My first six days

I've been reading this great forum for about half a year and only posted a few times, mainly because I didn't own a Prius and couldn't provide many answers. I've noticed that this site is very North America oriented and I think it would be nice to share with you some European experiences.

I took delivery of a silver grey 2006 Tech Edition Prius last Thursday. This is the first time I've owned a brand new car and I must say it's very exciting. It had 9 km on the odometer upon delivery. The color was not my first choice but I would have had to wait until January for another color. I think the color is kind of boring but the car more than makes up for it.

I drove to France with my girlfriend this weekend to pick up about 60 bottles of champagne (some for friends), which fit perfectly in the trunk. It was a great drive and a fun micro-vacation. I averaged 39.7 mpg on the first tank and 43.5 on the second (calculated), but I didn't try to maximize mileage, just tried to have fun with it (and it was a hilly drive).

I now have about 810 miles on the odometer and I think the car is an amazing drive. It's so smooth and quiet in the city and also doesn't compromise on the highway (I didn't drive faster than 81 miles per hour which is the French speed limit). Especially with the cruise control on you can just drive for hours and hours without getting tired.

After reading this board I had very high expectations and the car certainly lived up to it. I'll list some positive and negative things I noticed that differed from my expectations.

Positive

• When you walk up to the car it welcomes you by turning on the interior lights. I just love stuff like that.
• I found no problems (yet) with interior integrity
• After fiddling with the settings a bit, I found the sound quality for FM and CD pretty good (I don't have the JBL speakers).
• The car is so quiet, even with the ICE on.
• The car won't lock when you leave your fob inside -- how smart is that!
• Seats are comfortable (I'm 1.83m, I think that's about 6 feet). I think people who want to place their seats further back must have very long arms.
• Bluetooth sound quality is excellent.
• GPS is so much faster and more accurate than with my TomTom plus cheap external bluetooth GPS receiver. Also, I love the big split screen with the exits and crossings on the right.

Negative

• The rear spoiler feels plasticy when you're closing the trunk. I realize this is because of weight reduction but it still feels cheap.
• The EV range is shorter than I expected; still much fun on parking lots and at gas stations.
• MP3 sound is a bit disappointing, especially vocals. I haven't tried WMA yet.
• Inputting phone numbers and names is next to impossible, either with bluetooth (one by one) or by hand (with the non-qwerty keyboard). I think I'll just store a few names and dial the rest on my phone, which I'm used to anyway.
• The exterior is larger (especially wider) than I thought. I looked it up before but I must have made a mistake. It's kind of hard to get it into our garage but I manage; just takes some time.
• The navigation DVD version is "2005/2006 version 1", which I guess means early 2005. This means some new or changed areas are not on the map.

Differences between US and European model

• EV button and Intelligent Parking Assist factory-installed.
• Indicates your driving path on the MFD when in reverse, i.e. there are curved yellow lines that change when you turn the steering wheel. This seems to be part of IPA but it also works when you're steering manually.
• No panic button on the fob.
• No fuel bladder (I think).
• I didn't find a switch to dim the dashboard lights under the steering wheel. There is a button next to the odo button which dims only the "HUD" (with the speed and gear), not the MFD. I think the US model has a km/miles switch in this position. Since I always have my headlights turned on I have to switch manually between day and night mode using the display button.
• Headlights don't turn off when I turn off the car. I think I read somewhere that the US model does this. Now I have to manually turn on and off the lights -- so much work!
• I don't think the disable backup or seat-belt beeper mods work, but I'll try again. Sometimes there are so many beeps it's hard to figure out what she means.

Please don't interpret the negative points as complaints. As I said, my expectations were very high and I'm not disappointed at all. The car is amazing. I just thought I'd share with you my findings.

I haven't had much chance to play around with the IPA yet, so more about that later.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tochatihu @ Oct 18 2006, 04:48 PM) [snapback]334424[/snapback]</div>

Unfortunately, I never kept track of fuel economy before, so I couldn't tell your. Fuel is around €1.35 / liter ($6.40 / gallon) here at the moment.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sho-Bud @ Oct 18 2006, 07:33 PM) [snapback]334564[/snapback]</div>

Thanks! I'll try that tomorrow.
Haven't had time to read the entire manual yet; it's probably in there somewhere.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 18 2006, 09:54 PM) [snapback]334673[/snapback]</div>

Ok, I'll admit I haven't spent 30 minutes to figure it out so there might be an easier way. I use a Nokia 6230i. From what I understand, it won't do automatic phonebook synchronization like my last in-car bluetooth system (which was of much less quality).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 18 2006, 09:54 PM) [snapback]334673[/snapback]</div>

I used US gallons and US dollars for all conversions.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 18 2006, 09:54 PM) [snapback]334673[/snapback]</div>

I didn't notice any blank spots in France; haven't checked out Spain or Ireland yet. I'll try to do that tomorrow. Which version DVD do you have?

 

Thank you everybody for all the great responses! I will try to reply to as many as possible.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 18 2006, 03:58 PM) [snapback]334392[/snapback]</div>

The left-most button in my avatar is to aim the headlights up or down (depending on the load of the car).
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 18 2006, 03:58 PM) [snapback]334392[/snapback]</div>

If I turn on the headlights, turn off the car and then open the driver's door, the car will start beeping at me and I'll have to turn off the headlights manually.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ Oct 18 2006, 04:10 PM) [snapback]334400[/snapback]</div>

Yes, I found and used this setting, but it doesn't seem to work for the phone screens. I think I've read other people's complaints about this.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Sho-Bud @ Oct 18 2006, 07:33 PM) [snapback]334564[/snapback]</div>

Thank you, this works great! It is a bit strange that it won't change into day mode until you release the button, so you never know exactly how long to hold it. Not a problem, but just not very intuitive.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 18 2006, 09:54 PM) [snapback]334673[/snapback]</div>

I've made pictures with my phone of the different areas and I'll try to attach them to my post (never done this before). They should give you an idea about the coverage.
[attachmentid=5390] [attachmentid=5391] [attachmentid=5392] [attachmentid=5393] [attachmentid=5394] [attachmentid=5395] [attachmentid=5396] [attachmentid=5397]
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Oct 19 2006, 01:02 AM) [snapback]334806[/snapback]</div>

Ok, I've found a thread about this (of course) and I'm now pressing on the Toyota emblem instead.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tony_Min @ Oct 19 2006, 06:24 AM) [snapback]334916[/snapback]</div>

You don't see many Priuses on the road around here but there are some. Also, a lot of people don't know about this car and some have never even heard about hybrid cars at all. At the moment, there are about 6000 Priuses on the road in The Netherlands on a population of 16 million.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Oxo @ Oct 19 2006, 01:17 PM) [snapback]334962[/snapback]</div>

I learned British English in high school but most content I've seen and heard is American English (television, Internet). I guess my English is a bit of a mixture, or as some call it, International English.