Prius v: What about comfort???

What about the drivers door armrest? I just test drove a 2011 Prius and the driver's armrest was about 6" too low for my elbow while holding the steering wheel. I hope the V has a higher armrest to make long straights more comfortable for my arm.

Thanks,
Andy

 

I'll be driving home a couple 100 miles tomorrow, I'll let you know

Peter+

 

I'm a stickler on seating comfort and ergos. I sold a 2009 Prius due terrible ergos. Too tall at 6'2". I wouldn't buy the regular 3rd Gen Prius.

Prius v .... it's good. Driver's seat has good range of adjustment. Plenty supportive for me. I'm good with just about any amount of lumbar support, but the v feels good there. Even the 2011 Prius driver's seat is good for me.... but I can't reach the wheel very well and if I scoot closer, knees just come up higher and get more cramped.

v had a nice ride quality for me. I don't find the 2011 Prius too bumpy, it's soft, I just hate the crampiness.

I have no idea how v would be like on a 500 mile drive, but I'd like to find out!

 

Could always add a pad on the door armrest. No worries though. The v ergos are really nice!

 

My understanding is the Toyota went for a better ride when designing the v. It is 10 dB quieter, and the ride is supposed to be smoother. I would like to feel the front and BACK seats since I do iron butt tours myself each summer (one or two a year). That is why I am looking at the v when my Gen III is only 2 years old.

If I get to one first, I will post impressions - which will be after I get it home cause I am getting it anyway since its load capacity is 915# versus the 825# of the Gen III, and will hold 5 adults nicely - it has to if it is inches wider and longer than the Gen III.

Sorry I don't have more info for you. It is a definite purchase for me as soon as our local dealer gets a 5 with ATP in. I am leaning towards clear sky metallic.

 

In June and July I drove from Denver to Los Angeles area and back. Maybe not as comfortable as my 90 Cadillac DeVille, but at 51.7 mpg vs. 19 mpg, I was a lot more comfortable at the gas station (well, the price was better 11 years ago when I sold the Caddy but you know what I mean).

 

Hello folks. I've been lurking for months, finally registered. Nice to meet you all!

I test drove a v this evening, and thought I'd give a brief impression from the perspective of a tall man. I'm 6'5", 300+, and fit just fine. The Gen 3 and the evil center console has always been a tight fit, but the v was MUCH better. Also, there is plenty of headroom even without the sunroof, although that adds more.

So... tall people, you will fit!

--David

 

Got back home last night after driving my new v up from So Cal (Thanks Dianne!). So I now have a little over 400 miles on it. Here are my initial impressions:

1. DRCC rocks The only thing you have to be careful of is if there is a sharp bend in the road ahead and there's a slow moving car/truck in the right lane ahead, the car can't tell that the truck isn't in your lane and you'll get an unexpected slowing, which could be bad if there's a car behind you that doesn't expect you to brake suddenly.

2. The car feels a heck of a lot wider than my '05 prius (this is a good thing) -- in the '05 I could reach over to the far passenger vent to close it, etc. no chance in the v

3. I'm an idiot, the whole drive I wished I could move the steering wheel closer to me (I have longish legs and so put the seat kinda far back), after reading the manual last night I discovered I could! WAY better I still find the driver's cockpit a little bit wide, so resting my elbows on the console and the door armrest is a little awkward, but I rarely do both at the same time.

4. The ride is very smooth and quiet, even across pacheco pass and the grapevine. I don't "know" this car as well as I know my 05, so I was a little tentative on some of the curves -- it "felt" a little more likely to break loose on sharp turns than my 05.

5. The 6" longer, 3" taller, 1.x" wider spec is deceptive, it's *way* bigger inside, one of my friends who *hates* my 05 prius back seat just sat in the back seat of the v and was ecstatic.

6. A lot of the things I loved about my 05 that they took out of the 3rd gen design are back where they belong in the v and enhanced. Energy consumption screen, steering wheel controls, side mirror controls, etc. back where they ergonomically belong! The color speedometer/hybrid system status, etc. display is a huge improvement over the 3rd gen.

7. Minor gripe -- I don't like the way the tonneau cover works, with a short 6" extension with little grips that connect to the back seat head rest supports. I suppose I get why they did it that way (the back seats recline, etc.) but the execution was poor: if the back seats are not reclined a little bit and in their farthest-back position, the extension can't reach them. If a passenger moves the seat or reduces the recline, the extension pops off. I'd have preferred to see the extension retract and extend as needed on a spring-loaded roller of its own.

8. I believe when I first looked at the prototype this past spring, the front passenger seat was capable of folding FORWARD on itself, which allowed for much longer cargo (i.e. my large RC planes), it doesn't seem to work that way anymore, though it *is* possible to remove the passenger headrest and fold the front passenger seat flat to enable Looong cargo, not as convenient, but it works.

9. Gas mileage: First 269 miles (LA city driving + highway 405/5 to nearly Los Banos) 37.5, a little disappointing. Next 140 miles: 43.0 -- MUCH BETTER! Either the engine is breaking in or I got better gas at Mobil than the dealer filled with. Time will tell.

10. Panoramic moon roof is quite nice -- if it's coldish outside, but sunny outside, opening the moon roof cover allows for quite a bit of cool air to drop down from the moon roof and reduces the need for AC which should improve the gas mileage significantly.

Overall impression: A or A- this car is a winner and I'm very glad I bought it. I'll post another report after this weekend when RC TOY BX actually gets used for its intended purpose to carry some planes with me to a competition in Fresno.

Peter+

 

Likely the dealer didn't quite top it off and the result is skewed. The gage could read 10 bars from dealer, but it's down maybe a gallon or fraction. Happened to me when first buying Accord - gage read full, first calculation lousy. After that, much better.

43 MPG is the accurate measurement. No worries!

Congrats and thanks!

 

Oh! Forgot to mention:

11: VPNS (a.k.a noisemaker) I have *tried* to hear it several times now, including rolling down my window in a quiet environment and driving next to a concrete wall that should have reflected the sound back at me. I haven't heard it yet. I'll ask a friend to drive it for me and see if I hear it when I put myself in the role of passenger.

12: Entune -- capable of much more than it currently does. Right now it rates a "meh" from me, have to run the entune app on the iphone for it to do anything, etc. Could be powerful in the future.

13. I wish I could interact with my iPhone 4S's Siri feature from the car -- other bluetooth sets, if you hold down the off-hook button on your headset Siri asks how it may be of assistance, I'd like to be able to do that with the Prius -- Prius' voice assist is great, but Siri does 50,000x more.

Peter+

 

I could have made it home with the dealer tank according to the system, but I only had a 30 mile cushion and I needed to go to the bathroom anyway, so I filled up shortly after I dropped from 5 bars to 4 on the gas gauge. So I'm pretty sure I didn't get a short fill.

Peter+

 

14: I'm a little worried about the care instructions for the resin moonroof. Not supposed to use window cleaner on it, etc. and it is apparently quite subject to scratching from car washes if you don't rinse dirt off it first. I'm not sure my wife will remember not to windex it when she decides to help me out by washing the windows and car washes will definitely require some pre-reconnaissance to make sure they're not using those high speed spinning brushes.

 

Hmmm, I'm thinking if the tripmeter didn't get reset when you left dealer that might have thrown MPG gage off.

What the heck. I think you'll be seeing 40+ quite often!

 

I think the reset is a definite possibility, I made a point of doing a reset after I filled up, so that's very likely.

 

How was the ride and was the engine able to handle the extra weight as far a ease of acceleration, etc... Thanks for any info....

 

It didn't seem to be a problem. The salesman was as big as me, so we gave it a pretty decent workout.

Admittedly, it was a short drive, and no Prius is going to accelerate like my old V8, but it seemed comparable to a 2010 I drove a year back.

For me the improvements are the aforementioned center console (or lack thereof) and more headroom. It really feels much larger inside than the Gen 3.

 

The ride was great on mine. My route back from LA to Santa Clara took me across two "mountain" passes (about 5000 feet of elevation gain if I recall correctly) and I found it to handle the uphill grades (which, as I recall, peak at about 8-9%) quite well. It was obvious that it was working a little harder than my '05 Prius does on similar hills but it never felt like it was straining or that it wouldn't be able to deliver more power if it was needed. Even when I got tripped up by the difference in the cruise control user interface and accidentally set the desired cruise speed to 110 mph on an uphill (word to wise, DON'T hold the cruise control stalk up when you have DRCC, it starts jumping by 5mph every 0.75 seconds and hits unreasonable speeds VERY fast) the car hit 85mph VERY fast (from 70) and I was canceling it as fast as I could since this was supposed to be a nice break-in cruise for the car.

Peter+