I'm looking at a '16/17 Prius 3 Touring, and I have a noob question or two

I can't comment on the rest, but I have some experience with tire repair kits. I got a flat in my SRT Charger in Montana on a Sunday. I couldn't find a tire shop that was open between where I was and Colorado so I used the air compressor and the goop it pumps in, no trouble all the way home running at 85+ mph. A day or two later I had a tire shop fix the tire and clean it out, no real issue using it.

Also; I keep tire plug kits in my Jeep. They work great for rock tears and holes you might get while offroad. A friend of mine ripped a couple of small holes in his sidewall at the begining of last summer, we put about pencil sized plugs in them and he drove it that way until winter when he got new tires. Now I don't think you should be doing that, but in general tire plugs work much better than people give them credit for. In general, I think most of the time most people are fine with a tire repair kit and road side assistance. I prefer having a spare myself because I drive in some pretty remote areas and I don't want to be stranded over something as silly as a blown tire. In all my years of driving and a lot of time spent far off road I've only needed a spare tire one time.

 

Ditto, I can only comment on the Touring. It has Homelink and it works fine.

Curious did the Three have a Moon roof?

 

Mine has a moonroof. it seemed to me like the three touring couldn't have a moonroof but you couldn't get the blind spot monitoring system on just a three.... Toyota's packaging really annoyed me.

 

Sounds familiar. I am struggling with iPhone 5s texting functions at this time. Siri seems to work as well as calling functions.

 

Consider the AT package if you can find one. Love the wheels and tires on these.

So the 3T has a spare?

 

I'm with you about the heated seats and homelink, both I could have gotten in a touring but then I lost the option for the advance tech package. I don't know the magic of the grocery well so I may not understand what I'm missing but my guess is the new rear suspension eats up that space. If that's the case I'd much rather have the decent rear suspension than a hole in my trunk to store things. The AM radio.... well no one listens to AM radio.... I put it right there with the CD player. Get rid of it, save me some money and space, if you're afraid to commit to that make it an option for the dinosaurs who think they still use it.

 

It's not anything I've given much thought to as I don't notice much road noise. When I had a Jeep interior shot with line-x I did see a noticeable drop in road noise. But I'm betting that's more "rugged" than the typical Prius needs or wants. You could take it to a car stereo shop and get dynomatting installed on the floor and in the doors. You could do it yourself with an off-brand for probably something around $100.

 

Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Hold your horses, Hoss! There are still LOTS of people who listen to news and talk radio on AM... AND still have and enjoy CDs. Let us Old Dudes live our life! Not everybody is addicted to their iPhones and iPods! (But of course, all us AM folks are over 60! )

(Can you imagine a world with NO cell phones? When I was in High school, if I wanted to call somebody I had to drive around and look for a phone booth! And rock music was on only 2 AM stations!)

And chuckie, what kind of road noise are you talking about? Which model Prius? I just wear earplugs in my 2016 Three model, and it's all good!

 

And you could make prank phone calls (even from your home)... there was no Caller ID back then! Not that I ever did that.

 

That's correct, Uncut. Ok, this is way off topic. But when I was a little kid, our phone in the house (a "landline") was what they called a "Party Line." You'd go to make a call, and you'd hear other people talking! Back then, you had to share the wires. Or the airtime. Or whatever. You couldn't make a call until the other people hung up! Or, you could just sit there silently and eavesdrop on their conversations all day. No NSA needed! Very weird.

New modern technology and progress is very nice, and well needed. But I kind of miss the old, simpler times, when everything was easy to understand and operate. I never got a home computer until about 2006! I was way behind the times. And I've only owned a cell phone for about 3 years? And I still don't know how to work everything on it!

 

8 Reasons Why You Should Never Get a Sunroof - The Drive
AAA rescues a record 32 million stranded drivers | Fox News

 

First thing they say is nobody ever uses their sunroof. I use my sunroof every day. I use them in my other vehicles as well. Unless it's something like a truck with a really high roof I don't like driving vehicles without sunroofs.

 

Got rid of both of mine and gave one to my daughter. She uses it but I got to the point where the top eight applied to me.

 

The last time I looked (a month ago) Prius sales were down quite a bit. But in all fairness, most other vehicles were also in decline.

Here is the mountain west I rarely see a new Prius .... and I look for them.
It is going to be very interesting to see how it all plays out, but I'm supposing the new Hyundai Ioniq is going to take quite a 'bite' out of Prius sales, if the Ioniq measures up to the advanced hype. I really like the pictures I've seen of the Ioniq far more than the G4.
In addition, we have a very aggressive Hyundai dealership in this area.

 

Yes, they're down here too. But I suspect it's because fuel is cheap at the moment, so people are buying SUVs and twin-cab trucks. When fuel prices skyrocket again, sales will skyrocket again too. I understand Electric Vehicle sales are down too in many countries except where there is an "incentive" to buy them.

Even with cheap fuel, I couldn't see the sense of buying a Mazda 3 or Corolla which would use a realistic 8-9 litres/100km compared with my Prius which so far is averaging about 3.8 litres.