What I hate about the Prius

Sorry, but regeneration zero during hill descents, never would be approved by safety reasons. Everything else, as hypermilers would advocate, is bypassing this requirement.

Prius is a car, to be driven by people, numb or else HV "understander", MUST in any case be prepared not to slide down hill.

If so to, then the driver should take an option at his expense. It's up to the driver's choice.

 

The only thing I HATE is the ICE warm up phase. My trip to work is 13.5 miles each way. It takes about 25 minutes and of that the first 4-5 the ICE runs anytime the car is moving. I love the 65+ MPG I'm currently managing to squeeze out of it going back and forth to work, but with a pre-warmed engine, I can add another 15% to that MPG. I HATE loosing, no wasting, that much fuel to "warming up" an engine that is going to warn up eventually anyway...and even if it didn't, haven't I put less carbon into the atmosphere by the ICE running less total time?
I think if someone came up with a hack to flash the computer so the ICE would always operate like it was in stage 5 of warm up, I'd be one of the 1st in line to get it.
Tom

 

Get a block heater.

 

To answer that question look no further than lawsuits. If products aren't dumbed down to the lowest possible level, companies get sued for operator's stupidity. Our overly litigious society has ruined many good things.

Tom

 

True, but Spiderman is in Alaska. His problem is most likely that the battery itself is too cold to allow EV mode. The reason is displayed on the dashboard display (multi-information display).

The UK cars have had an EV button since Gen 2. The Gen 2 cars do not have a different speed limit for EV when the engine is cold. I believe the third-generation cars do. It may be that Toyota have decided to stop you running the battery down to nothing before attempting to start the engine, and discovering that it won't start.

Our EV mode speed limit is 29mph for Gen 2 (US: 34mph if you fit an EV button) and 31mph for Gen 3 (US: 25mph).

The thing I hate - apart from the damned touchscreen - is the NHTSA-mandated application of the brake pedal to a) turn on and b) shift out of Park. No European car has this mechanism, and it catches a lot of new drivers out.

 

What is the legal difference between giving me the ability to make changes like turning off the reverse beep versus having the dealer do it?

 

First, it would do nothing for my trip home, where I loose mileage for the first 2 miles coasting down hill (Grrrr)...and wouldn't it just waist electricty on a car parked in a garage in Phoenix overnight...? This morning it was 61F in the garage

 

No legal difference, which is why some things are not configurable even by the dealer. For example, in the USA you can't disable the NAV lockout, and neither can the dealer. The reverse beep was user configurable for the Gen II in the USA. The process is rather convoluted, so switching to a dealer tool for the Gen III is probably a matter of convenience for Toyota, not a legal issue.

Tom

 

It's fragile. I drove with my brother in law in his Ford Escape Hybrid 2008...it was extremely rugged. The interior was plastic...but it was strong plastic. You could just slam the door and nothing would happen. If you slam the door on a Prius, it will fall apart/creak.

 

When I was at the dealer for the 3rd time because they kept messing up the settings that I wanted changed, the head technician came out and changed them with me to get it right. He thought it was stupid that I couldn't change them myself and that he had to waste their time on my personal settings. I agreed.

Seems pretty inconvenient to me.

 

Sure it does. Put yourself in the manufacturer's shoes: The surest and safest way to avoid a lawsuit is to make sure something never happens. In any lawsuit seeking damages, you always go for the deep pockets, which in this case is Toyota. They have a lot more money than any individual Prius owner. So say the owner of a Prius makes a dumb choice and decides to play with his Nav system while driving, and ends up killing a blind crippled kid being escorted by a nun. Who do you think will be the main target of the resulting lawsuit?

I don't agree with it, but what I don't agree with is how our legal system works. And while I don't like it, I do understand why Toyota takes the sure way out and simply avoids options that may trigger lawsuits.

Tom

 

Best example EVER.

(however I fail to see how this is any different than fooling with a radio dial 10 years ago. seems as if there should be a set of standards instead of a ridiculous guessing game.)

 

Good explanation to me. In the current Toyota environment, I understand this much better than I did a few months ago.

 

I agree completely. The application of this sort of nonsense seems capricious at best. I suspect it depends largely on which Toyota executive is making decisions at the time, with little regard to what makes sense.

Tom

 

Many thanks for the instructions. Will do.

 

Tideland Prius has the instructions correct. With the map up, press Display. Turn headlights on and a Daytime Mode tab will appear the top of the screen. Turn Daytime Mode to ON to keep the map in the white background mode with the headlights on.

I went to check mine and could not get the Daytime Mode tab to come up even with the headlights on. I had to read the Nav manual and it states that if you have the instrument panel light wheel all of the way to the top, the Daytime Mode tab will not come up! I turned my instrument panel wheel off of the uppermost position and the Daytime Mode tab came back on.

I prefer the white background to the black background. Some have said the light is too bright at night but it does not bother me.