Gen II Driving Impression (1st year)

After driving my Prius for over a year now here's my impression of the car.

Overall I really like this car but it doesn't quite live up to the image of what I thought it was. The gas mileage is the best but there are some negative issues.

The stereo feels like the worst controls in the industry. There's 3 separate sets of controls many of which do the same thing. The wheel controls, display controls and stereo face controls. And with all those controls you can't even just look down and see what station you are on, you have to press a button to bring up the display. All those square inches on the face of the stereo unused for any display. The steering wheel buttons are also hard to use. I have calluses from my profession and the bumps used to differentiate buttons are too small to easily feel.

The shifter has similar problems to the stereo. Having two separate controls to achieve what traditional shifters do with one causes problems. Having a control that does not stay in different positions, that moves back to the same position every time, means that you can not tell what gear you are in by feel. You have to look down at the display. With a conventional shifter you don't have to look down, you can tell what gear you are in by feel. Hopefully you learn to do all shifting by instinct and you don't have to think about shifting to do it. But a lifetime of using conventional shifters means you have to start from scratch when driving a Prius. Hopefully during this learning curve you aren't exposed in a life or death sudden decision event.

Same problems with the heater controls. Compare to a 1991 Civic where you can reach down and feel the controls and know exactly what is engaged. Not only can you not feel where the Prius heater is at, you can't just look down and see. Just like the stereo you have to press a button and wait for the display to come up. I don't like auto mode because the sudden and random engagement of full speed fan force is not desirable. The most often used controls when you are not in auto mode is fan speed and mode which have no steering wheel buttons. While the stuff that's rarely used do have buttons.

The display seems to waste screen space. The energy and consumption screens could be condensed into one screen and still probably have a strip at bottom and top to display the heater and stereo. IOW all features on one screen and not having to toggle between displays. Another possibility would be for the relevant screen to come up just by touching the same control without having a button just to bring up the screen.

Many of these complaints maybe are generic to digital controls in general. They are modern and seemingly more aesthetic but when it comes to use they are not always as functional. It seems though that modern technology should strive to be a real improvement and not just an image of one.

The other control/display complaint is no tach and no engine temperature, while not absolutely necessary, after years of having them they are missed. This will corrected with a scan gauge.

It's a given that with a high mileage vehicle you sacrifice power performance but why not have better handling? My 1991 Civic would beat the 2nd Gen Prius in the curves. The main problem is the non-independent rear suspension. I don't think the Prius would beat the Civic on the skid pad G's it just doesn't hold the freeway entrance ramps the same. And the body roll is also more than you would expect. Stiffer sway bars will fix the excessive roll but that's going to make the rear even more non-independent.

Lastly is performance issues. The mileage is really affected by ambient temp. I lose 5mpg or more going summer to winter. This vehicle really needs some temperature controlled louvers to shut off the airflow going to the radiator. I bet this could be realized for less expense than the coolant thermos bottle which gives marginal payback depending on what kind of driving you do.

That and some kind of indicator to know when you are getting into the actual brakes. When slowing down you want all the energy to go into regen. How do you know how hard to press the pedal when coming to a stop? Many times driving conditions dictate stopping as quickly as possible but still not going past regen into the actual brakes. Maybe there's something I haven't learned yet about how this works.

Lastly is visibility. I'm short and it seems like the seat is too low. I'm going to have to do the Corolla seat mod to achieve proper seat position. It may be just my imagination but compared to the Civic I think I've attempted lane changes when a car is there more often due to visibility issues. Looking at the glass the little black strip of cosmetic paint overhangs from the trim by 1/2" in front and 3/8" in back. I've also had the A-pillar plastic trim off and it does not come very close to the metal. So you are losing up to an inch of visibility around the pillars just for cosmetic reasons. In an intersection this is enough to hide a pedestrian and I find myself shifting head and body position just to always check.

Overall I still really like this car and wouldn't trade it for anything but a Prius C, and these complaints are mute since this car is no longer produced. But I think Toyota is sometimes too driven by the engineers just wanting to make something that's different and complex, and not something that puts practicality and functionality as a top priority.

 

Actually the gen 2 is perfect for me. Mileage, functionality, affordability. The only car I can imagine that would be better is only in my imagination, it doesn't exist. I just did a long post for the Toyota engineers if they're reading this. I work on Toyotas daily and think they are over engineered. Engineers sometimes tend to do that at the expense of practicality.

I do note that the Prius C went back to a conventional auto shifter.

 

Last paragraph, first sentence

 

I had a '91 Civic wagon with 280K miles, it was a rattle bucket and noisy even when new. Agree with you the Prius is much quieter. But the Civic wins in handling and visibility. The Prius wins in road noise, mileage, and crash safety.

I'm as used to the controls as I'm ever going to get. I would say they are merely adequate.

 

Damping has very little to do with excessive roll in a steady state corner, that's springs and roll bars.

Prius struts do not generally ever require changing is not an assertion, it's a fact. Unless you are saying 30 Toyota techs including 5 Masters and 4 Toyota parts guys with over 10 years Toyota experience each, are wrong. Prius struts/shocks are not a stocking item and never have been, that means they don't sell more than 2 every 6 months.

Additionally since shocks and struts are not a service item on ANY Toyota vehicle, if somehow they were failing before 60k the Toyota engineers at TAS would have put out a TSB telling us there was a problem.

Our service department is hurting with this economy and if there was reason to change struts we wouldn't be passing up that money. You are doing a dis-service to the Prius community telling them they need to change struts as a service item. If it's not dumping fluid it's not bad.

Do agree with you that handling and seating was compromised to achieve the superior mileage drivetrain at this price point.

 

Very noticeable how? Was there continued oscillation after a bump? Was there significant fluid leakage?

Did you do a bounce test side by side with a known good vehicle to see if damping was affected? Did you do a ride height measurement before and after to confirm spring sag?

We get 250K to 300K taxis in all the time. We've never seen any problem with struts or springs.