Prius 2016 - UK business users question

How does it work with other cars? Are there vehicles that have sat-nav and less than 76g (except for electric ones)?
That seems a pretty steep taxing system to me

 

You might want to consider the UK Prius forums with that question of yours.

Hybrid / Toyota Prius - Toyota Owners Club - Toyota Forum

 

welcome! some of us here would be interested in the outcome if you don't mind sharing, thank you.

 

Company car tax is a nightmare. I also think it's how Toyota UK spec their cars. If they insist on sat nav being on their top end and expensive models, then it costs more in car tax for the owner. If Ford put it on their lower spec cars, then it makes them more attractive to some. But it's horses for courses. Some insist on sat nav, others prefer other stuff.

 

Actually, if it's only satnav you are after you can buy the Base model and add a third party Pioneer, Kenwood or similar unit. That will cost you about 600£, but it will still be cheaper then the option and that 3rd party unit will probably be better than Toyota one. You still get to keep wheel commands, and most units even have reverse camera. My unit died in the gen3 and that's what I'll do. Original unit is over 2000£. For that price you can get a HiFi setup, subwoofer and change all the speakers in the car ffs. I'd why it's so expensive.

 

I would in general never advise to get a built-in Sat Nav - it is expensive, obsolete when you buy it and obsoletes fast within a couple of years from purchasing. I'd rather spend 300€ every 2-3 years to get the latest and greatest in technology and not depend from a company, Toyota or whomever else, to provide me with technology they don't really know much about, that 1k-2k€ for a Sat-Nav that is nothing special and old.

Repairs of in-built Sat-Navs are really expensive, typically offer no live traffic services (like e.g. TomTom HD traffic - which I must say works extremely well), it is not possible to really upgrade hardware, and software upgrades are not really that often.

I'd get the model without it, and simply install a removable (for looks?) state-of-the-art portable Sat Nav which BTW in the Prius can sit nicely right in front of you, on the dash, in line-of-sight. Or install the latest app, on a phone that is rarely more than 2-3 years old and runs apps and gets information faster than any built-in Sat-Nav ever will.

The only benefits of an in-built Sat-Nav are convenience (they cannot really be stolen if "forgotten") and precision in tunnels/lack of signal areas (like indoors or garages) as they are connected to the wheels and steering wheel. In all the years I have owned an external portable Sat-Nav, never really felt a burden not having both.

 

From what I can tell Toyota is aware of this issue. If you look at the car broker sites like drivethedeal you will find that there is an option listed to downgrade the Business or Excel models to have 15" wheels, and save some money in the process. I'm assuming this is to drop under the co2 threshold. Good news if this the case

Appears to be about £4K of discount available including £1K contribution from Toyota if taking their finance.

 

Agree completely with the post above.
You can get really fancy unit for the price of the inbuilt one. And i mean REALLY fancy, like top-of-the-line.

 

When thinking about the inbuilt headunit replacement, let consider that you will loose some car integrated info systems and setup screens. We will see when real cars arrive to showrooms.

 

On the Gen3 you lost about nothing except for voice commands, but if the 3rd party head unity has voice commands (and many do) - you loose nothing. And you can move that head unit to the new vehicle if you ever decide to sell the current one. You will save about 1000GBP by going for cheapest head unit and then replacing it btw.

merged.

I have a Prius that would be a V in US, but I have 15" wheels. It was bought in Italy. Could it be that this is similar?
I even prefer 15" more since they have higher mpg and supposedly better ride quality, and tires are very cheap in the 195/65/R15 size.