Prospective buyer: What changes could happen with 2017 Prius?

It's always been annually. Octoberish.

 

The DVDs run $150 and up. The Gen 4 Prius uses a more modern plug-in update process. I expect the price to be similar. TBD.

 

That is the big advantage of Waze - maps automatically updated on-the-fly

 

While I was doing farm work for dad in another state, last week, a couple ATVers drove up the farm road and past the house, looking for the recreational path to the public lands at the top of the mountain behind the farm. They had a printed out an online map showing 'appropriate' trails for their hobby.

The highlighted trail was one of step-granddad's logging roads built in 1952, but made impassable to four-wheel vehicles by a landslide about 1960. Two wheel vehicles could still have made it through during most of the later 20th century, if they brought along chainsaws to clear winter blowdowns and overgrowing brush. We usually cleared the blowdowns to maintain our access up to the boundary, but intentionally left to brush in place to keep out riffraff from the other side. This century, additional ground sloughing meant no passage for any wheeled vehicles.

I have looked at many online maps since the Internet Era started. Until recently, nearly all showed the same seriously obsolete USGS map info circa 1960, before the landslide. Now, a few have it right, but many still do not.

We pointed them out and around to a public access road that really does go up there, though now has serious erosion problems. Their map correctly showed the lower half of it, but lacked the upper half and the bumpy but passable road network that really is up there, and has been all my life.

 

I'd not get a model with integrated navi (or forego the option) and get a Tomtom Navi with HD traffic. They sell it here in EU with free lifetime maps updates and most importantly HD Real time traffic information (which works incredibly well, considering how chaotic a system traffic is in general). And after 2-3 years, if I want, I can buy a newer navi with the latest tech, which is something you cannot do with the integrated one, you are stuck with for the lifetime of the vehicle. Otherwise said, I am not a fan of current Navi implementations on any car. I prefer the huge flexibility of the portable ones.

 

the nav has 99.9% of the roads. if you carry a phone, you won't get lost.

 

i would say the majority use a vent clip. toyota is probably one of the worst companies for creating useful space.

 

+1

 

The Prius has a wonderful usable space right behind the steering wheel where typically all other cars have the instrument cluster. I have put my Navi exactly there, in front of my nose, in the line of sight of the HUD and traffic. I cannot see where else better I could put it in this car, compared to any other car with regular dashboards.
Because the surface is not flat, and not good for a suction cup, like in Gen3 I have applied a small adhesive disk, but there are many other options - see here.

 

Doesn't help when (1) the online maps are wrong, or (2) in areas without mobile phone service.

Lots of both where I go.

 

@booke02 mentioned earlier about one possible upgrade being a 12 volt outlet addition in the dash. That'd be nice, for those wanting to use an aftermarket Nav.

 

I resolved by using the one for the back seats, which is actually not that bad first because nobody will likely ever use it, and second because then I can have the navi supply cable run along the length of the center console up to the steering wheel. Luckily the cable is long enough
I don't use the outlet in the center console because I connect to it the Aux converter for the first gen iPod I have that is not recognised by the EU infotainment software via USB. As long as it lives, I will use the iPod and its 32 GB music are plenty for any travel

 

I got the HUD that is part of the Advanced Technology package. I wanted the HUD and a sunroof, so I had to get that package. I have to say that in my daughter's Escalade, I loved the HUD. In the Prius, I rarely use it. The NAV display is just a graphic that tells you which way your next turn is. That's all the NAV does for you in the HUD.

 

Ford Pinto was just as bad. Checked the local dealer lot and did not see a single Touring.

But we stop using our brain. Basic navigation skills are absent from our youth. Which way is East, North, West, and South? And how can you tell at night and on a cloudy day? The fun of getting lost and seeing something new.

Have to say Toyota and Honda have the best useful overall organized interior cabin space of any car as well as most Japanese cars.
(have not been in a Subaru in years). The US is catching up but the difference is we started the bigger is better fad and fell behind in efficient design of cars. Honda and Suzuki started with Bikes and moved up from those designs. I drove a Honda 250 in Guam that you mixed oil with the gas. It was rough driving BTW.

I hear you on the hanging a cell phone issue/ I always buy the Nav system since suction cups on the windshield did not work for me. How many of you have seen the Simpson's episode where he designed a car for his brother?

 

There is definitely something shifted in your brain when you follow navigation. I still use it, especially on vacation, strange city, but yeah, feel like a kid being dragged around by a "responsible adult", as they say in Britain.

 

yes, i mean specifically center console/dash. 4 prius generations, 4 poor layouts for the modern driver. same thing with camry. avalon had the strangest center console i've ever seen, and a total waste of a huge space.