member

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    LOL, I love the mental image of you rotating through women in your Prius with a standard pick-up line, "hey, want to check out the seat warmers in my car?" The Prius Don Juan. :)
     
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  14. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    It's sad to see Toyota put all that effort into designing futuristic interior (floating bridge console), when they could have used the time and money to refine a more conventional type interior. ....

    Two weeks ago, I built a 4 inch high slab of neoprene foam for my driver's door armrest. The 4" height is absolutely necessary for me to rest my left elbow and be able to get a decent grip on the steering wheel at about 9 o'clock position. Notice it is a wider upper 2" piece to contact side panel and narrower to mate with horizontal armrest. It stays in place very well with 3M Command adhesive strips ....

    camera 544.jpg

    This 4" foam indicates two things - that the door armrest is very low and the steering wheel does not pull nearly close enough for tall drivers who scoot their seats back far. If you think my arms are short, you would be wrong -

    MCCOY BRETT.jpg


    I'm sure many people with much shorter legs scoot so close to the steering wheel, there elbows are likely bent so much that holding both arms forward is not a problem. The wheel is so far from me, holding my arms out front without using armrest would be bit of torture for 40 minutes.

    All that said, in a Honda Accord, I would need about 2" foam on door armrest to get the good grip on wheel, but only 2". 4 inches needed is pretty sad and demonstrates rather shoddy interior design by the Toyota team. Seems they design parts of the interior for their shorter average heights (male in Japan 5'7"), yet they ship the car globally. :rolleyes:
     
  15. BZzap!

    BZzap! Senior Member

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    The interior was definitely designed with form over functionality. I love my Prius but the interior has way too many shortfalls in terms of comfort and practicality. First impressions are impressive in terms of eye appeal but soon are dashed (N.P.I.) by it's awkward ergonomics. With that being said, I wouldn't have any other car on the mass market.