Post-reveal thoughts

While I didn't make it to Detroit, I managed to figure out how to pull
down big batches of everybody's pictures and went through them fairly
carefully. That led to several questions and comments, as one might
imagine. I'm posting this over here because I'd like the whole
community to at least be thinking about some of these things, not
just a small subset.
.
Powertrain
.
The inverter looks like that if you unbolt that one oddly L-shaped
black cover, you get access to ALL the 3-phase motor and battery
connections at once. Confirm, please? That's a nice layout for
anyone going to remove the inverter.
.
It seems weird that they'd leave the mesh "basket" of shielding around
the motor wires open to the underhood elements, rather than wrapping
a secondary rubber shroud around it. That seems destined to be a
real crap-catcher over the long haul.
.
What is the little block of electronics wedged in diagonally next to
the inverter with several harness plugs into it? I hope they didn't
choose to mount any ECUs out there in road-dirt land. Things like
that *always* get crapped up and corroded.
.
I like that they put the brake-fluid reservoir over on the left where
it belongs, near the rest of the brake system. Less hydraulic
plumbing going across the firewall..
.
The new throttle-body and drive motor seems much more compact. And
am I seeing it right that the post-throttle intake plenum is now
plastic instead of metal?
.
The intake snorkel up to the air box looks pretty bulky and in the way
of everything; would it be easily removable? For what it's worth,
I have been running my '04 without the snorkel for years, just the
airbox inlet open to the underhood air. Maybe that's why my warm-air
intake experiments made so little difference, hmmm...
.
Can someone please explain exactly what the exhaust heat-recovery
rig does? Where exactly is the exchanger in the coolant path, and
what is the control-valve strategy [if any] around it? How does it
help mitigate a dead-cold start, now that the "bottle" is gone?
.
Please confirm that the "naked" display unit has a deliberate big
discontinuity in the exhaust system, i.e. the string of catalytics is
completely displaced leftward from where they'd attach to the header?
.
Did anyone get a feeling for how much 12V power the electric water
pump actually draws? Is there a variable-speed strategy for it, or
does it just run all the time the engine's on? Does it run at times
the engine *isn't* running, e.g. to help cabin heat like the aux
pump does now in the 2nd-gen?
.
What is the deep channel visible on the front of the transaxle in
the "naked" display? Does that get some sort of cover over it, like
the pan on the Classic? Why is such an opening vertically aligned?
.
Inside and control
.
It looks like the major under-dash ECU connections behind the glovebox
are mounted a little lower down, thus easier to get to. That's cool,
will make diagnostic backpinning easier.
.
While the solar-powered ventilation thing is a great idea, I bet it
won't deal well with the fact that the black *dash* acts like a big ol'
greenhouse under that big windshield and likely collects way more
heat than the vent system will be able to remove. Probably depends
on how the airflow is routed through the car.
.
I like the fact that the same "finger dance" can bring up diagnostics
on the screen. Now, how 'bout the ability to pull powertrain DTCs
through that too? The screen ECU certainly has access to all the
OBD-II data on the CANbus. Speaking of which, is it still 500 kb
network data rate?
.
It's excellent that they've finally added something akin to a charge/
assist meter. Any idea how well it reflects actual battery current
in and out, or does it fake in other factors like the Honda ones?
.
The cars were clearly powered up at least to IG-ON mode to allow
fooling with the controls, or did it make it all the way to READY?
Or was READY disabled somehow, and if so how?
.
Does the eco/power mode switch ONLY change the throttle response
curve, or other operating parameters too?
.
I'm definitely dubious about the larger center-console, as are many
other people around the forums. Perhaps a mod-project will emerge
down the road to cut pieces of that out and remount the shifter knob
back up where it belongs...
.
Exterior
.
The headlight housings have an oddly bulbous bump out to the side;
what's up with that as opposed to just matching a smooth contour
into the side of the nose? Many other newer cars have this too,
but the aesthetic was never clear to me.
.
Where's the big blinking "<-- GO AROUND" sign for the rear? [which
of course would be "GO AROUND -->" across the pond]
.
Toyota and the show
.
It looked like they brought in a bunch of big setpieces and put them
up for this, in the room with the nice wood floor. What was the
regularly-spaced sort of "rack" with all the purple light behind it?
.
The spinning "propellers" on the video behind the reveal were a
bit odd, and I was trying to figure out what they had to do with
the Prius.
.
How close to finished is the service documentation? When the New Car
Features document set is done for this, it would be awesome to get a
copy to read. That would probably explain quite a few of these things.
I sorta wish they threw the thing up on a lift for y'all to peer under.
.
_H*

 

I hope I got all the links right to these pictures. Problem is
that I bulk-downloaded my own copies and had to go back and look
through a pile for what I was talking about, pull the filenames,
and find the full URL paths in the input files to the bulk download.
But at least I still had all that info sitting around. Let me
say once again for the record that Picasa blows.
.
Here's what I mean about the inverter cover, from htmlspinnr:
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ew0L-V8SdRE/SXDcJd63E1I/AAAAAAAACUo/AIIOOkNKBu4/P1000924.JPG
the black three-and-some lobed cover appears to be over all the
high-power connection points. That's a nicer layout than three
separate places, and implies that you can disconnect and remove
the inverter without taking the big *main* cover off.
.
The wire "baskets" shielding said high-power connections look
like they'll suck up road dirt like nobody's business:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3083/3192993225_20619fff3b_b.jpg
from efusco's set.
.
The "pit" in the tranny that looks like it gets a cover is pretty
obvious in another efusco shot:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3448/3193832546_a8ba0a14ec_b.jpg
It's a flat planar rim, it's got bolt holes all around, and totally
looks like something that gets a gasket and a pan over it. Do the
passages go deep inside the housing, i.e. does transmission fluid
pass through there in some fashion?
.
The purple "racks" behind the display area are obvious in another
htmlspinnr shot:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ew0L-V8SdRE/SXDblKp7zaI/AAAAAAAACUU/nhagX84RO3E/P1000922.JPG
What was that wall made of?
.
Hanging something like this out under the hood to get all splashed
up with road salt is not a good idea, as nailed by efusco in his
exploration of underhood parts:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3474/3193843782_e897375156_b.jpg
Ford made this same mistake with the Escape. What's wrong with
stashing it INSIDE behind the glovebox as done very sensibly in the
2nd-gen?? The harness wires don't get *that* much longer between ECU
and controlled object, and all the critical noise-sensitive stuff is
shielded anyways.
.
Finally, is this standard equipment?
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ew0L-V8SdRE/SXDb_t-8_eI/AAAAAAAACUc/1_oocnE41O0/P1000923.JPG
.
_H*

 

Oh, another fun one -- this frame from the 188-megabyte
monster video of the reveal, I think it was from Toyota:



... c'mon, dudes, put some AIR in those tires!
.
_H*