Telescoping steer wheel

Boy, I wish it did. I looked at my no-package '06 and wasn't able to find it. Could use it, too.

 

Nope! I wish it did, but it doesn't.

 

Both my wife and I consider the lack of telescoping steering column to be the major shortcoming (pun alert!) of Prius user comfort. We both immediately complained about it to one another upon first trying to drive the thing.

As for whether telescoping or height adjustment should come "first" as features, who cares? It's not a contest between the two features -- both should be present on every car other than perhaps the very most basic of cheapo models.

 

Ok, I'm going to dig an old thread, but for a good reason - partly to highlight a glaring issue with 2010 Prius steering wheel placement (I already made a suggestion for future improvement).

This may be a mundane, obvious, non-technical post, but I have some firsthand experience with seat / steering wheel ergonomics and mods on the 2nd Gen seat.

1) The placement between a steering wheel and foot pedals pretty much dictates where you can go with the driver's seat. I don't care if you seat slide 4 feet back or like some joke about, take out the driver's seat and sit in the back - it's the steering wheel that allows legroom.

My 2009 Prius seat can slide 2.5" further back and can go 2" lower than any other stock Prius seat in North America. Guess what? At the end of the day, I can only pull off sliding 5/8" further back (1 click) more than a stock seat - anything further is a lousy reach to the steering wheel.

Now, I can lower about the full 2" and that works really well. So, height adjuster for me is crucial (I would have sold the car by now without it).

read on ....

 

.... so the 2010 Prius can now height adjust and slide back a couple inches further ... great, but there's a glitch - The steering wheel is not placed close enough / doesn't telescope enough for the really tall folks.

When I slide just about all the way back in the 2010, the steering wheel does not telescope nearly enough - the reach is ridiculously far.

Ok, some might say - that's because safety reasons, so the airbag doesn't bang your chest, blah, blah .... BS.

I can sit in a slew of cars - Accord, Camry, VW Jetta, Civic, and others with dialed in ergonomics - slide the seat fully back and the steering wheel is close to a good reach.

I have to slide the new Prius seat 3 clicks from full back to get a good reach to wheel. The legroom is then ok, but should be better.

A 2010 Civic has better seating to me than the new Prius, but in other ways it falls short.

Hopefully Toyota will make the seating even better in the 4th Gen Prius.