Summary of proposed improvements for future versions of Prius

Auto mode is useless. my old car (vectra, or saturn aura) had an auto mode, and it stayed on that for three and a half years. the prius seems random with the fan speed (vectra had a user adjustable low, medium or high, so it knew what you -wanted-, but would still use high speed if absolutely neccesary when you start up etc) and ALWAYS blows only at my face. i want it on my face and my feet and under the seats and in the back and on the screen, but if i change it, oh look, auto mode switches off. it's crap.

 

That must mean the new Prius seating ergos are the best they can be.

Thanks to you and Airbalancer for your expertise!

After all, Toyotas are known to have the best interior designs. I drove my friend's loaded Venza with sunroof the other day, power seat lowered way down. I had an inch of headroom to spare! I am so tempted to get one of those.

We all know the driver's seat in the 2nd Generation Prius was very good, and Toyota fixed every minor ergonomic flaw in this 3rd Generation Prius!

 

Can I just have a front parking sensor please so I know where the front of the car is better than rolling into the wall slowly to find out... I can't figure out why sensors are just on the back???
Oh one more thing can my lights come on when its raining as well.

 

Just FYI, if you change the air flow to mixed, the rest of the climate control stays in auto, even thou the light is off. Temperature is still controlled to set and the fan speed changes as required. Basically it works like this, on full auto, (light on) everything works automatically to keep set temp. If you change one item, the rest of the system trys to compensate with the other areas. At least that's how mine works.

Cheers.

Hoffy

 

Hmmm--my 2010 Prius doesn't seem to work that way. Sometimes I leave the car with the A/C off Then the outside temperature goes up to 95, and when I turn the car on again, and push AUTO, the fan comes on, usually pretty high, but the AC won't come on unless I push AC.
BTW, if I haven't said it already, the entire Climate Control control set should be redesigned to make it simpler and more intuitive--this is the only car I've ever seen where fan speed is controlled by the top right buttons, but to turn the fan off, you have to move your hand several inches to the left and one level down--and the rest of the buttons are just as weird.

 

I doubt that will ever happen due to safety concerns. You need to be able to floor it and get full acceleration, that's why eco flooring is the same as power flooring.

But while we are dreaming, I would love a button that takes away the transmission drag "feature" momentarily while depressed, or even better a complete cancel mode switch to permanently disable it. There is no need for it other than to make people who are used to other cars feel better.

 

I'd prefer a "click" in the pedal when you're going to exceed 50% on the HSI.

 

A much quieter fan. When my fan is on the highest speed, I have to increase the radio volume by about 25% to even hear it.

 

From my wife, who likes to sit straight up when driving:
To the driver's seat-back positions, add one more click of forward/upright rotation.

She also thinks the accelerator pedal should be a bit larger for folks with small feet.

And she hates the split rear window, and wonders if you could have the car be as aerodynamic with the "wing" either above or below the whole window. (But you've heard that one from me before.)

 

Add a forward gear selector range

Add a forward gear selector range where 0 throttle was glide instead of engine braking.

Also make the throttle get stiffer when you hit the upper limits of ECO on the drivers display so you could keep the engine in it's most efficient range by feel.

 

Re: Add a forward gear selector range

+1 = does anyone know why this isn't the default for ECO mode? It's very difficult to get to glide if you go by the arrows in the power flow diagram, and I can't believe this would be an oversight in the tuning. There must have been some other consideration at work here (I hope it wasn't driveability or some silly thing).

 

Re: Add a forward gear selector range

Thanks Tideland - I hope that's the only reason, because then it seems more likely that a simple tuning change could eliminate this for my car(even if it was a dealer installed ECU upgrade, after forcing me to sign a waiver). I only add that last bit because I assumed that coastdown had to do with TMC's liability in "foreseeable conditions".

Assuming that glide improves fuel economy, I find it annoying that "mimic a traditional automatic transmission" took priority over maximum FUEL ECONOMY in this one instance (especially in ECO mode). I can point to any number of ways that a prius doesn't mimic a traditional anything - start/stop, engine note, offering three different throttle maps, transmission selector, etc...