Is Toyota taking a step backwards? I think so.

I think 3 Gen Pruis is great! It has so many advanced technologies that you can find (or can not find) only in luxury cars. I love my V, it drives great, gives a lot smoother drive on rough roads and it feels more stable during wind than a Subaru I had before. It has an amazing fuel saving and energy converting technology. I've never seen a car that gets 80+ MPG in town driving and 60+ MPG on highway driving yet it has enough power when needed. And I love my navigation and voice system and because of all these and many more other reasons I think Toyota is definetely stepping forward with its innovative yet resource saving ideas! After all, with all these advanced items, what would you need an expensive looking interior and other little cosmetic things for?

 

I would have never bought a Prius if it wasn't for the redesign. The GEN II in my eyes was one of the ugliest cars on the road (no offense to any of the owners) and the interior did zip for me as well. The only thing I worry about with the GEN III is how well the interior plastics will hold up over time, they seem to scratch easily.

 

That would be nice if it actually happened.

 

Toyota gave the American buyer a lessor product then it sells in other parts of the world, and it did cheapen the interior electronics, Europe get USB on the radio, Europe gets HUD, among other things. Many car mags and reporters, along with Prius enthusiasts have complained about how backwards the new dash screen is, looks like they went back to low res 1980's computer monitors.

 

Uh, then don't buy one. Seriously, if someone prefers the NHW20 over the ZVW30, it is a free country so buy the one that makes you happy. But I don't go to other car forums and complain about how I don't like their cars because such behavior is so trollish.

Seriously, I don't understand why anyone would care about someone who doesn't like the ZVW30. Sure, many of us do but it really doesn't do a whole lot of good to 'argue' style. Nothing in this post addresses what I admire in the 2010 Prius:

This photo shows the exhaust coolant heating pipes and the cooled exhaust recirculation tap from the exhaust manifold. The coolant heating provides improved warm-up and winter operation. The cooled exhaust provides higher power at a leaner mixture.

Also:

The transaxle is smaller and due to gears and improved lubrication, lower rolling drag than the ones in the NHW20 and NHW11.

Also,

The absence of a belt by using an electrically powered, water pump reduces coolant system drag at low power settings. It also replaces the belt that does wear out with an electric motor and pump assembly that should have significantly longer life. Then there is that 1.8L engine, which delivers faster acceleration yet nearly +5 MPG mileage. Nothing wrong about that puppy.

So overall, there are many nice things about the ZVW30 that are hidden behind the sheet metal. The heart and soul of the machine, as it were.


Bob Wilson

 

I prefer the 2010 with the FE stuff up closer to my line of sight.

-Jay

 

Let's assume you do regular oil changes @ 5000, somewhere around $25. Synthetic oil changes @ 10K, somewhere around $50-60.

So you are saying the added protection is not worth an extra $10 over 10K miles?

On a separate note,
European Prius are more expensive than the US ones, 19090 pound is the cheapest Prius you can buy in the UK. I think under today's conversion rate, it is somewhere around $30K!!!!!!!! I would hope they get more options

 

I think Gen II people are kinda jealous of the Gen III. May be because they are no longer the kings of MPG on the road. LOL

 

Not so much.

 

Not really, was interested in the Gen III, but what I found was pretty sad for an upgrade, its bigger, badder, meaner, but its less then the world gets, and I want all the bells and whistles. Just like the Gen II got less then the world did, no self parking, and no adjustable seats, it was less, and we are the bigger market, yet we deserved less?

I'm happy for all the ones that love the Gen III, its a nice car, but its still less in the electronics department, why do you need to add and pay more for a plug for USB, why wasn't it part of the radio like they do everywhere else? Why didn't we get HUD and auto light? Why are the screen graphics low res instead of bigger, badder, meaner? Yet they nickel and dime the US market, and give us less.

 

Is it possible to get 80+ MPG with a Prius? How? I think 60+ MPG is hard enough. Of course, I am talking about MPG over some substantial distance, not instantaneous MPG. My 2001 Passat has a better trip-computer that shows instantaneous MPG. It can get more than 200 MPG in few seconds when going down hill.

Please tell me the trick. Thanks.

 

When I saw one day a guy posted here his display screen shot with 85 MPG, I had same question as you have here thinking there's no way to get to that high, how did he do it?
Because at that time I hadn't tried to reset to a new trip and start everything at 0. And after I did that and drove around a town for about 10 miles with avarage speed of 30-40MPH, I was able to see it getting average 83.4MPG for that trip. Of course that's what I saw on the screen so the real one is probably around 80.
Next day I reset it again had another 30 mile trip with driving on freeway and highway and it only went up to average of 67 MPG. But of course it went down significantly today on the same roads to 50s since it has been a snowy cold day here.
No it wasn't an instant MPG number as I saw my instant MPG indicator going up a lot when I coast/ slow down little bit and went down when I accelerate. But one thing I should mention here is that I was able to acheve these high MPG averages only when I drove at min speed limit or little less than that which is not always my driving style as I do have a hectic busy schedule most of the time!

 

Not the serious hypermilers. They still do better in GenII. Or in the Insight-I. Or even in a Civic Hybrid, though only on the highway.

But average drivers clearly do better in the GenIII.

 

Hi TPC,

Go google "MYCANSCAN". It looks unwieldy at first, but when the car is working that display, it becomes very easy to use. Because the display changes color with the values. You do not need to read the text after a while, as you know that, for example, Olive-Drab RPM bar is 1800 RPM, and the RPM bar is in the lower right corner of the display.

Color cues are the solution to the modern hybrid dashboard. And Toyota went backward by making all one color.

 

Is there any logical reason for the hypermilers doing better with the Gen II?

 

That's really interesting... could you elaborate a bit more? I did notice that the Gen III was smoother when the engine came on and off, but there's probably a lot of stuff that I'm unaware of.

 

Like this post? Beware that it was my personal response to the VW TDI Tank Wars, whose rules suffer from a very serious deficiency in not requiring a round trip. This trip had a slight elevation loss, about 6000 feet. The uncropped photo meets all the contest rules except for that it wasn't created with a TDI, so it won't be posted there. My best display results are about 77 mpg for a single cold-start round trip, and 60 mpg for a full tank round trip.

The best hypermilers can peg a GenII at 99.9 mpg for a whole tank, without elevation loss. But the speeds are lower than what most Americans find useful.

Lighter car, smaller engine, and it leaves more control to the driver. A wonderful thing about the GenIII is that it seems to have automated more of that things that hypermilers do to achieve their high mpgs, so that average drivers can get the benefits without effort. But it took some of the control away from the best HMers, without doing quite as well as they can.

GenII has been out long enough figure out nearly everything about its operation and discover some Easter Eggs. GenIII knowledge is not yet similarly mature.

 

What control does the G2 have over the G3 that makes them better for the HMers?