Most Obscure Gen III Facts (way out there)

I had to wait until night to find this. When you get close enough to the car for smart keys to be detected, the world's smallest LED will blink on the key fob. The indentation on the fob is so small, I would have never seen it otherwise.

 

As posted in the Gen II thread of the same name, for, at least on the Australian models, the passenger side mirror is smaller that the driver side mirror. Basically the same height, but narrower.

Spotted this when having a look at the Gen III at my local dealer.

 

Make a well defined "tap" on your U.S. cruise control (both up or down) to get a very reliable 1 mph speed change in the desired direction.

If I'm going from a 70mph zone to a 60mph zone and I was at 70, I'll tap it 6 times is quick succession to go to 64mph (the speed I like for 60mph zones).

This keeps my eyes on the road, keeping everyone safe, and works fantastically. Try it!

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When you depress the rear hatch release button it unlocks all the doors and opens the hatch.

That may sound like a 'no-duh' statement, :der: but on my GenII, the first press unlocked all doors, and a second press would unlatch the hatch. I made good use of that 'feature' every day when leaving work: I'd walk around behind the car, hit the latch handle on my way by, and then open the back door to put my laptop on the back seat. The first time I tried that on my '10, I found myself driving with the hatch unlatched (which caused some wild warnings to appear) Now I'll need a new strategy; maybe reprogram my door locks so the driver's door unlocks all doors.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure there's a time factor involved. If you press and release the rear hatch button quickly, it only unlocks. The unlock will either be the hatch-only or all the doors, depending on how the custom functions are programmed. Then, continuing to hold the button longer or pressing it a 2nd time will actually open the hatch. At least that's how I think it is supposed to work. Have to go try it again to be sure.

 

On mine I noticed the frequency response changes a bit when it's enabled. I admit the volume does not change much, but the sound is clearer when driving on the highway. Very useful in my opinion.

On cars with Bluetooth, the microphone is used for this feature as well, in addition to the speed signal. For example, on highway 407 in Toronto, the concrete surface make a distinctive high pitched noise. The radio cranks up the high notes so I can still hear them.

 

Most car's do that. But here's a cool one. HOLD the cruise control on the + or - setting and watch the car regen brake down or accelelerate up linearly until you reach your new desired speed. Now THAT most cruise controls in other cars do NOT do.

 

I don't know about the standard cruise control, but with the Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) (in the Prius V w/ATP) if you hold the cruise control lever up or down for a second or so, the set speed increases or decreases to the next even multiple of 5 MPH.

For example, if the cruise control is set to 51 MPH, holding the lever up changes the set speed to 55 MPH. If you continue to hold the lever, it increases the set speed by 5 MPH increments.

Also, with the DRCC, you can set the cruise control to your desired speed, even though the traffic is holding you at a lower speed. For example, if you are currently traveling at 55 MPH and the speed limit is 65 MPH, you can set the cruise control to 65 MPH (by holding the lever up) and, when the traffic clears, the car will automatically accelerate to 65 MPH.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried again today, and found that it is possible to unlock the doors from the hatch without unlatching the hatch itself... just like in the Gen II. However, the delay between unlock and unlatch is much shorter than it was on my '07.

Because it's so touchy (no pun intended), I'm not sure I'll continue using the hatch as a way to unlock the doors if I'm not opening it; unless you hear the 'click', there's no way to know it's unlatched, which is quite likely since the parking lot at work is adjacent to an Interstate (I don't always hear the 'beep' when locking it.) And after having driven once with the hatch not secured, I don't want to do that again.

So for now I've reprogrammed the locks to have the driver's door unlock all doors, and also changed the lock/unlock behavior. So I'll try it this way for a while and see how it works-out.

 

Not too many people know or realize this:

The factory leather in the IV and V consists of real leather, synthetic leather and vinyl.

Perforated and all "visible" smooth seating surfaces (including front of headrests) = real leather
Undersides and back of seats/headrests = vinyl
Door panel inserts and console = synthetic leather

To confirm this, run your hand over both the side seating cushion supports (with plain leather) and the underside of the seats and you can feel the difference between leather and vinyl. Same goes with the headrests, you tell the difference between front surface and the back by touch. The door panel inserts and console have smaller grains than the real leather on seating surfaces, which suggests synthetic leather (although it's difficult to tell by feel alone).

 

You pair the audio separately from the phone pairing. I stream from my iphone to my speakers when selecting the BT tab on the audio screen.

 

Was playing around on a drive to town and the cruise control will lock in at 25mph. Never had a car that would lock in under 35mph.

 

You must have NAV. PriusIII has no NAV, as he said in his post. BT music streaming, and the ability to pair the phone for audio, is only supported on the NAV unit. PriusIII was describing a bug in non-Nav units that emulates BT music streaming.

 

This is common with most non-luxury cars... leather is used only on areas which supports the body...

 

It's even common on luxury cars, unless it's all the leatherette that Mercedes and BMW use.

 

Sorry, yes I have nav.

 

At least Lexus does leather everywhere and 100% real wood panels.

 

I don't own these models, but these use vinyl on undersides and back of seats/headrests? Really?