Got rid of my Prius 'bathroom fixtures'

That's interesting - I've got a completely different wheel on mine:

 

our headlight stalk is on the left and the wiper stalk (hidden in the o/p pictures) is on the right. Is that what you mean?

 

TRUE - no, the style and texture of Jim's wheel (BELOW - FROM Original Post) was much plainer, no stitching, no different textures :

 

Jim's car has the Softex trimmed wheel, I believe. Mine looks a lot like yours, since we have a lower trim level.

 

Not sure - TOYOTA call it a "Leather Accented 3-spoke steering wheel" - "Steering Wheel type - Premium". It's the same on both base and the $9000 dearer i-Tech models.

I'm led to believe that TOYOTA's interpretation of Leather is "SOFTEX".

 

Softex is an artificial leather substitute.
New artificial leather gains increasing Toyota acceptance - SAE International

 

Something I've thrown up in.

 

I don't like the white accents either and that steering wheel makes me want to throw up, but it wouldn't stop me from owning one. The white would be easy to change, but that butt ugly steering wheel, I don't know if I'd ever get used to it.

 

Some people have plasti dipped the steering wheel.
I believe Tideland Prius found a Japanese kit for the steering wheel with the side & lower pieces. He said the side pieces would not work on US steering wheels due to different button layouts.

 

Yes, the plasti dip would work to change the color, but it still looks like something that belongs on a GM something.

 

Your Fuelly link in your signature is broken.

 

One time when my wife and I had just wrapped a grocery shopping trip, we were at the hatch with the buggy: I'm loading bags into the hatch, and Dear Wife is absent mindedly lifting them outa the hatch and putting them back in the buggy. This went on for 10~15 seconds, till we both woke up and started cracking up.

Anyway, this seems analogous to the situation, Toyota beavering away, putting out all these white dashes, and owners busily coming up with ways to get rid of them.

 

Definitely a Canadian term there!

 

Don't know about you, but once I'm in the driving seat and everything's the way I want it, the steering wheel and white trimming is not something I look at, dwell on, or even think about. You could try simply concentrating on your driving and other traffic! That doesn't give my old brain much room for much else.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't always be looking at it, but just like a dent or a scratch, I'd know it's still there.

 

Distracting is a good way to put it.

 

…or bad!

 

I suppose it must be like your tongue keeping on feeling the gum where you just lost a tooth.

 

PLASTI-DIPPING would destroy the heat reducing properties of the steering wheel - I've certainly noticed that it feels appreciably cooler than other surfaces on a hot day:

"The steering wheel features synthetic leather with temperature-regulating properties"

 

Why would you grab it by the lower spoke? I doubt that being white cools the rest of the wheel.
I know you drive from the wrong side of the car, but I assumed you used the steering wheel the same way we do, although upside down