Summary of proposed improvements for future versions of Prius

Shifter position

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems the positions on the shift lever are intuitively backwards. I would like to push it towards the front of the car to go forward and towards the back to go in reverse. I have actually made that mistake a couple of times.

 

The IS250H.

 

1) Since most people are right handed and the most frequent use function on the tracer buttons are the volume up/down control, the two tracer control circles should trade places.
2) "Low wind shield washer warning indicator". I am surprised a $30000+ car doesn't even come with this feature. In snow countries, it is more of a safety feature. It is a very dangerous situation when driving on the highway and ran out of washing fluid. You can't see the front when the water freezes on the wind shield while driving.

 

1) 16 inch wheels. The 15 inch wheels look to small and the 17 inch wheels are too big.
2) Lower the window line by an inch so that children in the back can see out.
3) Offer a classic design of the center dash. Why does a high-tech car have to look like starship Enterprise inside? The bridge design might make some sense on a car with a manual transmission like the Auris, but not in a car with an automatic.
4) Move the location of the instruments to be directly in front of the driver, not shifted to the left, and implement them with a color lcd display.
5) Put an iPod dock right behind the wheel.

 

1) Agreed.
2) Agreed (even though I don't have small children now).
3) Disagreed. One of the reasons I bought the Prius 2010 is because of its spaceage look. Makes me feel I am paying for something different with a higher price than the Camry Hybrid. Go with the Camry Hybrid for a more traditional look.
4) Agreed. I think Toyota designed it as a world car. When the instructment panel is at the middle, they can sell it to countries driving on the right side of the road. (e.g British for one). It's all about costs and return. However, I am not getting use to it. Being in the center also impresses the passengers and letting them know I am an earth hugger.
5) Agreed. Using cable connecting to Aux is so "outdated" and matching the Prius's spaceage design.

 

Re: Shifter position

I think every automatic that has the shift lever in the center console has park and reverse up forward and drive and other gears toward the rear. In airplanes, boats and other vehicles you pull back to go forward in my experience...it may "sound" backwards, but IMO it feels correct when you consider that as you accelerate you get pushed back in your seat.

3PriusMike

 

Re: Shifter position

In the airplanes I've flown the controls (throttle, propeller pitch, fuel mixture) go forward (toward the firewall) to go forward. It's where the term "balls to the wall" comes from (each control has a differently-shaped knob or "ball" on it so that the pilot can identify it by feel).

The stick or control yoke go back to increase angle of attack of the wing and increase lift (go up), or forward to decrease angle of attack (go down), but it's independent of the "go forward" controls.

 

My wife is always complaining about being cold while I on the otherhand am too hot.

We would love it if we could have separate temp controls for driver and passenger positions. We might even stop yelling at eachother to "TURN IT UP" or "LEAVE IT ALONE DAMN IT".

Our last car, A Honda Accord coupe, had separate controls and I guess it's spoiled us.

I know there is a vent shut off feature in the Prius but I believe that is just for throttling the upper air vent. It would be nice if we could do the same for the foot vents as well.

 

Re: Shifter position

I have done the same thing many times. My wife looks at me strangely and says "Don't you know how to drive this thing yet"?
How embarrassing.

SAS

 

My complaint about my 2010 Prius IV is that there is no map button on the steering wheel anymore for the GPS. On my 2004 it had it there and it was very handy for displaying the address where you actually were for calling in emergencies as well as finding locations that hadn't been programed in. Now you have to take your eyes off the road, find the map button on the lower right side of the display (among several others) to be able to push it to get the information to show up on the display. It was much safer on the steering wheel.

 

Been awhile since you logged on, Jon? Welcome back, thanks for sharing, and enjoy your #2.

 

How about a shift on the steering for Power, Eco, and EV mode

 

I think the Toyota Prius should also have heated deicing on the front wiper blades like the Toyota Venza. It really is just similar to a defroster on the back windshield except it's only at the base of the front windshield and is used to melt the ice off the wiper blades. Anybody who lives in the northern climate knows about ice buildup on wiper blades on all vehicles. With the ice on them the wiper blades become inflexible and essentially useless. I'm not sure if all of North America needs this feature, but it sure would be a handy feature to have in Canada. Due to the cost it should probably be included possibly in the premium and definitely in the touring model. The car was apparently tested in Canada for better winter performance, the development team definitely miss this feature. It's available on virtually every Subaru.

 

Here's a purelyh consmetic suggestion--I liked the Gen II spoiler being the same color as the rest of the car,

 

What I meant to say was it would be a nice feature to be able to throttle the air flow coming from the foot vents as well as the upper vents.

I'm still most in favor of being able to control the air temp with separate controls such as dual potentiometers.

 

Increase steering wheel rim diameter. It is too small to rest my elbows on the the door armrest and still comfortably grip the steering wheel rim.

Put more padding on the door armreast.

 

In some other posts it looks like the power generated by the sun roof is somewhere between 100x and 1000x too little to be effective in charging the traction battery.

During the summer the power generated can be used to vent the car as it seems to be enough to run a fan.

I often wonder if in the winter the sun roof generates enough power that it could effectively run an engine heater. An engine heater likely takes more input power then the sun roof generates, but if you could keep the engine from cooling down completely it would save you gas at start up when it runs just to get back up to temperature. (Anyone know how much power these puppies pull?). It would never get enough power to keep the engine at temperature, but maybe it could keep it from fully cooling down - so you would get some amount of benefit - even if it was just those times when you start the car after it has been sitting in the sun.

If that were the case, there might even be a reason just to make the engine block heater standard equipment - which is one the things I'd love to see - engine block heater as standard equipment with an interface for both a plug and a solar roof power input.

 

if the solar panel can't run anything more than a fan it most certainly can't power a heating element. A simple squirrel fan takes very little power to turn; generating heat via an electric coil draws some major amperage.

 

no large gauge wires are used there; the systems use relays so the switches (and the outlet) have no need for beefy wiring. I would expect to see these switches in a better location in the next couple of years.