Strongly Considering 2017 Prius: Unsure Which Trim (Two vs. Three) + Miscellaneous Questions

Adaptive cruise control is worth every penny. Imagine sitting in stop and go traffic and letting the car drive itself. I wouldn't buy another car without it.

 

wow, right down to stop and go? that's amazing!

 

There's a lot of things in life, until you have them everything's fine, but when you get them it's "how did I ever manage without them!?". The answer is kinda tricky; there is a certain amount of smoke-and-mirrors involved when getting new stuff.

 

I believe there is some mention in manual that yes the data is saved, but I have not seen anyone actually be able to view it themselves. Presumably only Toyota would be able to with their Techstream or some other specialized hardware. And maybe it only saves when there is a serious crash event (air bag deployment). You can also hardwire the dash camera to record when the car is off (requires hardware that will self turn off when battery depletes below a certain level), so if you park in a parking lot and someone bumps/scrapes and then drives off, you can review the footage.

 

It is really useful in Los Angeles crazy rush hour traffic. Recently, I found myself using the freeway more instead of taking local streets. The commute may be a little longer but there is way less traffic-related stress on the body. Mpg went way up in stop-and-go traffic (high 60) with the car taking over most of the driving duty. The adaptive cruise control (right down to the stop and go) is the #1 reason we bought the gen-4 Prius.

 

I currently have a 2015 but am strongly considering trading for a three touring, primarily because it has fog lights. I've had a couple of scary rides not having fog lights.

 

you can add them for a lot less than the hit you'll take trading up.

 

I thought some users with fog lights found they were more for appearance than functional.
Somebody feel free to correct me if I am mistaken.

 

My, albeit limited, experience with Fog Lights on Gen 4 is that they aren't all that good - in fact, I've found very few modern cars where the Fog Lights are made for fog, mainly for show (many are just not focused at all, just spraying light everywhere including into the oncoming driver's eyes).

Not like the Fog Lights in the '60s and '70s where they gave a narrow, low beam under the fog and didn't reflect back in your eyes (I well remember the VOLVO 164E I had where they were great in heavy fog where I lived). The low-beam LED headlight of PRIUS is one of the better ones in fog as it has a sharp top cut-off.

 

If 4th Gen OEM fog lights are similar to 3rd gen, I wouldn't expect much. I can barely tell the difference, off vs on, on our 2010.

Way back when, I carpooled with a Supra owner, had excellent fog lights. But ours, purely cosmetic.

 

Ditto! just a gimmick.

The auto stop feature has saved my butt several times. But if you are a safe careful young driver you do not need it. LOL

 

Sir, fog lights don't help you see through fog any better... even the best ones!
It's just their lower position on the car helps stop reflected glare coming right back to take you, especially at night. The thing about fog is that most people drive too fast through it! They think they can still see enough road ahead, BUT, the human eye gets confused in fog and loses the ideal focal length, focusing just ahead of the car instead of at the (normally) sharp image of the feature way up ahead. And the human brain does not detect this change of focus.

When Ford first introduced their heated windscreens with fine wires across the windshield, it was discovered that in fog, the driver's she began to focus on these sites instead of the road without realising.

So my message to you is to forget about fog lights. Slow down instead and consciously focus on the road.

 

I agree with everyone. Don't get the fog lights (especially don't buy a whole new car for fog lights). It's often a feature on higher trim cars to make the exterior look premium. I do suggest a Prius Two for the standard active safety features. They have saved me several times. Automatic braking works in the fog, fog lights don't have any effect.

 

Not completely in jest: just get some cheap knock-off foglights, and don't bother to wire them up, purely for looks.

Or: there was one member here who painted the flat-black foglight inserts body colour, looked really good.

 

Boy, thanks for all the reactions! I remember my fog lights from my volvo 164 and they worked well.
Can I swap out the bulbs in my Gen 3 for good LED bulbs, if so any suggestions.

 

Gen 3 original LED headlights are completely different assembly. I don't think it's that easy: if there are aftermarket LED bulbs, maybe a lot of compromise??

 

I never looked at DRCC + auto braking that way. Definite good to have that in the foggy seasons/areas. Alas, not so much if you get rear-ended by someone else though.

 

You have to wonder if there ever were good fog lights.

It's a no from me on LED aftermarket headlights. They just don't spread out light even enough. The positive reviews I've read on Amazon and seen on YouTube are puzzling to me because light output is clearly less than stock in their pictures or video. You also see further with stock bulbs. So I don't know why the reviewers say it's a good upgrade. Yes the LED is brighter but only in spots. Its actually more distracting because there are dark and light spots.

I previously had aftermarket HIDs until the ballast shorted out. So I'm not one to tell you this is off-road use only and stop blinding other people. I like the whiter look of LED or HID but I'll wait for the next generation LED and reevaluate.