Backseat noise?

It's not the family, it's the car:

It's not the sunroof, or the family, it's just the nature of the Prius. The Prius is built for optimized fuel economy. It has a very little noise insulation to reduce weight. The low resistance tires are loud. I found the noise level to be typical of a $20K car. Adding all that neat techie stuff and pushing the price close to $30K does not change the underlying economy class characteristic of the vehicle.

It's not the car, it's the family

How acceptable the noise level really depends on the point of the reference. If '09 Camry is the reference point, then yes, the Prius is going to sound like pushing a lawn mower on the freeway. That was my initial response during the test drive. If the reference point is a Civic or a Matrix, then the Prius is very much acceptable. It's one of those YMMV kinda thing.

The highway noise level is a trade off that you and your family would have to decide on. Reference points can always be adjusted.

I personally do most of my driving on city roads with speed limit <= 45mph. At that speed, the Prius is comparably quiet. I do like how the ICE shuts off at traffic lights and the car becomes dead silent.

 

Yeah I find the Prius really is very noisy at highway speeds compared to other non-sleek cars. I thought it would be more quiet with its sleek design, but nope... Noisy as a mofo.

 

It is all relative.

Compared to our Honda Civic, the Prius is quiet.
Compared to our Lexus RX350 and RX400h the Prius sounds like (as was put above) a "lawnmower".
Compared to our Toyota Rav4, the Prius is pretty quiet.
Compared to a friend's Toyota Camry (non-hybrid) the Prius is loud.
Compared to another friend's Ford Mustang, the Prius is silent

Just remember sound dampening is heavy, and heavy means extra dead weight, which means lower fuel economy. It is all about tradeoffs.

 

I also think the 2010 Prius is noisy, especially tire noise. More then my 2006 Prius.
Is it possibly to do something about it? Some aftermarket thing above the wheels? or extra mat inside?!

 

We did a 3600 km trip and my 30 year old daughters did not complain about the noise, or seats in the back
BUT the did complain about everything else

 

Only time I notice this problem is when my wife's mother is back there.

FYI, my wife (or her Mom) has no login to PC.

 

My Prius is the noisiest car I've driven. One reason is lack of sound insulation. Another is the hatchback, which causes more outside sound transmission to the interior than a conventional truck design (where ~ 25% of the car's exterior (the trunk) is insulated from the interior by the back seats.

 

My Prius is the quietest car I've ever owned, or at least it was until the first tire rotation. Then we discovered a seriously cuped rear tire (then put on the front), and the road noise sounded like I had studded snow tires. It turned out the left rear alignment was so bad that I had ruined a tire in 5,000 miles. Of course, I ruined the second tire by the time of the 10,000 roation.

Solution: the dealer aligned all four wheels, gave me 4 new tires, and the car is now quiet as a mouse again. And even better, I got 71 mpg on the first tank after alignment, up from my typical 55 mpg.

I'll start a post about this matter after a couple more tanks of gas. Bottom-line: most Prius owners seem to consider their cars to be 'quiet'. For those who don't, get a 4 wheel alignment.

 

I'm floored.

What other cars have you owned?

 

Corolla, Matrix, Honda Accord. If you are surprised that I consider the Prius to be quiet, then you know why from my first post. The car is whisper quiet after the alignment.

And by the way, I thought I had a bad (noisey) wheel bearing on my Matrix a few years ago, then did an alignment, and the car became very quiet and the gas mileage went up by 3-4 mpg.