MFD Touchscreen Not Well Located

Before I remounted my driver's seat to go back further, I used to reach the MFD with a straight arm. Bit of a reach, didn't think much about it.

Now that my seat is 2.5" back, it's apparent the MFD is quite a reach, and I imagine it's a long reach for those with shorter arms also.

I have to lean forward with a straight arm to work the touchscreen.

IMO, having the touchscreen so high on the dash is another example of the poor interior design of the 2nd Gen Prius. Makes me wonder why the designers were trying so hard to get futuristic with this model while throwing away common sense like designing a touchscreen that is easy to reach.

 

Haven't tried it yet, but hope one could say a phone number or street address while driving.

I've only used the voice destination and made calls by punching in a number for bluetooth.

 

OMG! I hope the voice recognition for dialing by number is not that bad!

I was telling it a 1-925-363-xxxx and it was off every time. Added extra numbers, etc...

I was able to dial our 7 digit home number ok. Seems punching the # in would be easier.

 

When I stopped, it was able to correctly voice recognize a 10 digit phone number. I tried it again when moving and it got the number wrong repeatedly. Road noise seems to confuse the voice recognition.

I guess better have numbers programmed. Don't see a way to input a fresh number while moving.

 

Rufaro,

I sat in a Highlander in a showroom the other day. Powered off, but looked like a big touchscreen display mounted farther down the dash and well within reach, even with seat all way back and very generous legroom.

Yesterday I realized perhaps the reason Toyota skimped quite a bit on stock Gen2 driver legroom IS because the touchscreen (which is a touch control screen!) is mounted high up and recessed into the dash, and they needed to guarantee the seat fairly close to said touchscreen.

I'm just glad most audio/climate/bluetooth controls are duplicated on the steering wheel.

 

That makes sense. Your seat is probably quite close to the steering wheel and dash, so naturally the MFD is well within reach.

Me too. It's amazing how far I've come with this car in 4 months. I likely would have sold it by now at a 8 to $9k loss without having done the seat mod. That would've hurt badly. Very bad time to sell a used Gen2 Prius.

Me neither. But I do expect a $24k to $29k car (Gen2 Prius!) to have a cockpit nearly on par with a direct competitor of its day, namely the current Honda Civic / Hybrid's seat/fit/adjustments/controls/layout. Not that I have use for a small sedan with tiny trunk.

I suppose some proof would be to notice where Toyota has placed the new touchscreen in the 2010 Prius. It appears to be a few inches closer to the driver. Check, another item fixed.

 

Ok, so I went all the way to Toyota Sunnyvale to sit in a 2010 Prius while testing out my seat in all its '2 5/8" set back' glory. (Fremont, Milpitas - no '10 Pri, I knew Sunnyvale would have at least 1).

They kindly and quickly unlocked the demo 2010 Prius with touchscreen navigation. Of course I put the driver's seat full back and down, adjusted it well (I've had lots of practice )

Whadya know, the 2010 Prius touchscreen navigation is well within my reach (w/o leaning forward).

My 2009 with remounted seat leaves the MFD touchscreen about 4" out of reach (straight arm, back in seat).

 

Hmmmm, the system correctly recognized a 10-digit phone # on the 2nd attempt while on the freeway. First attempt forgot to say 1 as first digit.

Yesterday it would not capture numbers correctly in about 8 tries.

Verdict out on this.

 

One more thing rufaro,

I think my intentions are good... yes, I bitch and moan about what I believe is poor design, a lot, but, it's all for trying to make the Prius a more mainstream car, for an even wider variety of people. Moaning about the 2nd Gen Prius is one step behind since they already have a Gen3 Prius out. I've posted up about anomalies with that one too, like a low-mounted rearview mirror,etc..

I think what is kinda lame is some people (not saying you) who might have a beef with something about their Prius, and never say anything about it. Toyota relies on feedback to make products better.

 

I'm hoping that is not the case. I just moved my non-stock seat back to its last notch a few days ago. It's a little over the top to focus on something so minute as moving a seat back, yet, maybe one in every 5,000 or less Prius' have a remounted seat.

I'll probably get used to it and move on. Losing $9k on selling a barely broken in car would be foolish. I don't trade in cars. At least I can't slide the seat back any further from now on.

 

Not going to list all but -

adjusting fan speed
manually adjusting A/C which I prefer over auto A/C
turning off A/C (pretty sure about that)
adjusting where air comes out
etc...

As said before, system has not recognized phone numbers very well.