Prius Deal Breaker

Thief!

 

People have the freedom to make whatever they want become a "Deal Breaker". If it's a deal breaker for you? Then those issues are a deal breaker for you and nothing anyone says is going to convince you otherwise.

I'd say this, I think subconciously, sometimes, people who already own a Prius and are happy with it, are looking at the 2010 more with an eye to find justification for keeping what they already have. I can understand that if you are happy with the product you have you might be more inclined to look at the 2010 and go "It's nice BUT..." Then you hop in your beloved 2007 and drive home feeling good about having convinced yourself you have the superior product. I think that's all fine. There is much to love about the Generation 2 and there are things on the ledger that fall on the advantage Generation 2 side.

Speaking as someone who has evaluated both the 2009 and 2010 without prior or current ownership prejudice attached while I loved the 2009, I waited until the arrival of the 2010 because the improvements were so vast. Without going through the numerous advantages IMO, I'd just say I live in Oregon which doesn't allow you to pump your own gas, so the new Bladderless gas tank in the 2010 removes a lot of worry I would of suffered everytime I had someone else pumping my gas. For me, the improved gas tank is a "Deal Maker".

But it's all subjective. What's the line from the old 70's song? Love the one you're with? Well that's easy to do if you already have one. But for me the 2010 does represent an overall improvement, even if it does have areas where realisticly and arguably the generation 2 has an advantage.

 

hmm

I'm sorry - I have to weigh in here for the screen resolution issue.

I have a 2007 that has 82K miles on it now. I am in the car a lot. I use the NAV system and all of the screens all the time. I have spent two days with a new Prius personally, as well as countless hours in and out of the new Prius, going over features, screens, setting things up and controls and demonstrating the entire car to many buyers.

I disagree with your opinion that the screen has less detail or resolution. It's equal to or better than my 2007.

I feel strongly that you need to make an adjustment to the lighting or contrast, or I will agree to disagree with you. I have good eyesight. I don't use glasses. I guess we just disagree that the screen's so vastly different in the NAV display that it would be a deal breaker.

We are discussing your NAV screen, right? Not the mileage bars display on the dash itself?

 

Its not a computer screen or HDTV though...its a nav screen...in a car. You're not supposed to be staring at it anyways....you won't be able to enjoy these things when you get older? Says who? My dad is 66 and he enjoys his HDTV very much. Get laser surgery...bizarre

And even if it only cost them a few dollars to reduce the resolution of the screen, you spread that across all the units and it has an impact. If you don't want cost-cutting in a hybrid, I suggest you shell out $120k for an LS600hL. Nice high res nav screen in that.

And you just said you like your '07 primarily because its paid for. Nothing wrong with that, my cars are paid for too and its awful hard to think about car payments again once you get used to not having any, no matter how nice a new car is...

However, that doesn't change the fact that the 2010 Prius is a significant improvement over the Gen II in many ways, whether it has a slightly lower resolution nav screen or not. So I would say by your own admission you are a pretty textbook case of exactly what "The Electric Me" was describing.

 

TIDELAND. i raise your black, put aside the green and i say let's get the BLUE.

so, in a serious question. RU saying that...............drumroll...........dont get upset...........that the tech package AND the solar panel can be had together? what's this package called and how come my dealer tells me that it's not available???

 

$100 per car and how many nav cars do they build in a year, worldwide? You're talking about a very expensive proposition to an issue that 99% of consumers aren't going to care about or notice. Little things here and there add up and when you put them together its what helps them deliver a car at a specific price. The carpet in the car is pretty awful IMHO, same with the previous Prius. They could upgrade that, some of the plastics are thin and hard, they could use softer touch plastics. It wouldn't cost much to add additional SKS sensors in the rear doors like more expensive models right? May as well do that. You put all this stuff together and all of a sudden you've got a much more expensive Prius.

Plenty of more expensive cars you can buy if you want those things. The Prius is a midmarket car, its not a luxury car.

Anyways like I said, tons of features in the Prius for the price, features you have to spend $80k+ to get in other cars, I think quibbling over a slight reduction in the resolution of the nav screen (which is definately the case I agree) is preposterous IMHO. Its like staying in a Holiday Inn and complaining that the bathroom doesn't have marble & granite. True, a Holiday Inn is not a Motel 6...but its not a Ritz Carleton either.

I'm with you, I like the sharp screen too but when you aren't comparing it constantly to a sharper screen its not going to be something that is going to stand out...at least to me.

 

Is the screen the same size. The pictures make it look like the new screen is bigger. If so, the same resolution on a bigger screen would look less sharp.

 

Bit of a shame that Toyota cheaped out on the resolution for the 2010 screen

 

Thanks for the side-by-side. After seeing it, you are correct, there is a difference, however I still stand behind my statement that if THIS is the dealbreaker for you, you may not be seeing the forest for the trees.

Frankly, while I do see a difference, I don't think it is in any way going to detract from my experience of driving the car.

 

I haven't seen the nav on the previous generation Prius but I too was disappointed with the resolution of the nav screen when I test drove the 2010, especially compared with my Garmin. I thought, from reading other comments, that the Prius nav had improved with the Gen III (although there are still a lot of complaints). So you're saying it's actually worse?

 

Daniel, I agree with you about the placement. The display is lower than than the Gen II MFD and doesn't seem safe.

If/when I get a 2010, I definitely want the solar roof option. That's one of the main reasons I want to upgrade in the first place. The nav package is part of the solar roof package. If it weren't, I would probably not buy the nav -- even though I would definitely miss the backup camera. It does annoy somewhat that you have to buy the nav, which seems to be inferior on many counts, in order to get the backup camera and the solar roof but probably not in itself a dealbreaker. I can see that it could be though.

 

While I was not overly impressed with the new Gen III interior in general, the tipping point for me was the 15" wheels in most of the models, and the lack of a Touring option package, was a primary reason for me to get a loaded 09 Touring.

After owning a Prius for 3 years, the handling was a big issue with me. The Touring package is a marked improvement from the standard Prius, and I really wanted that in my next Prius.

The facts that I was able to get $$$ off on the Touring, plus the cheap financing and package 6, sealed the decision for me. Driving my buddy's Gen III convinced me that I made the right decision (in my case).

Each person makes purchase decisions based on their set of needs, which in no way invalidates decisions made by others. There is much to like about the Gen III, and for many, the features and choices offered by the Gen III is what they were after.

I think a reasonable takeaway here is that the Gen III has improvements in some areas, and trade offs from the Gen II in others. Which one is better overall depends on ones priorities.