What Is The One Thing You Would Change?

This is also something that I would like to see. Resume the pre-set cruise speed......but do it without running in the red.......Hope that toyota sees this one !!!

Also......when wanting to move cruise control to a lower speed, don't engage braking.....let the car coast to the lower speed. I have to turn off cruise control then reset it to the new speed. Not a large problem...but could be more user friendly if I could just push the cruise control lever down to get to lower speed, without getting regenerative braking to come on.

 

Looks like you need a rope or cord of you choice connected to the rear door & the tie down on the floor to hold door where it will not strike the garage door closer.

 

Kinda hard to narrow it down to just one thing, but after almost 2,000 miles some of the things I would change would be:

1. User programmable beep modes (like....for reverse)
2. Better front seats.
3. Better feedback from the electric steering.
4. Non-bifurcated rear glass.
5. About 25-percent more insulation.
6. Adjustable visors.
7. An adult sized steering wheel.
8. An Aux-input jack that's not located in the bottom of a junk collector.
9. Tighter fasteners for the underbody spoilers.
10. A more rattle resistant interior.
11. "Retained Power" for more than just the windows.
12. The ability to plug-in smart (trickle) charge the batteries.

Most of the other "character" issues for the car are due to the fact that it's a Hybrid, and you have to give some to get some. Quite frankly, if you're not into the hypermiler thing, the car is no great sacrifice to drive and if you DO want to dedicate your life to staring at the HSI, you can get the car to go well over the 50-mpg that it rated to provide.

 

The cruise control accelerates too fast. I would like it to slowly accelerate to the speed you want.

 

Automatic headlights

 

A horn that people can actually HEAR! My 196X Honda Cub 50's horn is as "good"!

Hi-Lo heated seats with ERGONOMICALLY sound (location) on/off switches

Better suspension for less body roll plus revisions to tone down the almost terminal UNDERSTEER. I didn't expect a Miata's handling, but it could at least match a Honda Civic given the car's price!


Better quality carpeting in lieu of the surplus PEP BOYS "material" being used

DFO

 

It's not just a Prius issue, so many models and manufacturers don't seem to get this truth.

I admit, when I bought my 2010 Honda Fit..the salesman bragged about the 10 cupholders, which internally I filed under "I could care less that is idiotic overkill"...but since owning the FIT, I LOVE having 10 cupholders..great for the obvious cups...but also great for cellphones, Ipods and all the little tools of convienence most people carry with them all the time.

As far as drawer to keep change. I also agree. I'm old enough to remember when almost all vehicles came equipped with the now socially, and politically and medically unpopular Ash Tray. Even the 12 volt outlet came with a hole and burn inducing thing they called a cigarette lighter...

But even if you did not smoke, the ash tray became a great place for change or other portables...

Why automakers don't seem to "get" that people want this, I don't understand. I simply cannot believe that designing the shape of a dash or drivers door to include more spaces to hold things, once designed, can or would create that much or any additional cost to production.

It certainly is a selling feature on a test drive to be able to show people where they can put their cell phone, drink or change...it's a real world benefit....

So I'm not slamming Prius, but I recently spent a good year plus looking at vehicles and was astonished at how it seemed that automakers think make a "space" for a cup, cellphone or change...is something to avoid....

 

The "cup holders" in a Prius DON'T hold cups....at least not my simple coffee cups with handles. Also agree about lack of coin storage-Accord had molded in, spring loaded slots for nickels, dimes and quarters...zip in Prius. Given the price of a Prius the omission of these types of things starts to add up....FOR Toyota's bottom line, but not customer satisfaction.

On a more, to me, important note: coming back home in the dark and rain on S. Michigan back roads I discovered that my headlights-on HIGH beam-were marginally better than my traded '05 Accords' were....on low beam. They do a medicore job of lighting things up in adverse weather. On a clear night they are ok, but last night was anything but clear...disappointing. DFO

 

Read these, nice things I haven't even thought of Here are my top things I'd change.

Biggest pet peeve (although very sporadic):
- I nearly fried my motor 2 weeks after getting my car last year, trying to park in snow, because there is NO FREAKING WAY to disengage traction control! After 5 minutes of back and forth with motor abruptly disengaging when a tyre decides to spin, it smelt of burnt plastic. I stopped there, later went to repair shop. Nothing was broken ... but I wasn't happy. Not a warm fuzzy feeling I wanted to have with my brand new car.

Other things:
- Inability to totally close down the info screens. Closest is the Settings screen.
- I keep panel lighting to a minimum when I put lights on. Even when I'm in a manual mode, when lighting is fading, the simple act of going under a bridge will flicker the light intensity.
- ECO mode should have a ECO-EV mode, where EV would automatically kick in ASAP.
- (there might be regulations against that but) A tiny little bit of force feedback on the gas pedal telling me I'm about to disengage from electric-only or going to Mad Powerz Mode would give me much less reason to keep my focus off my driving and onto that info panel.
- There's much reflection of the hud onto the front window at my height, which is why I close it at night (Cruise control FTW). On that same topic, it's not too easy to clean interior part of that window.
- ABS breaks are overly sensible, as soon as there's a small bump, it will reduce breaking power for quite a long time. I have a looming suspicion the breaking problem debacle is due to that.
- EV is cool, but I sometimes want to put it on because I'm in some interior parking, but I can't for (insert reason here). I don't care your reasons, Mr. Car, if I say I want to go EV only, I should be able to. In fact, I seldom use EV because it causes me frustration due to you not wanting to.
- I don't know how to realistically do that user-interface-wise, but I sometimes want to put heating on, but I don't want the motor to spin up only for me. So I end up putting the temp to LO because I only want to do a short commute, and thus I freeze to death so the motor can go idle.
- I dislodged the plastic part between my seat and the door at least twice because I sat too close to the side of the seat when leaving my car. That's not a "solid as a rock" impression.
- Trunk have a tendency not to fully close, and when it happens, it will work OK for a few seconds while driving, and then it will tell me some kind of random thing saying can't find key, or I don't remember what random message. Now I know when I get this, it's because the trunk is not properly closed.
- I sometimes trip over the cruise control button while turning the wheel. That's awkward.
- I didn't get Touring model for bigger tyres ... My mistake ... My REAL mistake ... Seriously ... I very often have to take a metal bridge, and car stability goes down the drain, I move laterally to no avail. I used to have an Echo, and I can safely say it's not due to the wind!
- I know all about not having to drive quickly while the car is in startup (60 first seconds), but I sometimes forget and car simply won't go fast enough. A small dark grey zone on the display to tell me that part is not readily available yet would mean I'd have means to know what's up.
- With my Bluetooth extension (Toyota's default radio - not the big one -- Yes I know, Touring #%%#%#), volume control is AFTER the radio, so I cannot control volume with the convenient volume buttons on the wheel.

I'm probably forgetting the worst culprits, but that's what I can recall this late in the night.

Saka

 

I'd want better quality plastics in the interior of the car.

 

We just returned from a 1600+ mile trip. We used maps. I know...please no comments (I don't own a cell phone either). Anyway, I wish the doors had something other than the water bottle holder (which is too small anyway for any of my water bottles) that could neatly hold maps or a newspaper. My old Subaru had a nice space in the door to hold maps.

It was my first road trip in a Prius (we actually RENTED a different Prius so I didn't add so many miles to my new car). The rental was only $231 for the week with unlimited mileage. The rental had 21000 miles on it and it was interesting to compare a "broken-in" Prius Gen III to mine that only has 2200 miles.

 

Better view out the rear window

 

STANDARDIZE CONTROLS!

• I would have a PRNDL gear selector.
• I would move the parking brake to center console.
• I would make the low-fuel indicator more conspicuous, i.e., make it yellow or red.
• I would add DRLs and the option of a Celsius temperature display.
• I would install a day/night mirror that actually works!

In my family, four drivers share one Prius while otherwise driving "conventional" vehicles, and going from one to the another can take some adjustment. I drive the Prius the least of anyone and actually find transitioning from auto to manual trans easier than transitioning to the Prius.

 

I would like to see power-seat controls for the driver. Sometimes a minor adjustment in seat angle can make the difference in comfort that a manual adjustment just can't accomplish.

 

The car remembers the last mode you were in, except PWR. If I select PWR, I want it to remember that for the next startup.

 

I want the car 3" wider. It looks a bit skinny from the rear view. I understand that that will require a complete overhaul as the inc weight will hurt MPGs.

 

I would change the steering wheel controls for temperature. This is obviously for a right hand drive car as the temp control is only inches away. I would have the fan control on the steering wheel. Otherwise, I love the car.

 

the attitude of entitlement that seems to control actions in nearly every segment of our lives

 

Toyota has a TSB out for that, but they haven't identified a workable replacement part for the car yet.
Dolphins [sic] do not have opposable thumbs.