The Blue Men show off the new Prius

Is that a centered mounted instrument panel? Yuc. My neck hurts already thinking about constantly looking to the right to check my speed.

 

I have to agree whole-heartedly. Whoever designed the interior of this new Prius has never ever even driven a Prius in traffic. The car engine of course changes RPM almost independantly of vehicle speed. So one must check speed by the instruments. And having that off-line from down the road is a BIG hazard.

 

Well it has been working in Yaris for years.
Have you ever driven a car with a cetrally mounted high mounted digital speedo?

 

One of the reasons I hated the Yaris, the center mounted dash.

 

I thought about buying the yaris for my Son, but decided against it because of the off center instrument panel. Yaris is a low end car and it is understandable they want to save money there, by having a console in the same spot in Japan as in the U.S.

 

Hi Pats...,

Well, like I said, the Prius Engine does not have a tight linkage to roadspeed. The traditional Yaris drivetrain obviously does. One could easily get used to engine pitch to give a good indication of road speed. That simply is not the case in a Prius.

Evan -

I personally do not think whoever design the next generation Prius controls and interior did NO thinking whatsoever. Its so screwed up from a design that matches the car, to one that matches old-technology cars, that its simply horrendous!

 

I see the little MPH indicator between the 2 concentric circles. Looks like MPH will be in front of the driver as it is now.

They've moved the energy monitor onto the screen for the driver. That's good, no more looking to the center console.

What are they pressing overhead?

I hope an AUX port would be easily accessble. The current location in center box not well thought out.

If this is a production Prius, it's looks really good. They've kept the shape that works, but it looks sportier in all the right places. I like the curved brake light lenses. Front end looks nice and current like the Corolla, etc...

I wouldn't mind the center console between the seats. Looks like they left space underneath the console for stuff.

Gosh, can they just unveil the thing already and get it into the showrooms.

Blue Man crew is a crackup, very funny. I like the way dude throws the boomerang away

 

One of the rules of driving is to make yourself at one with the car. Hold your knee against the door and your other knee against the console, oh hang on, there is no console. Well now there is, and there is space under it for putting stuff.
I wonder if there will be a draw still?

 

I had an Echo, which had a center console, and personally thought it was great.

 

Hi Evan,

A HUD for speed would make sense. But it would be duplicious, design wise. And not reliable in all driving conditions.

I have always driven two-handed. So putting the shifter in the area between the passengers is much further away. I mean not all roads are straight and level. I do not see a Barney Oldfield ball on that steering wheel to allow one to steer single handed.

The right hand belongs on the steering wheel whenever possible. And the further away from the wheel it is, the more time it takes to get back to the wheel. Having the shifter right next to the wheel like it is in the present Prius, was a stroke of genious. And taking away even more knee room in a narrow car is just plain dumb.

 

Hi All,

I hate the new console. My right knee gets sore just thinking about it. I had one in the SL2, and it was a constant problem. I partially disassembled it the first week I owned the car, so I could fit my foot underneath. Otherwise my foot would not be centered on the gas pedal, and was in danger of pushing the brake at the same time. Also, so I could turn my leg sideways to get more clearance for the knee. Over the five years I drove that car, I always had a sore spot on my knee where the knee banged into the stupid console.

People come in all shapes. I am wide and shorter. Consoles just take up space to fit the wide variety of people.

I will probably wait for the fifth generation Prius, or go with another hybrid car (Ford?) in about 10 years, rather than buy into a debilitating cockpit design.

 

My take on the center console bridge and re-placement of the shifter knob.

This isn't a manual tranny car, so you aren't going to be shifting it all the time. Drive, Reverse, occasionally B mode. In normal driving, you will never touch it, once you are moving forward.

Tall people have complained about bumping the shifter with their knees. As a "close to nature" person (okay, short), I can't quite see that happening, but I have seen it mentioned, occasionally. Having it off to the side might alleviate that.

Personally, I'm hoping that they put the cruise control somewhere else. Having it turn with the wheel drives me a little bonkers, and it's too close to the wiper control for comfort.

I love the rear end lights merging into the spoiler... and I think the front end is intentionally "macho" looking to appeal to men *sigh*... and, I think that center console bridge thing is part of the macho appeal thing -- it makes the car have that "cockpit" feel, which I've seen in some sports cars.

I'm more about function over form, myself...

 

Where, how do you see that?

 

The center instrumental panel contains information (Energy / Consumption screens) from the MFD but further down near the windshield so the eyes need less focusing. It also has the buttons from the steering wheels to confirm the right button is pressed. This is much better than looking down on the steering wheel looking for the right button that is very dimly lit.

 

The position of the MPH is not bad. From the driver's point of view shot, it seems to be in the line of sight to the road.