New Prime Owners: (Things discovered/Likes/Dislikes)

As you age, your high frequency hearing deteriorates anyway.

 

I can still hear 18kHz, and when I started I could hear 22kHz.

 

HEY!!!! who you calling OLD!!!!

 

Quick shift into neutral---double tap the shifter knob to the left twice. I have no idea why this is included in addition to holding the shifter to the left for a second or two to find neutral. (I only use neutral in the car wash.)

 

I love the auto bright headlights feature! The Prius Prime (I have the Plus) will sense same direction traffic taillights and opposite direction traffic headlights and if none are within range, turn on my brights. It's freakin' cool!

I specifically avoided trims with the large tablet touch screen because of it's difficult UI. I LOVE the radio, menus, and physical A/C and audio controls on the Plus trim.

I LOVE the Plus trim. No bad UI oversized tablet, real physical AC/Audio controls, CD/DVD player. Advanced was 6k more for leather seats and some safety features; I recommend the Plus or Premium Trim....PLUS is best; avoids that awful tablet in dash. : )

My wife and I stayed away from the Premium and Advanced solely to avoid the awful tablet. When we test drove the Plus trim we knew we found not only a car of great value, priced $6k below Advanced but one that was more user friendly - that tablet sucks. - I'm sure updates will improve its UI....hopefully sooner for folks than later : )

We brought the Plus version specifically because of the awful UI of the tablet available on Premium and Advanced trims and to avoid $6k more in price for essentially leather seats and some extra safety features.

I love my Plus Prius Prime.

I agree, wish it had 5 seats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prius Plus Prime

Pros:

1. No annoying tablet! Can use A/C and sound controls with physical knobs and buttons with great intuitive user interface.
2. $6k less than Advanced; fake leather seats and some extra superfluous features were clearly not worth the price my family and I realized after test droving all trim levels.
3. LOVE auto high beam feature
4. LOVE adaptive cruise control
5. Enjoy lane assistant and small steering help
6. I like that it's a quieter cabin than my previous car, a 2012 Prius C
7. I like the voice commands
8. Wonderful added space for the back seat passengers.
9. Good audio system
10. I enjoy the new EV options and finally the ability to go 84 mph with complete electric power.

Cons:
1. Lane Assistant should be better and designed for lane center driving for increased autonomy
2. Steering assist is really cool, but too weak and too inconsistent.
3. No blind spot monitoring on the 'Plus' trim side mirrors. But it wasn't worth $6k more to get it by getting the Advanced with that poopy tablet.

Great car!!!!!!

 

Pianohawk, sounds like you really don't like the 11.6" screen.

 

Shifter knob ?

 

It is likely there for panic shifting in the rare event of SUA.

Is nub a better term for the Prius shifter stalk?

 

I've had the car for a week now and like just about everything with the car. However trying to learn so many things armed with about 1000 pages of owner's manuals is really asking a lot from customers. Toyota should have provided about 10 times more training videos on YouTube that they have currently provided.

It's very difficult to look up things in the manuals if you don't know the precise Toyota terms for them.

My biggest disappointment is with the Entune system and the iPhone app for it. It could be me, but so far it looks like the functions and abilities of the system are about 5 years behind what I can do on my iPhone itself ... And I'm sure the system added $2k to the cost of the Advanced model. It seems to take a dozen steps using voice commands just to make a phone call. Even then it gives me the wrong result and I have to start over. At this point I'm thinking I should just tape my iPhone across the 11" screen. Looks like it will work fine for that.

 

No you aren't.

 

so i had the pri

My loaner vehicle was a Prius Prime Plus and i had some thoughts on your screen.

It's small and old school. The interface and graphics are archaic. Forget about using that navigation. It's not user friendly nor does it show a lot of information like the larger screen. I also think the look of the smaller navigation doesn't highlight the technology found in the prius prime.
Some minor differences i noticed. Cloth seats. They don't feel very solid compared to the leatherette. No charging pad. If you want it you don't have it. No lock on the charging cable. Anyone can pull your charging cable out and walk away with it.

The voice commands are terrible. I end up using siri - (holding the call button) to make calls or to send voice texts, etc.

 

I notice there's a secret MicroSD port on the big screen. But why can't we just...Have a USB Screen Mirror onto the tablet with an app that shows more info on the car..........

 

someone needs to hack it. i would just love if someone figured out how to mirror a mobile phone screen.

 

I'd really like to replace the startup/shutdown animations with my own video clips. I have a nice one of a party boat on the Thames heading under Blackfriars Bridge with a bunch of drunks singing "Sweet Caroline". In my 2012 they let you put your own photos in as a replacement for a Toyota splash screen at start up.

 

so a few new thoughts after a few weeks with the car.

Likes
Steering - im surprised nobody has commented on this. it's very euro like. I never cared for honda toyota steering as it felt very soulless in fact i think most of their cars are just boring to drive.
gas mileage my 45 mile one way gets me 97+ mpg - very awesome. and i get to charge from work.

dislikes
the charging pad is a slow trickle charge and it doesn't quite fit my iphone 6 plus very well.
navigation is just way being the likes of waze and google maps. It's perplexing that they show you upcoming streets; no that's not confusing :rollyees: . i also don't like how the top screen shows navigation when not in use. They need to change that on the next update.

 

Hopefully their software is flexible like Tesla's...