Manual Seats? Traction Control?

the seats slide back and forth quite easily. my wife and i share cars at times as well. traction control works fine on snowy streets. if you're out in it all the time and need to be somewhere, you might consider snows.

 

I have lived now on Cape Cod, Philly and Boulder with my Prius and have not had an issue with traction control. As Bisco stated if it becomes an issue a set of snows will fix it.

 

It is much easier to 'peel out' in a v than it was in my Gen 2, the traction control is much less obtrusive.

 

I have never found that to be the case. An important aspect of a power seat is that it allows you to safely adjust it as you drive. The manual seat would be a much bigger issue if my wife wasn't the sole driver except every two to six weeks or so when I refuel and wash her Prius.

How do you do that? I've found that adjusting the ratchet and the seat position on its rails is a trial and error endeavor. I never seem to get it right and have to adjust it as I drive ... i.e. at stop lights or signs.

Selecting the seat memory from a key is nice but our Lexus LS and many other Lexus and Toyota vehicles have two or three seat memory buttons on the driver door. All one has to do is push his/her memory button and everything adjusts to fit the driver - outside mirrors, seat belt anchor height, steering wheel tilt and telescope and all aspects of the driver seat except lumbar support.

Our Prius v is the first vehicle made by Toyota we have bought that does not have a button to turn traction control off. With our other front and rear wheel drive vehicles including those having true winter tires (snowflake/mountain logo) the only way we have sometimes been able to get the vehicles to move at all in deep (6-12 inch) snow is to turn traction control off. The only reason it hasn't yet been a problem with our Prius is that the car is rarely driven and hasn't been needed during periods of heavy snow. We've been lucky so far but I assume that at some point my wife will get stranded and I'll have to rescue her.

Looking back, I think we would have been much better off with the highest specification Lexus CT200h instead of the Prius v Five/ATP. My wife thought she wanted a Prius and I didn't even think to show her the little Lexus even though all I've driven for the past 24 years are Lexus LS cars. Prices of the two cars aren't all that different and the CT200h had key features her 2012 Prius was missing - DRL, side turn signals and power driver and front passenger seats with the driver seat having memory settings.

 

these are two completely different classes of cars. how could you want either one and not one in particular? the lexus is not likely to have a traction off button either.

 

The more aggressive traction control is needed to prevent an accidental over speed of MG-1. In the previous generation Prius this happened at a lower speed. The newer generation has a different reduction gearing and a person is less likely to over speed the Motor Generators. However, the electric motors have a lot of torque at low speed which can cause the wheels to break loose in snow (and even gravel). To disable TC would be a hazard as you could cause MG-1 to over speed to destruction. There are several good posts on this site about how the Prius drive works.

 

Yup, the power seats would be a real nice addition. Our other car is an Avalon Limited with the memory buttons for the driver's seat. Really nice when swapping cars.
I can live with the manual........but it should be included in the V 5.
So far in New England....no traction issues. If they develop, a 4-set of snows will go on.........