One Month with a 2016 Prius 4

Tomorrow marks a full month with my 2016 Prius 4. I have a silver Prius (black leather interior) with the advanced technology package and the convenience package. I am new to the Prius family, having previously owned VWs, BMWs, and Audis. I wanted to share a few of my takeaways after only a month of ownership.

Things I Like:

• MPG – According to the Prius computer, I am averaging 62.3 mpg after 768 miles of driving. That includes roughly 40% of travel in bumper to bumper commuter traffic (NOVA/DC), 30% highway, and roughly 30% normal city traffic. I also have an Automatic OBD device and the accompanying iPhone app. The Automatic OBD pegs me at 60 mpg – roughly 2 mpg less than the Prius display.
  
  
• Interior Room – As a first time Prius owner, I continue to be amazed at the functional size of the interior cabin given the small size of the car. It easily accommodates our small family (2 adults and 11 year old child).
  
  
• Smooth Ride – The road feel is much smoother and less bumpy than my old Audi.
  
  
• Parking Assist – Saw it as more of gimmick than anything else when purchasing, but it has actually been quite helpful in and around DC for parallel parking. It has worked flawlessly thus far with one caveat, it tends to park the car much closer to the curb than I would be comfortable doing on my own.
  
  
• Siri Eyes Free – While it’s not CarPlay, it allows me to call up music, send text messages, and make phone calls via voice without touching my iPhone. It helps make up for the terrible voice recognition in the native Entune system.
  
  
• Wireless Charger – Works seamlessly with my Bezalel iPhone case (relatively inexpensive way to add Qi functionality to an iPhone while maintaining easy access to your iPhone lightning charge port).
  
  
• Driver’s seat – I find it far more comfortable than my old Audi seat. Lumbar support is excellent.
  
  
• Collision Avoidance – While I’ve yet to get close enough for the car to actually hit the brakes, I did stop abruptly last week after hearing the alert and seeing a red “Brake” message come across my screen. Unfortunately, at the time I was looking to change lanes while not paying close enough attention to the car in front of me.
  
  
• Cross Traffic Monitor – Has proven to be an extremely helpful feature when backing out of spaces at my local Wegmans. Two weeks ago, I was parked next to a large SUV and the cross traffic alert sounded long before I could have seen that there was a car coming down the aisle.
  
  
• Radar cruise – Again, a feature I initially thought was gimmicky, but has proven infinitely useful on the DC area interstates where pockets of intermittent traffic appear and disappear for no apparent reason.

Things That Could Be Improved

• Backup Beeping – I seriously question the sanity of the individual(s) responsible for the internal beeping noise that plays when you put the car in reverse. I hate it. I'm driving a Prius, not a UPS delivery truck. My wife refuses to drive the car because of how much she hates the reverse beeping (thankfully, it’s my car not hers). It also creates unnecessary confusion when hearing concurrent beeps from the safety system. While they sound slightly different, it’s unnecessarily confusing- like a cacophony of beeping sounds. Can the backup beep be turned off? Please say the answer is yes.
  
  
• Proximity sensor – I think this is generally a good thing (see Collision Avoidance comments above), but the current application could be tweaked. For example, once the proximity alert is triggered, it does not turn off until the distance between the two cars increases. Yesterday, I was in the drive thru at McDonalds getting an ice cream cone when it started beeping after pulling close to the car in front of me. I then had to endure that beeping for roughly 2 minutes while the person in front of me waited for their food.
  
  
• Pedestrian Warning System – Again, generally a good thing, but it can be tweaked. For one, I would prefer that the system not beep if the car is not moving. Here is why that matters. On Friday, I was stopped at a traffic light in DC when a large group of tourists used the crosswalk and several of them walked close to the front of the car, the system instantly started beeping.
  
  
• Seat Warmers – The button is in an awkward position. Still easy to reach, but not prominent like in other cars.
  
  
• Lighting of Shifter – Why isn’t the shifter lighted like in previous models? There is a small light that shines on the wireless phone charger for no apparent reason – wonder if that was meant for the shifter. If so, their aim is a bit off.
  
  
• Entune – Toyota’s decision to avoid CarPlay is short sighted and a competitive disadvantage. The Entune interface isn’t bad, it’s just not nearly as good as CarPlay. That being said, the audio quality of the JBL system is quite good for a factory sound system.

 

I say the following "send a text message to [insert name]." It will then prompt you for what you want the message to say. If that goes okay, it will ask you to confirm that you want to send the message. If you say yes, it gets sent. In this scenario, the Siri Eyes Free function is merely activating the Siri function on your phone via your car bluetooth system (i.e. no need to hold down the home button on your phone). Your phone is still doing all the work.

You can also use it to ask for ask for game scores, the weather, and any other information available via Siri.

 

Oops - had a typo there. You do NOT need to hit the home button. In the 2016 Prius, you can activate Siri by holding down the call button on the steering wheel (the button with the picture of a phone with the handset off the hook). You have to hold it for a second or two for Siri to engage. Also, your phone has to be connected to the car via Bluetooth.

 

I realize I failed to mention one other observation. The lane departure system seems a bit wonky. Mine always beeps when I cross over a solid line (not something I make a habit of, just testing), but it's can be hit or miss when it crossing a dotted line. Sometimes it beeps and sometimes it doesn't.

 

Thanks for the Carista suggestion. Used it today to fix the reverse beeping. It now beeps just once.

 

Yes - putting the car in park will stop the beeping. I also discovered that you can use the Carista app and OBD2 adapter to limit the beeping. There is a setting that turns off the proximity sensor beeping after 3 seconds if the car is stationary. That helps to significantly mitigate the the issue without having to put the car in park.

 

The Carista adapter is available on Amazon. I'm also currently selling mine on eBay. I successfully used it to change 3 settings:
1) Beep only once when the car is placed into reverse
2) Unlock all four doors when I open the driver side door
3) Limit the proximity sensor beep to only 3 seconds when the car is stationary