Poor decisions on Prime by Toyota

agree with the ones i understand. not sure how much each would cost, and some are only a different decision.

 

You know that the position of the HUD is adjustable? Are you saying it is not adjustable enough? I had to move mine slightly to the right and up when I got the car. I wonder what the front camera shows. What I need is one displaying how close the bottom front of the car is to the raised curb when parking.

 

the lowered chassis is another issue.

 

i had to adjust my hud up too but it's only a up down and brightness adjustment. the way i sit, the right most digit has about 1/4 inch missing.

i applaud you for the interior LED's, the cruse, and extended / limit charge EV topics. i live on a hill and more than once i run out of charge coming up the hill and the ICE comes on 500 feet from the house just to sit in the driveway warming up. LED's were the first thing i upgraded and LED reverse Lights.

 

All valid points, but no complains from me. This is the best new car I've ever owned. A 50+ mpg, PHEV, comfortable - and one of the safest vehicles on the road today. And getting a $28,000+ vehicle for a total of $16,000 - one of the best deals, too.

 

I really would have appreciated ventilated softex seats - or even better, alcantra seats (but I understand that this is a super expensive option most non-sportscar buyers aren't going to pick)

I agree that the car doesn't have enough information displayed regarding charging or EV operation. I assume that it's mostly due to the fact that the Prime is kind of a modified regular Prius, and is a bit of a compliance car.

I really would have liked the ability to run the AC/heat while the car is charging. Maybe I'm doing it wrong - all the times I've tried it won't do both at the same time.

I think there are some legal quandries regarding recording of the front facing camera - see the issues Chevrolet had with the Z06 Performance Data Recorder and its Valet Mode: Using new Corvette’s valet-recording tech could be a felony in some states | Ars Technica

I would love a nose camera to show me how far the front of the car is from curbs though.

The interior LED issue seems like something they should have addressed on the base Prius and extended to the Prime. I've been thinking of getting some custom LED interior lighting engineered for the enclosures though.

I maintain that for the money, the Prime is an excellent car.

 

Quick charging reduces battery life, and requires more intelligence to minimize that. A great many of your electrical desires are going to make a much heavier vehicle. "It fits in a pickup" is not a argument it should fit in a small car.

Great! One of my complaints on both my Gen2 and v is that cruise control is not trying to get good MPG when accelerating. I am happy they addressed that.

That would be an asset in MS.

I can't find any hint if that is legal in the US, in the UK "It is legal to fit television equipment in a motor vehicle. However, if the screen of the television can be seen by the driver then it is only lawful to display information about the state of the vehicle, or about the location of the vehicle and the road which it is on, or information to assist the driver to see the road adjacent to the vehicle, or to assist the driver to reach his destination.

It is unlawful for the driver to watch screens for entertainment purposes (e.g. TV programmes or DVDs) at any time while driving, including when stopped at traffic lights." So in the UK it would be legal.

 

I'm going to try to tie this commentary into this thread...trust me.
But I really enjoyed a documentary about the design and release of the New Ford Mustang called "A Faster Horse". Whether you like Ford or have an affinity for Mustangs, what the documentary really brought to light was the real huge picture and numerous challenges in designing, then building a mass produced automobile.

What you see is the real challenge in building and design. That every part is tied to every other part, and often what we as customers or outside entities might perceive as simple or "Why didn't they just do this?" things, become real challenges to change as the design of a new vehicle is created.
It's not only design, but also parts availability, vendor supply issues, and the tangible ability to build the vehicle in quantity on an assembly line.

That's not to say criticism of a vehicle isn't valid. That it doesn't lead to improvement and change. But I often think it's much easier for us as consumers to see the complaint, than it is for a manufacturer to make those "simple" changes once the vehicle is already in production or nearing production.

In any case, "A Faster Horse" is a readily available documentary, I would recommend anyone who likes vehicles, the car industry and/or has any affinity for Mustangs watch it, very interesting.

 

Presumably, since it's a thing on our Model S, it's legal.

I agree with you in a broad sense, since the rough estimate for bringing a car to market has been 10 years and a billion dollars, but some of this stuff is literally just software. Getting the vehicle to display some numbers (which I understand has a non-zero cost since there's probably regulations regarding how accurate the numbers are) should not be a particularly significant challenge for an enormous carmaker like Toyota.

 

• Can't easily monitor miles/kWh in real-time like you can MPG. I don't see why I have MPG on the trip display when my day or drive has been 100% EV.

Sure you can. Split screen mode. Page 200-203. Swap out the display on the MID. There are, I believe, four choices to display, and the miles/kW is one of them, and it is near instant. It also looks and works identical to the mpg version except for the "miles/kWh." Automatically switches to mpg display in hybrid mode and swaps to miles/kW in EV.

Other things to add: The three different momentary mode selection displays on the mid show three different color cars when switching, and yet, strangely, only two different color backgrounds behind the big speed display. I can understand red for POWER, but where's green for ECO?

Also kill the very top portion of the 11" display of the car entirely! I know what color my car is, and what it looks like. I want the map to take up as much real estate as possible. I can understand some area for cell phone status and strength, and that can be up there, but the rest of the top UI is useless as designed. Likewise, that map OPTIONS virtual button does not belong sticking way out to the right and in the way of what I want to have the thing display.

• Should be able to pre-heat the battery like you can the cabin, while on mains power. Makes the battery discharge more efficiently. More range when it's cold.

It already does this automatically, when under 32 degrees, and up to 3 days (or 31 days in Canada). Page 127.

 

In his defense, (and I'm assuming that the screen displaying the instantaneous barplot is what you are referring to) the barplot isn't super easy to read with any precision - I think he just wants an actual miles/kWh number displayed (I'd like a Wh/mi so I can compare to our Model S).

 

Yes, I want an easy text readout too. There is a text miles/kWh readout available on the right MID, as a cumulative figure, using the ^ scroll on the right-most ring of the steering wheel, as one of the seven modes. It is resettable as A or B. I write that down as I do refills, or if/when I do refills, prior to the B reset.

 

Very well summarised! I totally agree with all you pointed out.

I have 2 more points:

1. GPS is almost useless compare to a smart phone. Please either improve the GPS or give us Apple/andorid play.

2. Make the 11.6 inch touch screen more useful! It is only "useful" for AC and radio since I have no other choice. It is basic useless and most car related infor were sitll on the narrow/tiny screen.

 

As a former auto industry person, the poor decisions were mostly likely made on purpose. The prius prime is not a huge profit margin vehicle, Toyota most likely has data that states ignoring these issues results in 18% of potential Prime customers purchasing a Camry, Avalon, or 4Runner.