exGen3 owner, now 2 days with his new Gen4...WOW!

Well, the Honda Civic has only a hybrid version like the Prius or has x number of other conventional drivetrains on offer? How much does the Civic Hybrid *only* sell?

If I had to go out and about if a car is the best one or not based on sales numbers here in the EU, I would say that from what I see here in Germany, Honda Civic is actually worse than the Prius (not even taxis are Civics) and both are nothing in a land full of VWs, BMWs, etc.

BTW: the drivetrain used by the Prius today, is the platform that will be used on the Auris and the Yaris, which are currently using refined Gen2 and Gen3 hybrid drivetrains.
Both sell really well, especially outside of Germany, and about a third of them are hybrid versions. And by the millions in Europe (just last week the 3 millionth Yaris was sold).

Prius sells really well in Holland, UK, and Italy from what I see (cannot comment on other countries) and is used broadly as a taxi everywhere. A company here in Munich has only Prius+ taxis, just as common as Mercedes E class taxis.

The USA is a big and important market, but not the only one on the planet.

 

So the dipstick is not available anymore in the EU. And the manual is wrong because it is translated without any thought into it from whatever English version they get from Japan (I suppose). They say that the washing fluid tank is better visible and hence the stick is not necessary anymore.
A few additional points in these past days of driving:

• at startup only, and for the time being I can only say after a few hours the car has been off, I hear a distinct "clack" noise from the engine bay (or so it seems) when I reach exactly 22km/h-~13mph. It is not related to ICE running, because I can hear it also if driving with the ICE off (EV). Also, if I immediately reduce the speed and reach 22km/h it does not repeat. Weird - what could it be? what is activated at that speed? the front grille?
• the behaviour of the HSD drive at mid-low speeds is quite different from Gen3. As I already mentioned the warm-up sequence at start up happens "randomly", regardless of battery charge (with 2 bars the ICE doesn't fire-up "immediately" after turning on the car - and sometimes at 5 bars, it does start up immediately....???). Moreover, once you have picked enough speed and the battery cannot push anymore because too empty, the ICE starts the warm-up sequence - not after a certain period of time, and at speeds and RPMs where typically you would not expect that to be efficient or good for the engine itself. When then driving around 40-70km/h // 25-45mph, the MG2 seems to push way more than Gen3 during warm-up which merrily seems to be doing his thing...
• once warm-up is finished, sometimes the HSD decides that in the ECO-area it is OK to fire the ICE and makes it run at much higher RPMs as one would expect from a Gen3 at the same speed (that is, it seems the ICE is running more independently from wheel speed as before - likely at higher efficiency). I simply didn't bother with it and thought, as it would happen in Gen3, that fuel consumption would go up - it actually went down after a while...
• as mentioned before, "pulse and glide" seems to still be the way to go to reduce fuel consumption, but one doesn't need anymore to completely take off the foot from the pedal to "force" EV mode, one simply reduces the pressure on the gas pedal to land in the EV mode area of the HSI bar, and the HSD enters EV mode automatically, no more gas pedal "trick" necessary anymore
• when driving constantly at the range of speeds mentioned above, the ICE seems to change RPMs more often than expected when slightly accelerating, sometimes going up sometimes going down...
• sometimes it feels that the ICE is rotating even at low speed, even if in EV mode (i.e. the gas pedal has a slight vibration, like as if the ICE is on, and EV light is on!)
• transitions between EV Mode and ICE On are so seamless it is almost disturbing, compared to Gen3 where I got used to knowing more or less exactly when the ICE would kick in the only hint sometimes the ICE is on is a slight vibration at the gas pedal...
• preliminary DTE analysis shows that the MFD started assuming (first tank!) a fuel consumption of 2.9L/100km // 81MPG and then it moved it up to 3.5L/100km // 67MPG while Trip A tank currently shows 4L/100km // 59MPG (which BTW would be the lowest tank in (mostly) city traffic I have ever made since owning a Prius hybrid!). Not clear yet how many L reserve the MFD takes into consideration to estimate the DTE. I will not know for this tank when the first "tank empty" beep will come up as I will need to fuel up much earlier than that.
• I have a "voice command" button on my steering wheel, but when I press it the media center says "function not available" - I am confused, why did they put the button at all??? is it maybe language dependent and I have it only if I set everything to German (not my first language, all is set in any case to English). I have to try to set everything in German and see if it works
• is there any way to remove the pop-up disclaimer for the cruise control showing up each time you reach 50km/h // 35mph ...???
• tried parallel parking with IPA - it seems to park always too far away from the curb, especially the rear wheels - why? am I doing something wrong using it - or is it after all a gimmick? rear parking works well instead - though I rarely rear park...

All this being said, my commute to work today yielded (MFD) a nice 3.9L/100km // 60MPG which is 15% less than what I got with Gen3 on the same route/temps/average speed. And I haven't even broke in the car yet (drove so far 630km//390mi only - break in is over at 1600km//1000mi).
I still have to calculate what is the real fuel consumption vs MFD values, and then the % delta mentioned above will be more accurate. For the time being, I am assuming that the MPG reported from the MFD is based on the same algorithm as Gen3 MFD and that both MFDs are 6% optimistic.
I will fuel up tomorrow as I have a long-ish trip this weekend and my first long highway trip since owning the Gen4.

 

Official answer from Toyota Germany - via telephone (with explanation), and via FB page where they told me simply "it is not delivered anymore" (without saying why).
Too bad the manual is translated dumbly...and makes you think they forgot to put the stick in...and the stick is also available as an orderable part...

If you think about it - without a dash light telling you the washing fluid is getting low, the use of the dipstick is limited, unless you are really anal about it and check the level every x days/months. What I do, I keep with me always a bottle full of washing liquid, and when it is empty, I fill up. What the stick would tell me doesn't help me much at all. A light in the dash would, but that costs money and clearly EU customers are not complaining about it all.
As I said in a previous post, at the dealer we have checked that Aygo, Auris, RAV Hybrid, Yaris, do not have a dipstick.

 

Ah! more visible than in Gen3 for sure ...

 

This is a step back then from Gen3 because I had basic voice recognition commands even without any Navigation system. I was thinking to get at least those. Then I don't understand why they built in the button if it has no use at all....

(Yes, parallel parking, that's what I meant.)
Or when they are not parked with a similar distance from the curb. I think that is the issue most times. Finding a spot works really well, but last time I used it my car was a good 10cm out (compared to both cars front/back), as the rear right wheel/corner was quite far away from the curb....
I need to try it again in peace and quiet on a side road with no traffic.