New Prius Likes and Dislikes

I'm holding two raffle tickets from a charity for a 2006 325i... there's a small chance (2/2000) that the Prius will be for sale.

 

Thanks for the nice words, brashe -

I didn't mean for that to be a public service announcement - was only an attempt to ward off the typical "I've heard all about EVs - they suck, and nobody wants them, blah, blah."

 

Me rikey the following:

The stereo, while not as good as it could be, is fine for a stock unit.
The QUIET ride of this car. When I can, I drive this car with the windows down, and I just love not hearing anything but the sound of my tires on the road. Of course, this is late at night, with hardly anyone on the road.
I love the mpg. Heck, coming from my 30 and less xB, anything over 35 is fine with me, and I am averaging about 50 or so. I have just crossed 12,000 on the ODO.
I am happy with the windows, and the rear window. About the only thing I don't like about the rear window is the way dirt catches on the lower glass.
I like the seats, which are more comfortable then the xB.
I like all the storage space in the car.

Me not rikey the following:

The stupid lack of support for ALL Bluetooth phones. As in, why does my Motorola work super fine, but my TREO 700w does not? It does work, but it lacks the ability to answer automatically, and load phone entries...Of course, I have the '05; I hear it's not the same with the '06.
I am not a fan of the placement for the power button, but that is a minor thing.
I wish you could, with out a override cheat, control the MFD from at least the passenger seat; you know, the looking up of locations, dialing the phone...that sort of thing.

But you know what? I am driving a STATE OF THE ART car, that is years ahead of many cars on the road. I am complaining about things that many cars don't have.

So you know what, when I really think about it, me rikey the car a lot. A whole lot.

 

I'd like to see a light for "washer fluid low!" <_<

 

Actually Doc, it *is* a problem caused by the Prius. The Prius does not follow the BT specs for handsfree and OBEX well. And when it can/does receive vCard data from a phone (ie, an address book entry), it barely knows what to do with it. The way it handles BT really looks like it was an effort thrown together in a few days just so they could claim they supported it.

 

One thing I found annoying.. If I put my work case on the passenger seat, it gives off that annoying 'seatbelt not on buzer' for the passenger side. I also get it sometimes when I will lean on the passenger seat with my oustretched arm sometimes.

 

(studying up for when my prius arrives... )

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brasche @ Mar 23 2006, 06:52 PM) [snapback]229348[/snapback]</div>

Sounds like a bit of buyer's remorse. Did you really expect the Prius to handle like an NSX or 735i? Come on, can we compare prices? Nav system complaints are justified and echoed here. I too had dislikes with our new Prius. Mostly due to safety issues with blindspots and discomfort with the seats. The good news for us is that the Prius has really grown on us. My wife now loves driving it and her Honda sits forlornly unused. What changed? Well, we got used to it's quirks and adjusted for one. Also, we changed out the stock tires and added a BT chassis stiffening plate. BMW handling, no. Significant improvement, definitely.

As to the seat options, what does the 8-way memory seat in the Beemer weigh? If Toyota chose to laden the car with heavy options like electric seats, electric moonroof, etc. the mileage would go down. I can understand their passing on this option. Me, I'm looking at seat options too, but watching the weight as well. Maybe Recarro front seats?

 

I'm coming from a Saab 9-5 that I was very happy with.

I've had the car almost one week. I've driven it about 250 miles i.e.- a half a tank of gas!

besides the obvious things, such as the 48 MPG I'm getting, and the coolness of having people in the car think it stalls every time I stop at a red light, here are the few things that jump out at me:

Likes
The smartkey system is amazing. I also love the pushbutton start.

I think the car has a love it or hate it interior. I love it. Very futuristic. I am a big fan of wood kits and was going to order an aftermarket one for the Prius, but the chrome look fits in nicely.

I have found the car to be more comfortable then I thought it would be. I'm 6 feet tall and 215 pounds. Not a problem in the Prius.

Tons of storage space. Lack of storage areas is one of the biggest negatives of the Saab.

I really enjoy watching the bar graph on the display. I'm a stat freak and it's just cool. I also like seeing how many times I can push it over 50 MPG for a 5 minutes period (I'm usually right around there).

Dislikes

No doubt about it- the view through the back windows. It's terrible. I wosh I could hit a button and have my rear view camera go on when I'm in drive.

I also wish I could make the light on the buttons on the steering wheel brighen up. It's hard to see them at night. The dashboard light control has no effect on those lights.

other then that, I'm happy with my purchase. I thougth I would miss the leather (heated) seats, great pick-up, great stereo, cool dash of the Saab, but I really don't. The biggest things I miss from my Saab are the cupholder (you had to see it to understand) and the side view mirrror. Saab has a mirror that bends out a little at the end so you could see further out (if you were in the left lane of a three lane highway, you could see both other lanes with ease). It was very well designed. All cars should have it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(brasche @ Mar 23 2006, 10:52 PM) [snapback]229348[/snapback]</div>

probably you should have been a mechanical engineer to understand that..............

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Catskillguy @ Mar 25 2006, 11:09 AM) [snapback]230097[/snapback]</div>

You can turn that off. Check out the knowledgebase section. I think it's the same in the '06 as it is in the '04-'05.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(engunneer @ Mar 30 2006, 06:59 PM) [snapback]232622[/snapback]</div>

Thanks... I'll check that out!