RE: 2011 Prius lll

Re: 2011 Prius lll

Hey there.

What do you mean Prius III with options? From what I've seen while shopping for my Prius, Prii # are a set of predefined options that you cannot change. Like you want the moonroof, it's III. Nav and leather? That's V (and a 9500$ surplus). And so on. But I might be mistaken.

Here's what I think.

I wouldn't take Navigation. It must cost more than 1000$ I guess if you can add it as a standalone option (if not, 9500$ for the V package)? Get and Android phone, you'll get the best navigation system out there, Google Navigation (there probably are some good ones on iPhones too I imagine).

The moonroof/solar panels, while awesome and terribly good looking, only do cooling, no heati- oh you're in L.A., then it's fine and dandy.

About alarms, are you sure you need that? You already have a very good anti-start (ok, not sure about the correct english terminology here) system with any stock Prius. I think alarms are pretty much to scare people from stealing the stuff inside your car (even though once your glass is broken, it takes seconds to take your iPod). And people are desensibilized to alarms. You must hear a lot of them each day in L.A. and don't care about it.

And yeah.
At first I wanted a Prius III (dat moonroof), but then I saw that it wouldn't heat the car (it's cold most of the time here). The Prius IV was the same price, but I only got a ton of stuff I didn't need : bluetooth, floor lights, plastic covers, 6-discs CD player (oh come on, 6 discs? I have a single disc CD player and I don't know what to do with it). So I got a base package and am utterly satisfied (got it two weeks ago).

Oh well, back to work I guess.

 

Re: 2011 Prius lll

Navigation: Up to you. For me I don't need it because my phone has it. But there are times when it is handy to have the car monitoring you versus the phone monitoring you. We have Toyota navigation in the RX and it works just fine if you are sensible. There will always be complainers, but it has never failed to get me somewhere. When in the Prius, I just use my phone. Of course you can get a stickon like a Garmin/TomTom but I think that looks silly. It just shows that you are a cheap *** or made a stupid decision and had to get something to make it work later on. If you want nav, get it.

Alarms: Useless. When was the last time you heard an alarm, stopped what you were doing, and called the police? Never. They are ignored. The only purpose they serve is to go off at 3am and annoy the neighbourhood. What are you trying to protect? Your stuff inside? Too bad, by the time the alarm goes off and you get there, the thieves would have already grabbed all your goodies. You trying to prevent your car from being driven off? Well it can't be because it has one of the most advanced starting systems in any vehicle. It will not start without the smart key. And someone can flatbed the most well protected vehicle if they really want it. Alarms are useless, for show only. And if you see that blinky light on the dash it just says "hey I have something special and something worth protecting, come smash my window!"

All those "options" are dealer added to boost their profit. Go to Toyota.com, pick out the package you want, then call dealers and say "I want a Prius BLAH, what's your out the door pricing". Or internet research, or if you have AAA then use it. I have heard good things about the truecar network as well.

 

Re: 2011 Prius lll

I like the navigation with the BlueTooth. I know I'm in the minority here but I don't want to do one single aftermarket thing to my car. I just wanted to get in and drive and never look back! I'm in the LA area too and I got a fair price using AutoNation Direct and they pulled my car from stock at Buena Park Power Toyota. They negotiate the price for you and arrange for financing if you need it. Car lots give me the heebie jeebies so I just wanted to do everything over the phone or email. Once I got the car delivered I got a call from the dealership to come by learn how the BlueTooth and stuff works. Call David over there...he seems to know a lot about Prius and drives one himself. Endless enthusiasm about the subject: (714) 522-6144. Diane from Carson Toyota is also posting Pri's she's offering at her dealership but that didn't work for me. I emailed her about what I was looking for a few weeks ago and where I lived/worked and never heard back from her. In this economy I don't want to have to chase down people to take my money.

 

Re: 2011 Prius lll

Besides the cost of the nav system, updates for OEM nav systems all are pretty expensive. At last check, Toyota wants $199 for a single update DVD. I don't know what the prices will be for the 2012 models.

Compare that to prices like these:
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-n%C3%BCMaps-Lifetime-America-Updates/dp/B001PKTFM8
http://www.amazon.com/Garmin-n%C3%BCvi-3-5-Inch-Portable-Navigator/dp/B001U0O7QW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1320371033&sr=1-1

That said, I like having a built in nav system as it's so much more convenient (no need to take it out, put it away, hook up cables, it's always there, etc.). Then there's the larger screen, split screen views and integration (i.e. temporarily reducing volume of left speaker while announcing directions, silencing music when pushing voice command button, etc.).

But, I'm still on the original nav DVD that came w/my 06 as I'm loathe to pay so much to update it. I probably will eventually, but likely won't be happy about the price.

 

Re: 2011 Prius lll

I bought my Prius from Dianne a month ago and it worked really well. I emailed her and she answered almost within minutes, no price or up-sell from her at all.

I went with the nav package. I have two other options - a droid phone and a Garmin hand-held GPS I use for hiking and geotagging. However, both need two people - one to drive the car and one to manage the GPS. I like having the talking voice and it's pretty quick to recalculate the route if you go off it. The thing I really love around Los Angeles is that (with XM traffic) it will tell you if there's a slow-up ahead, and it's a much larger display so you can see ahead better/see more real estate around you. I'm very glad I got it. I think long-term I might regret not getting the solar roof, but we don't really need it as much as others might (we park in a parking structure at work). But it would have been nice.

 

Re: 2011 Prius lll

2k1Toaster, are you me?