2007 Prius nags

Since flaming is allowed . . .
Welcome to Priuschat, Ray!

SOUND: JVC or JBL? :huh: To each their own with perceived quality of sound. Me personally, for best sound quality, I don't expect to hear it in a car. Even the low end model is good enough for most, considering the enviroment.

SEATS: At first they seemed annoying to me . . . now I love them. Maybe you will 'adjust' too.

NAV: You aren't the first to complain. Good suggestion on having a beep announce the next turn rather than the nag voice. (Sometimes Toyota reads these suggestions and does something with them . . . this is a good safety suggestion)

EV MODE: Install the EV MOD.

LOCKS: Auto locking a car with key fobs may lead to instances where the driver walks away thinking the car will lock itself . . . the Prius will not lock the doors if a key fob is left inside. That is why Toyota would rather you push the little lock buttons on the front door handles, on the hatch, or on the key fob. If there is a key fob inside, the car will complain, and Toyota is hoping you are paying attention, rather than just walking away.


[This bit of civility will momentarily be interrupted with flaming . . . Nah, this is the Main Forum, not Fred's House of Pancakes. ]

 

The car unlocks just by approaching it? Mine (2006 pkg #7) doesn't unlock until I slip my hand in one of the front door handles or the rear hatch handle.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sufferin' Prius Envy @ Oct 21 2006, 05:41 AM) [snapback]336042[/snapback]</div>

I'm an audiophile and musician and I do a lot of listening in my vehicles -- so perhaps I'm not included in your "most" but I also find the bass to be lacking...not in volume per se but clarity.

On the other hand, the seats work for me and I have a couple of blown lumbar discs. Our subie that we traded for the Prius was awful on the back -- guess it's a very individual thing. But would like to have adjustable lumbar.

 

I was hoping they might have fixed the bug with the random mode when you're listening to a CD for '07 but I guess it's still there. That has always bugged the hell out of me.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vbisbest @ Oct 21 2006, 03:45 AM) [snapback]336040[/snapback]</div>

I saw on a thread somewhere on this site that people disabled the speaker that sits atop the MFD. I did that and it seemed to help with sound quality a bit. although the bass is still horrible.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vbisbest @ Oct 21 2006, 03:45 AM) [snapback]336040[/snapback]</div>

At some poin the memory of how comfortable the seats were in my Saab faded away and the Prius seats started feeling fine. Yet the drivwrs seat still bothers me as it sits too high up and I would like to lower it to better my view. But someone on here did that and I would never be able to fisure all that out. If you have a chance search for the thread, it is pretty amazing!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vbisbest @ Oct 21 2006, 03:45 AM) [snapback]336040[/snapback]</div>

Oh man, just wait until you are headed to an entered destination and as you are going 65 on the highway the lady's voice says "You have now reached your Destination" and you look over tot the side of the road as you fly by! I think there a quite a few problems with the whole navigation system in general, it is very ticky about how you enter information, It has to be at least 3 years behind on new roads and it is VERY general about the directions it gives you. And for me, it will often say veer to the right when it should actually say veer to the left. I swear, you never can tell {and some may say I am doing it wrong, I am entering wrong info, yada yada yada, but I have no argument for my experience)

All in all it has been great to have my Prius. I feel smugger than ever driving by people in "cool" or "tough" cars knowing that they have no idea what a Prius stands for. Ignorance may be bliss, but smug is even better!! Enjoy!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(narussian @ Oct 21 2006, 02:39 PM) [snapback]336179[/snapback]</div>

Some owners have improved the bass by installing a subwoofer.

 

but you can seem to randomize outside of the folder you are in.

Press and hold the Random button (instead of just tapping it to turn it on). You'll go into an all random mode that will jump arround the entire CD, and won't be trapped within a particular folder.

Other than that, all your points are valid. Each one bugs different people different amounts, for most folks they're minor annoyances at worst. Some folks can't stand the seats, some folks find them just fine. Some folks live in areas where the NAV system is dead on, some where it's near useless.

-Ken

 

I just picked up my 2007 Touring Edition Prius, and all I can say is WOW! I'm giving up a 2002 Mercedes for it, so you can imagine its one amazing little car to generate that kind of vehicle swap. Its really not fair to compare the Benz and the Prius, but since I can and I did, I thought I'd list some of my little niggles (and a few of the features which make the Prius a slam dunk).

Not so great:
-Steering wheel buttons are too dim; can't change illumination. Sure, they're no dimmer than other buttons like the window controls, but when you try to run half the car's functions from them, you had better be able to see 'em at night. In a normal brightly lit city night environment, they're practically impossible to read.
-Its really hard to stay on electric power in normal traffic without the car behind you trying to drive into your trunk. A higher threshold of accelerator pedal before kicking in the ICE would go a long way here.
-$50 worth of dynamat-type sound insulation in the doors would make the car seem $500 more expensive.
- The cloth material for the seats feels, looks, and probably is really cheap.
-No rain sensing wipers as an option.


Love these:
-Bluetooth integration to die for (multiple phone support, separate address books, steering wheel controls)
-Leather seat material is very high quality
-Amazing cargo capacity with seat folded down in back. Costco Run?
-Backup camera rocks
-Voice activation in Nav system is impressive
-Smart key (usually you need to spend 2x as much as Prius to get this)
-Coolant "thermos" bottle for speedy engine warm up and heater start
-Stability control standard
-8 Airbags
-Heater and A/C for the battery pack
-Personal information wipe feature is clever when you finally sell the car
-A/C works on battery pack (try that in your Ford or GM hybrid)
-Storage cubby under the trunk floor is surprisingly roomy
-Storage cubby cover has its own prop rod
-Under floor storage for the retractable cargo cover (this is just brilliant)
-AUX Audio jack with 12v power 2 inches away in armrest (2007)
-Steering wheel rim nice and thick

Oh, and there is that little gas mileage thing....


What a great car!!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vbisbest @ Oct 21 2006, 01:45 AM) [snapback]336040[/snapback]</div>

Not sure if it's the same thing, but I have the JBL system in my 06 Package 8 and I've been quite impressed with the bass in it. I was recently sitting at a stoplight listening to some great music (Metallica) with the volume turned up to 35, and I kept feeling/hearing this very loud bass-y thump that was vibrating my car and I actually looked around to see what person nearby had their bass turned up so loud. It took me a minute to realize that it was me!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vbisbest @ Oct 21 2006, 01:45 AM) [snapback]336040[/snapback]</div>

I agree completely. Even my old '96 Saturn had a lumbar support lever, even if it was your basic manual lever. I miss that little extra bit of lower back support.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(vbisbest @ Oct 21 2006, 01:45 AM) [snapback]336040[/snapback]</div>

I guess you could get the EV mod. I sit in a parking lot called the 405 freeway every afternoon on my way home from work. I haven't had anyone behind me honk because I was accellerating too slowly to the next stopping point yet, as I do try to milk the battery power as long as I can while moving with traffic below 40mph. Of course this gets me down to purple bars faster than if I were coasting along at higher speeds, but really, what can you do in gridlocked, stop & go traffic?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bryanmsi @ Oct 23 2006, 11:50 PM) [snapback]337216[/snapback]</div>

Those three I have not noticed... care to elaborate?

Do you mean the heater and A/C has a vent that blows on the battery pack?

Where is this prop rod hidden?

What under floor storage for the cargo cover?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(bbianchi @ Oct 24 2006, 06:20 PM) [snapback]337708[/snapback]</div>

1. Not sure about the battery's own blower vent. I only know about the vent opening between the seat back and the rear passenger side door which allows for the car interior's normal heating and cooling (set by the driver) to get to the batteries as well. (I'm in an '06 Pkg 8)

2. When you lift the floor in back to get to the cargo storage area (underneath which is where the spare tire is located), you'll notice the little bar (which resembles a black under-hood prop) on the left (driver's) side. It doesn't really work for me unless I am lifting the whole floor (to reach all the way into the storage area) rather than only to the first bend of the floor cover.

3. The prop rod also bridges over the slot the tonneau cover sits in. The cover will fit into the slot on the right and then (after moving the prop rod and spare storage cover out of the way) into the left slot. The tonneau will extend into the little storage space on the left as well, so if you have that jam-packed with stuff, you'll have difficulty getting the tonneau rod to fit in its slot. You can also lift the prop rod and insert the tonneau rod into the left hollow storage area and the left side slot and then snap down the right side into the passenger side slot so you don't have to remove the cover of that little extra storage space on the left.

Also, if you put it in just right, the hard flap which remains out of the roller will lie flat and the prop rod will fit back down into it's place over top of the tonneau rod and then you can lay the floor back down flat again.

Cool, huh? B)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Anubis @ Oct 24 2006, 07:22 PM) [snapback]337751[/snapback]</div>

We're both kinda right. The pack doesn't have its own heater or cooler, but it does have thermal monitoring and venting with dedicated fans to either cool or heat the pack with cabin air. The fan speed is controlled by computer.

According to http://www.cleangreencar.co.nz/page/prius-battery-pack

Battery Pack Thermal Management
The purpose of a battery thermal management system is to keep the batteries operating within a desirable temperature range; prevent the batteries from exceeding a high temperature limit that can damage the batteries and/or reduce life; and maintain battery temperature variations to low levels to prevent highly imbalanced batteries. Pack imbalances can reduce performance and can also damage the battery and/or reduce life. Thermal management of the battery pack is typically accomplished with the combination of two approaches. First, a cooling/heating system is designed to extract/supply heat to the battery pack. Second, the battery controller adjusts the vehicle’s use of the battery pack based on the conditions in the batteries.

Forced Air System
The Prius supplies conditioned air from the cabin as thermal management for cooling the batteries. The pack’s forced air system consists of two vents located in the cabin under the middle brake light (exhaust from the cabin or inlet to the pack); ducting to the battery pack enclosure; the enclosure manifold; air gaps between modules; ducting out of the pack to a blower that pulls the air through the system; and two exhausts (one to the boot and the other to the outside). A hydrogen vent from each module is connected in series with tubing. Any gases released are exhausted from the vehicle through the gas manifold to avoid any increased hydrogen concentration and, thus, potential for explosion. Outside air is conditioned (heated or cooled) by the vehicle’s thermal comfort system to a level comfortable for the driver. This approach has the advantage of providing air that is not only comfortable to the passenger(s), but also ideal for use in heating or cooling the NiMH batteries. However, the Prius does not use the forced air for heating the batteries. To achieve a relatively uniform temperature distribution across the modules, a parallel airflow scheme is used, rather than a series configuration. In a parallel configuration, each module is set up to receive the same amount of airflow and thus the same cooling. To achieve this in the Prius, cabin air enters the pack through a plenum that runs beneath the battery stack horizontally from passenger side to driver side. The cross-sectional area of the plenum is largest at its entrance and linearly decreases as it goes under the modules. Then the air flows vertically through the gaps between each module (formed from dimples and protrusions on side walls). Finally, the air enters into the top plenum. This plenum’s cross-section increases linearly in the direction of the flow. With this design, the pressure drop across each module is expected to be uniform and, consequently, should lead to a uniform flow rate around each module. The air is drawn by a 12 V blower installed above the driver’s side rear tire well. The air is either exhausted to the boot or through a vent on the driver’s side C-pillar. The fan has four settings, depending on the maximum temperature of four monitored batteries. Toyota also monitors the inlet and outlet air temperatures. The fan settings are off, low, medium, and high speed. The blower setting depended on temperature and transitions with hysteresis depending on whether temperature is increasing or decreasing.

 

I've got one for the 2006 models that I know carried over to the 2007:
ABC/QWERTY settings not affecting the phonebook (on bluetooth equipped models.)
See this other thread for more details: http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=19985

And one that I sort of wish Toyota had included from the beginning:
Remote Hatch release, or at least a way to open it for when the car has started, but I've run around the back to get something only to find that it's locked. With SKS, I do have the fob with me, but the vehicle ignores all button presses because it's already powered on. So then I have to run my lazy butt back to the driver's door so I can press the Door Unlock button.

The hatch latch is already controlled electronically. Would it take too many more resources to add an extra button on the fob, and a circuit to authenticate/unlock/unlatch the hatch?