Your complaints/disappointments with your C?

I miss a good satellite radio antenna. The Prius C satellite radio antenna is the worst I have ever encountered, ever. I would also love to see the Prius C with a bit more power. The 99 hp is noticeable, especially when going up steep hills. While these two complaints may seem aggressive, in all I am happy with it and I wouldn't go back to my challenger.

 

Now I have had just the opposite experience with the voice command system. I have been amazed at how accurate it interprets my voice. When it's not sure, it offers a list to choose from. Ambient noise will have a major impact - like other people in the car talking, road noise, my radar detector beeping, even just having the window open and not speaking towards the mic makes a difference. But absent any of those factors, I am quite pleased with how it works.

She does have difficulty pronouncing certain words, but that is more amusing than annoying.

 

Interesting how different the experience can be for different people....

The satellite antenna has performed flawlessly for me.

I already noted how awful the voice recognition has been for me.

 

My biggest complaint is the noise in the car. Road noise, wind noise, and just exterior noises in general. Both my F-150's were so quiet inside and my Volvo S60 before that was pretty much silent. It's really the only reason I don't like the car and the reason I probably won't be having it very long.

 

You should try a Mazda 3, now that is noisy.

 

The engine is so quiet that I guess you do hear some of these other noises!

 

Rattles in the dash and center console when driving over any road that is bumpy. I loved how tight my BMW was, never a squeek or rattle. After just over a year my Prius is getting cheap feeling and the plastic on plastic rattles are annoying. BMW just came out with an electric car for 2014 so I can see another Beemer in my future

 

BMW I3 is nice, but it has cheap nice person looking door panels that are made of recycled plastic. For $50k they could of made the interior nicer. Oh and then I have read that the I3 has many problems, more than a rattle.

 

My complaints:
(1) the headlights have a cut-off shelf (with visibility) that is bad for tall drivers
(2) LOUSY speakers: my 13y.o. VW had much, much better factory sound
(3) weird condensation above dash in summer or warm/weather
(4) lack of user-friendly lights (e.g., glove compartment; trunk; vanity mirrors)

 

The lousy speakers are a by-product of having a C1, but the 2/3/4 aren't much better. The headlights sound like they might need to be adjusted up a little. Everything else I agree with.

 

Dang, I spoke too soon.. Slow tire leak...

We got a rusty paper staple (wire diameter like a straight pin) in a tire, on the thread, but near the edge between the sidewall and thread..
Gas station guy said no way... Looks like we need to buy a new tire now.. Less than 7,000 miles on the car..

When I pulled it out, only about 6 or 7 mm of the staple had penetrated the tire!
It wasn't all the way in! These aren't very heavy duty tires..
I could see this happening to a bicycle tire.. But not on a car..

 

Can't break 70 mpg.

 

Coyote303 you are lucky if your sat. antenna doesn't cut out. As soon as I pass by tall trees my antenna cuts out almost instantly. I never had this issue with my dodge. I was doing some research and apparently this is a common problem with Toyotas. That being said it is a small price to pay for an excellent vehicle.

 

The wind noise is annoying, but the large external mirrors probably cause it and I think they're excellent.

However the harsh ride is inexcusible, and one may not become aware of it when driving a strange demonstrator carefully around the dealer's showroom. I found that replacing the Bridgestone "sports" tyres fitted as original equipment with Continental CC5 tyres improved the ride and decreased the noise level significantly (as claimed by Continental), but it's an expensive remedy. And I found the CC5s seem to perform best when maintained at their recommended pressure of 32 p.s.i.

The seats are like rocks, and seem to be made of some sort of expanding foam sprayed inside the covers. Finally, the head restraints are angled so far forward that a short person is forced to tilt their head downwards.

Altogether, a D- for comfort.

The engine design is excellent, but it needs more power and I doubt that would markedly reduce fuel consumption.

David L

 

no car alarm system
no hood access to just start car (2012).

Other than that no problems

 

I think the side support on the seat is really cheap, sometimes I'm afraid to reach for anything in the back fearing it'll break. Even if it feels cheap, it is still pretty comfortable.

 

I haven't looked at all the comments, but it strikes me that having LED headlights, even if only as an aftermarket option, would fit well with the power saving aspect of the c.

 

They have them in Japan and Australia (not sure about Australia, but I believe this is true).

 

Now that I've had my C3 for more than 6 months, the little things that bother me are the airbag light and the rear windshield wiper, but that's partially my own fault as I had no idea how dirty the back of a hatchback gets. The things I knew were cons when I bought the car were the upholstery--sorry, I think the silvery-grey color is jsut asking to get stained, especially given my penchant for red lipstick and sure enough, I already have one little spot I need to try to get rid of, and the rear headrests, which block everything and which I just took out altogether since I rarely have anyone sitting back there.