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My new Prius - inital thoguhts....

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by floppyarms, Dec 1, 2009.

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  1. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    Hi all,

    I still have A LOT of exploring to do but as many of you know (especially those in the UK room: PriusChat Forums - UK Prius Owners ) my long awaited Prius arrived on 26th November following a 10 week wait.

    I have an Orion Blue 3rd Gen T-Spirit (UK model) and this is my first new car. I have a daily commute of 180 miles (round trip) which is a combination of motorway and inner city which lead me towards the Prius when choosing a car. I am very much still in the glory days where everything and anything is amazing me, I have managed to grasp the various different controls and even understand the built in sat nav (the fact this has a motorised screen to access the CD tray is awesome!). Built in bluetooth was simple to configure with my iPhone 3G and the nav system has phone numbers stored for all major POI's (including my local take-away) which was yet another feature i did not expect.

    I have to say one of the simplest but most impressive features has to be the HUD which displays current speed on the windscreen, but can also display the eco-meter and the sat-nav instructions (great on the motorway!). The reverse parking camera is equally impressive and after 30 mins of playing in a car park i soon got to grips with the auto-park feature - this is VERY strange at first but i think I can now engage the system fast enough to not be frustrating for other cars on the road.

    Overall ride comfort is very good, heated seats would have been nice but it was not available without the leather interior which i was not interested in. The built in Hard-Drive is great but already full, USB input would be nice for transferring tracks but beggars cant be choosers!

    Key-less entry is seamless, although i did need to refer to the manual before understanding the lock feature.

    Finally my dealer experience was very positive. Whilst the wait time was longer than i hoped (this was out of the dealers control) the dealer was happy to negotiate small discounts and extras and was fantastic when arranging my customized settings. I have reverse beep, seat belt beep disabled and also have customized the timings on interior lights and the sensitivity of a few of the sensors.

    All in all I am one very happy bunny and my first tank of fuel got me 56mpg (that's UK mpg) - this included a short blast on the motorway to see how quick she could move (I ran out of road at 125mph) so i would expect mpg to increase again on this tank.

    I am looking forward to getting to know the car even further and learning from the PC community.

    ATB

    Floppy.
    (UK)
     
    #1 floppyarms, Dec 1, 2009
    1 person likes this.
  2. bighouse

    bighouse Active Member

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    IV
    "Built-in Hard Drive"?~!!?!???????

    Congrats on the new car- mine is over a month old now and I still love it.
     
    #2 bighouse, Dec 1, 2009
  3. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    There is a 10Gb Music HDD in the T-Spirit model - :cheer2:
     
    #3 floppyarms, Dec 1, 2009
  4. bighouse

    bighouse Active Member

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    10gb? THAT'S ALL?!?!? hmmm...my iPhone has over three times that amount and it's a LOT smaller than my Prius. Wouldn't have hurt Toyota to put in at least a 32gb solid state....
     
    #4 bighouse, Dec 1, 2009
  5. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    Indeed. I have managed to get about 15 CD's worth on it with the quality set at "excellent" (it rips direct from CD). I suppose as long as it beats a conventional 6 CD changer it is worth while.... Plus I am not certain how much space on the HDD is dedicated to the SatNav (I would assume they share a single HDD and a 10Gb partition is dedicated to music).

    Still it is a nice gadget to have....
     
    #5 floppyarms, Dec 1, 2009
  6. DeanFL

    DeanFL 2010 owner - 1st Prius

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    10GB - that's ALL????

    Well that's just about 10GB more than we get here in the U.S.
     
    #6 DeanFL, Dec 1, 2009
  7. bighouse

    bighouse Active Member

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    Don't get me wrong, I encourage tech! Just seems like they could have put a lot more in for almost nothing from a manufacturing cost.
     
    #7 bighouse, Dec 1, 2009
  8. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Remember that's 10GB for music. The nav takes up the rest of the HDD space. On the iPhone, you don't have a memory-hogging nav. Our discs are DVD-based (probably dual-layer) so 8GB tops. Theirs don't fit on a DVD (they had several discs) so a HDD is probably beneficial because they can have the entire western Europe map loaded and it's faster to load because the system isn't reading a disc.

    However, from what I've heard from Ken, it's an expensive option. Yes, a few cars here offer HDD (Mitsubishi is the only one that offers HDD nav on non-luxury vehicles) but they're not cheap.

    Also, whatever you guys get, we get in Canada. Navigation just recently dropped to Cdn$1,600 (not incl. the backup camera) and offered as a factory option. Previously, if it was even offered at all, it was a dealer-installed option and was very expensive (to the tune of Cdn$3,000).


    Anyway, Congrats on your car floppyarms!!
     
    #8 Tideland Prius, Dec 1, 2009
  9. johalareewi

    johalareewi Member

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    Like flopparms, I picked up my 2010 prius last week. The only problem I have found is the rear window wiper. It is really on the wrong side for the UK. However, with the rear spoiler, I can't see much out of the back window and the door mirrors are great. So it isn't a big problem. Now looking for some floor mats.
     
    #9 johalareewi, Dec 2, 2009
  10. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
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    Odd though cause Japanese is RHD so you'd think they'll set it up best for their configuration.

    From your side, you'll see the rear wiper. From our side, we see the "arc". Neither view is perfect.
     
    #10 Tideland Prius, Dec 2, 2009
  11. ajc

    ajc Member

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    Congratulations :D but going 125mph on first tank - not a good idea, should wait until after 1,000 miles to give it a chance to break-in.
     
    #11 ajc, Dec 2, 2009
  12. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    Oooops, my bad! It was a steady but continuous acceleration but what can I say - the road was calling me.....
     
    #12 floppyarms, Dec 2, 2009
  13. ikklesmiler

    ikklesmiler New Member

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    Glad you are enjoying the ride!! I wil reply prop on the UK group thread. see ya there! ;)

    A.M
     
    #13 ikklesmiler, Dec 3, 2009
  14. sa68ta

    sa68ta Junior Member

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    [FONT=&quot]In addition to HDD you can add burned DVD with up to 255 files - yet another 25 CD’s. [/FONT]
     
    #14 sa68ta, Dec 4, 2009
  15. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    And now some PICS:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Floppy.
     
    #15 floppyarms, Dec 4, 2009
  16. usbseawolf2000

    usbseawolf2000 HSD PhD

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    Sweet!
     
    #16 usbseawolf2000, Dec 4, 2009
  17. Much More Better

    Much More Better Active Member

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    very nice! Is the "Hybrid Synergy Drive" on the rear a reflection or an actual decal?
     
    #17 Much More Better, Dec 4, 2009
  18. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    It's stuck on the window - kinda annoying to be honest but i'll see how i get on with it...

    Floppy.
     
    #18 floppyarms, Dec 4, 2009
  19. Croft

    Croft New Member

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    I didn't think heated seats were available yet in the UK, even with leather? I've got them on my current car and I would have loved to have them in the Prius. I was looking at the Insight and Civic Hybrid, both of which have heated seats as standard but only on the base; I use mine when I have back ache and its great!
     
    #19 Croft, Dec 4, 2009
  20. floppyarms

    floppyarms New Member

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    Looking on the website now it would seem you are right. However I was sure the dealer mentioned it - I possibly got confused as I spent a long time talking about the Prius and the Avensus with he same rep. Anyway I ruled out leather so it doesn't really matter now... Have no problem running the air con for 10 mins before i drive away :eek:...

    Floppy.
     
    #20 floppyarms, Dec 4, 2009
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