What was your biggest surprise?

Have had my Prius v 5 for a couple of days now and there have been 2 surprises:

1) The ride is much better than my wife's 2010 Gen III liftback. I was expecting it to be about equal, but I find it a much more pleasant driving experience.

2) However, the turning radius of the v5 is worse than my old Honda Pilot. We have a tight space for turning into our garage and the reduce turning radius is clearly obvious here. I had tested the turning radius of the v5 before buying, but until you get it into a tight space, you may not notice the difference. I wonder if the v3 would have had a better turning radius that was equal or better than the Pilot.

 

Out of curiosity, I did a comparison among the v3, v5, and the Pilot. The turning radius for the v3 is 36.1, the v5 is 38.1, and the Pilot is 37.9. That is pretty surprising.

 

I knew that the numbers said that the 17" wheels on the v5 reduced the turning radius, but until you experience what it means in a tight space, it's hard to grasp what the numbers actually translate to! It turned a one shot turn in and back out against a tight fence space into a 3 point maneuver!

Thanks for looking up the numbers!

 

The cool black rims behind the ugly hub caps.

 

^ +1 to everything NavySeal said.

Especially #2, gotta love the color changing Clear Sky matallic.

Re #16; I got trim 5 and sprung the extra $5000 for the Adv. Tech. Pkg. with the "moonroof like view" and my whole family enjoys the view. Especially my 7 year old daughter. I only miss not being able to open it the 4 - 10 times per year I would open my SunRoof in my former RX-300.

 

Numbers 1 & 6 made me chuckle after the mpg at 80mph thread. I agree 100% with you though and am also a reformed lead foot playing the mpg game. I laugh at myself when I'm disappointed by 40mpg (coming from 20 in the last car). My best is 52 and I'm going to beat that this summer.

It is healthier in general from your wallet to you. I don't drive anymore looking in my rear view mirror for blue lights. I relax and enjoy the ride. In an accident lower speeds improve odds. So I see win win on all sides other than obnoxious drivers who don't get it.
Enjoy! W

 

That I thought I already practiced pulse and glide before driving my Prius v, but really didn't. Despite good driving habits, I was disappointed at first about getting only about 40-42 mpg for the first 100 miles or so, but discovered how to truly pulse and glide to average closer to 50 mpg on the highway. Still have to get better mpg and I'm happy with that. It should cut out all speeding tickets! I now drive only on the slow (right) lane if possible. Never thought I'd do that.

 

I just discovered this the other day. The horn is pathetic. It's got to be one of the wimpiest horns I have ever heard. Some driver nearly backed into my car, and I really had to bang on the horn for him to even notice and stop.

 

12. That top glove compartment holds A LOT of gum

19. Haha! Ditto. I would never have joined a Mazda5 Chat.

 

I just witnessed the radar cruise control in action the other day and it worked like a charm. I can see this being a bigger safety feature than I realized.

Andy

 

1. While attempting to get as good or better mileage than the G2, which this replaced, the lighter foot I'm applying w. the v gets me to work within about a minute, if not the same exact amount of time, than the heavier foot driving I did with my G2 (truly a light bulb moment for me).

2. Another surprise, while shopping between this and the 2012 G3, was how little I liked the center console arch and higher dash in the G3 (or its candy-striped rear lens assembly). The space around the driver in the v is a lot more like the G2, which I prefer. Suspension/stability is also a lot stiffer and better in corners than my G2 (as well as the G3 I test drove).

3. I'm also surprised to find that the extra height provides much better visibility around the vehicles in front of me (esp. SUVs and minivans). Nice. Also the bigger doors and height make it much, much easier to get in/out.

4. That, after all these years, Toyota hasn't figured out that, with slightly better speakers, their otherwise acceptable audio system would sound sooo much better (... off to perform the same weekend speaker swap I did 6 years ago on my G2).

5. That, for less than $5k more than I bought the '05 6 years ago, I get all this:

• more HP but approx. same mpg
• a lot more space (really a lot!)
• 17 in. (v. 15 in.) tires on nicer wheels
• rear disc brakes
• softex (v. fabric)
• back up cam
• auto-on led lamps
• HD radio / nav / bluetooth / usb / ipod integration
• adjustable, sliding, reclining rear seats
• heated seats / door mirrors
• auto-dim rear view mirror
• 4 driving modes (vs. 1)
• more airbags
• tire pressure sensor/indicator
• better MFD features
• telescoping steering wheel
• a nice little pouch to keep all my manuals in (*grin*)

I'm sure there's more I'll remember after submitting this, but I don't know how they do it and can't be happier.

 

this is my first prius, and i'm not sure if it's just the aerodynamics of the car, but i'm surprised that the windshield seems very prone to bug splatter.

 

Sounds like a defective PCS.

 

I don't have my prius yet ... but on my other cars - I use RainX ... on the windshield...and side windows. it's a clear polymer that's like wax for a windhsield... makes the rain bead up and just blow off the screen, no need for wipers most of the time (as long as you keep it fresh, reapply quarterly for best results) ... it also does well to fend off the bug spatter.

 

How many people don't read their owner's manual.

 

Yesterday I was fooling around with the EV mode (button) a little and realized that you could be in the EV mode in either ECO, NORMAL or PWR. I always thought that the EV mode was mutually exclusive of the others, since I never really used it much.

So instead of four modes (EV, ECO, NORMAL & PWR) there are really six:

- ECO
- NORMAL
- PWR
- EV/ECO
- EV/NORMAL
- EV/PWR

May be I'm just late to the party on this!