2007 Touring first impressions after 250 miles

On Thursday I picked up my 2007 Seaside Pearl Touring Edition NR (Package #6 Touring). You can view pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/carlsonfun/PtReyesAndPrius. Friday morning I added my first mod – a little switch to allow use of the navigation system and phone controls while moving. Friday afternoon my wife and I went on our annual anniversary trip. This year it was a car ride up the peninsula through San Francisco and then out to Pt. Reyes for the weekend (which means a combination of freeway, city and windy, mountain roads). This gave me a good chance to checkout the car. Below are my observations. As context, I’ve driven several 2006 Priuses, including driving my sister’s brand new one to and from Tahoe last weekend (500 miles). Also, the car I’m giving up for the Prius is a 1998 BMW M Roadster, so I’m very accustomed to a powerful car that handles very well.

I’m going to attempt to answer the questions I had before I got the 2007 (which I decided a couple of months ago to wait for in hopes that the Touring Edition would handle a little better).

First, the interior is identical (as far as I’ve noticed) to the 2006 with the possible exception of slightly worse visibility out the back because of the slightly bigger spoiler. The exterior is very similar too. The spoiler difference is very small. The lower profile tires are the best visual cue (at least to me).

One of the things I was concerned about was whether I would get as good mileage with the lower profile tires. It appears to me (at this point at least) that happily the answer is yes. For this 220 mile trip I got a little over 48 MPG. Given the types of driving I was doing, that’s actually slightly better than I might have expected from my past experience in 2006’s. So I assume the mileage will be, as advertised, about the same.

The thing I was most interested in was the handling. While I’ve never been someone to fly at super high speeds on straight roads, I have always loved pushing the limits of cornering on great twisty roads. This weekend gave me the opportunity to begin to explore how the Touring Edition handled. Please understand, this was an anniversary trip and my wife was in the passenger seat, so I never pushed the car really hard. But compared to the other Sunday drivers on the road today on Hwy 1, I was definitely moving (which is something my wife has become accustomed to). Anyway, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how the car handled the turns. The tires inspired confidence as I pushed them harder and harder. I never got to the point of hearing them complain. One would never confuse it with a sports car – the steering is way too light and there is no feedback from the road, the suspension is still quite soft and certainly rolls entering turns, but overall I was favorably impressed compared to my expectations and compared to my impressions of the 2006’s I’ve driven in the past. Certainly for a trip where someone else is in the car (who wants to be relatively comfortable), it corners plenty well. In fact, each time we came up behind another car and had to slow down, my wife was disappointed.

From a drivability perspective, the biggest disappointment was the lack of power exiting a turn uphill (which is no big surprise). When I stepped on it, the transmission seemed to hunt for an engine speed that would work, but never seemed to pull with confidence. However, I knew I was buying an economy car, so in this respect my expectations were met.

So overall, I’m very pleased with the car. I’m probably most unimpressed with the stereo, but I knew that was coming. I’m hoping to replace the speakers and add a subwoofer and a couple of amps over the next couple of weeks.

I’m happy to be part of the Prius (and PriusChat) community.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vincent @ Oct 2 2006, 03:31 AM) [snapback]326770[/snapback]</div>

That switch disables two speed sensors that go to the MFD (one is specifically for the NAV) so that all Nav and phone functions can operate while the car is moving. When turned "on" the switch as the disadvantages of making the NAV less accurate (because it doesn't have its speed sensor), having the little animated wheels stop spinning on the power distribution graphic and not showing the "5 minute" bars. So when I want to put in a destination, for example, I flip the switch, put in the destination, and then flip it back. If you're interested in which two wires, you can see a picture of them here: http://www.evnut.com/prius_speed_wire.htm. Scroll to the bottom of this page and you'll see the two purple wires I cut and then reconnected through the switch. If you'd like to see pictures of what I did, let me know and I'll post them. It was very to do. Just popped off the silver piece of plastic to the left of the glove box and did everything there.

The tires are Bridgestone Turanza EL4SDZ P195/55R16. Here's a picture I took of the sidewall: http://picasaweb.google.com/carlsonfun/PtR...145765998428178. You can clock on the magnifying glass to zoom in if you'd like.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Silverlode @ Oct 3 2006, 02:08 AM) [snapback]327210[/snapback]</div>

I'm glad you asked, because I thought I knew, but I just checked to be sure. First of all, on the door sill it calls for 35 front, 33 rear. All 4 were set to 38. So now I'll have to let some air out and do the whole test over again.

No seriously, I will let some air out and see what happens to gas mileage and handling. Again, thanks for asking.