Too Many Forums?

Different body, different electronics, different final drive ratio, no bridge, different rear seats.

Mind you, I press "What's New?" and ignore which forum it is.

 

Maybe not too many forums specifically...

But so many new car buyers get on here and act like we're their replacement for reading the owner's manual or doing a Google search.

And as Prius culture ages, we're gonna have (already have) a culture clash between people who throw away huge amounts of money buying new vs. diy geeks who are buying and maintaining older cars for the minimum amount of money possible...

I wish there was some way to put all the brand new car buyers in a place where they don't keep creating new threads of little substance and keep asking obvious questions that have been answered again and again and really don't advance our community in a meaningful way. I mean how many people on here want to yet again tell a rich person that they shouldn't spend $2000 on an extended warranty?

Prius chat needs to keep the focus on assisting/rescuing people who own older cars that are faced with troubleshooting problems, as well as escaping exorbitant dealer repair when massively less expensive alternatives exists. Also people doing their own mods is really cool, but new car owner, yuck! They're such snobs!

Point being we have high-income debt-foolish brand new Prius owners that are not cut of the same cloth as DIY car owners that want to keep their old Prius running for as long as possible. It's a huge culture clash, that at times turns into mini-skirmishes and I'd like PriusChat to be set up so it's easier to avoiding starting this kind of culture war.

 

I started out reading only the C forums, but quickly realized that there's not all that many major differences between the various models and years, and that all of the forums have at least some useful information for everyone. So I too use "What's New?" almost exclusively now.

 

Your post was not about any Prius, it was about how the website is organized, it is not my fault you posted it incorrectly.

Same body, additional electronics, same final drive ratio, same no bridge, same rear seats with different covering.

I can only assure you that the Prius C owners are very dismissive about help from Gen 2 owners despite having the same ICE, viewed at many levels Gen 2, Gen 3, c, v, and PIPs are similar. (Gen 1 does seem to be end of life, and have unique questions about how long to throw money at an aging car)

Prius owners ability to create duplicate topics is in no way limited even when in the same forum. If your theory was true we would only have 4 threads on how to turn off the reverse beep, rather than the 4 a day we really have.*

*slight exaggeration for effect (after naming the Prius v the same as the Prius V, making the reverse beep only audible inside the vehicle is the worst choice Toyota ever made)

 

Umm, please count me out of that group of C owners...

 

i just use 'what's new' as well. and check the pip forum once in a while.

 

Ditto.

IMHO, I think your opinion is in the minority.

I do think there should be a general Prius area for non-generation/non-model specific Prius discussion (e.g. posts about upcoming Toyota test drive events where they have multiple members of the family available for test drive).

However, generally, it's best to separate them. Lumping them all together can create way too much traffic in an area as well as lots of confusion and lots of back/forth to figure out what someone has (if they don't indicate). It also encourages people w/a different generation or model to chime in w/information that's not correct.

Example: Prior to Gen 3, no US Priuses ever had a factory EV button. The EV, power, and eco buttons didn't exist until Gen 3. Hybrid system indicator (HSI), solar roof, LKA, LDW, DRCC, HUD, A2DP music streaming, traffic on nav system, 17" wheels are all new to Gen 3. Color LCD was standard on all Gen 1s and 2s, but went away from being standard on the Gen 3 liftback.

None of the Prius family members other than the v wagon have sliding rear seats. The dashboard and controls between each of the current Prius family members (except the PiP vs. liftback) are very different. Add Gen 1 and 2 in there, for more differences.

A common problem w/06-09 was the (D4R) HID headlights. Well, they don't exist anymore on any Prius starting w/model year 2010.

On Gen 2, one could have no SKS or 3-door SKS (I'd wager most Gen 2's have the latter). On Gen 3, it became 1-door or 3-door SKS (all Gen 3's have at least 1-door SKS included). But, on Prius c, SKS isn't standard.

On Gen 2, one can turn off the backup beep via a sort of "dance" (of button pushes). On Gen 3 (at least '10 and '11), one has to use Techstream or appropriate tool via the OBD 2 port.

 

The OP is absolutely right. The c, v, and Plug-in are all Gen III Prius cars. The forums would be much better organized if there were Prius c and Prius v sub- sections in the Gen III forum, next to the existing Plug-in Prius sub- section. The other areas, such as Technology, Maintenance and Audio, should be shared among all the Gen III Prius cars.

 

I think it was a good decision to keep Plug-in Prius with the Prius hatchback, as too few are sold to justify five complete topic areas.

 

Well I would like to see the NHW11 promoted to 'peer' with the other Prius forums . . . unless of course we ever sell it. <GRINS>

Bob Wilson