What changes will be on the 2011 prius?

My opinion is the entire Hybrid/Alternative automobile genre is about to go through a hugh evolutionary jump with Full Electrics, Plug-Ins and Lithium Ion Batteries on the nearer than many think, horizon.

That's my opinion. My guess? Is that given that the 2010 represents the latest change to Prius, there won't be any MAJOR changes to the 2011. This is the site to monitor if you want to be among the first to find out what changes will be offered. But outside of minuita, color choices, package configurations....I'd be suprised if there are any big changes. However, I have been suprised before....

 

How about a plug in coupe with less dorky wheel covers

 

A few "adjustments" to packaging would go a long way, along with a few small fixes.

1st, That the rf key will open only the driver's door on Prius III & below is just plain stupid. No one's going to upgrade to a IV just to get it, but not having it after we did on the Gen II is ridiculous. They have it working on the IV and V, so no more engineering is needed. Just fix and enable it.

2nd, and more major, the access to EV really needs to be fixed. Right now, one is locked out of its use until the motor warms up. Catch is, you need it most when you're going to move it a short difference over which the engine will never approach operating temperature anyway.

3rd, and this is a nit I admit, but inside the console ... the little tray is now hinged. So, if you put things in it, to get to the area underneath, you take everything out of the tray or let it spill its contents out. Who thought of that???

4th, the front passenger seat needs to be able to fold down as it could in a Gen II. This is a serious issue to me, and I think to at least some others. With it down, one can carry building materials of reasonable length, and many other things, making the fold-down back seats much more useful.

5th, the dealers should have a clear upgrade path for installing fog lights in the lesser trims ... and not an upgrade path which has a ridiculous cost. It could work off its own panel switch to avoid the cost of tampering with the stalk.

6th, the dealers should have a clear upgrade path for installing higher-option mirrors -- and again, not a path with a ridiculous cost. Self dimming ... homelink ... compass should be among the alternatives. It doesn't have to cost several hundred $ to do this.

7th, floor mats should be available in more than two colors... black just doesn't look right in my bisque interior. Oh yes, and let those mats come already treated with something equivalent to Scotchgard.

8th, and this is a tough one, but they should work with the space right under the hatch area floor and above where the donut spare lives, and provide a space configured to (a) allow a full size spare to be carried, and (2) stow a full-sized flat tire if you get one. You'd lose some storage room, but those who want the full-size spare would have the choice. Yeah ... I know there's an EPA weight & MPG issue there too, but there's nothing to match being on a full-size spare at ten PM on a Saturday when you're in the middle of no where ... much less, on ice, snow, or hard rain.

9th, they need to put a fairly loud two-tone horn on the Prius. They have it on some other cars & trucks. This is pretty close to a safety issue, as the current horn gets no one's attention. Sounds more like the horn on my 3-speed Schwinn. Perhaps this is another dealer upgrade.

10th, come up with something ... anything ... to replace the current plastic hubcaps on the std 15 inch tires. Who hit them with the ugly stick that hard?

11th, and I can't believe this is an issue but the owners manual says it is, re-do the parking/emergency brake so it can be used in winter. Right now, the manual says not to as it may freeze up. Come on, we've had these brakes in cars forever. It can't be rocket science to make them usable in winter.

12th, take the displays for the hybrid system, and first, take the one shaped with a car containing engine-battery-elec motor and fix the colors so they can be easily seen ... the red that's there right now on energy from the engine is something I cannot pick-up at a glance. And, give a very direct way to tell when you're "coasting" with neither power nor regen going on -- you could do that easily on the Gen II, but it's harder here.

13th, there needs to be a clear upgrade path for dealers to add DRLs to the car. If they're there in Canada, then it can't be impossible to do here. Again, they can go with a panel switch if they don't want to fuss with the stalk ... and they should be able to come on automatically, or on demand. On a number of US cars, you can add DRL just by adding the Canadian module -- evidence, my Sebring -- get the Canadian part, plug it in to the waiting area in the fuse area, and you have DRLs.

14th, and I know they won't but they should, add TPMS which gives a warning when you're missing fewer PSI than the current system. I want to know when I'm down two or three, and not wait until eight. Until then, we have to go through the ridiculous task of grossly over-inflating the tires, setting the TPMS, and then dropping the air pressure in the tires ... so that you now get a warning at fewer PSI down.

15th, yes, fix the darned squeaks and rattles. Moreover, for the ones which tend to occur in one car but not the next, provide the dealers with a clear path to follow in isolating the source, and how to fix it (eg, shims sized to eliminate a particular one).

I'll skip things like a plug-in etc., and but am serious about the things above which can be incremental improvements from one model year to the next without major headache. Toyota once stood for excellence in design, engineering, build, and content. With the first three now hotly contested in the media - the courts - and among customers -- Toyota cal at least fix these kinds of things to retain at least one strong suit -- excellence in content and value.

Right now, in going from Gen II to Gen III, they've missed the boat on content and value. Example is restricting the rf key below Trim IV. It's like ... gee, we don't have enough to distinguish our Trim IV from the Trim III ... so let's steal content from the Trim III which its predecessor had.

 

For this to happen, the 100 years long issue with batteries (1/50 energy density of gas) will need to be solved. The only thing on the horizon for this is ultra-capacitors (e.g. eStor), but they have yet to deliver.

Another possible evolutionary jump could come from revolutionary solar panels that would be more efficient.

One way or another, the future will need to depend upon solar energy; after all, all current energy sources come from the sun (except nuclear energy): the only problem is that we're burning in few years energy what took millions of years to be stored, and that we will "burn" ourselves with their byproduct.

 

Except that if you need to go straight into passenger's door, can push keyfob twice to unlock all doors.

I'll take a car that feels non-awkward to drive over some of the 'nice to have' things any day of any week. My 2nd Gen reminds me on every drive that it was not designed for any driver over ~ 5'9" and certainly not for this 6'2" tall poster.

 

I'm confused, I have a 2010 Prius III, and the RF key opens all doors. I mean, the first press of the unlock button only unlocks the driver side door, but if you press it twice (or may be thrice), the other doors also get unlocked.

Do you mean in IV and V, a single unlock key press unlocks all 4 doors?

 

It shouldn't need to be pointed out that these are not mutually exclusive.. :bored:

 

No, a different meaning, which I guess shows how lazy the Gen II made me.

The Driver's door on my 2010 Trim III can be opened when I have my rf key fob nearby. It can be buried deep in a pocket full of other stuff, but it recognizes it and lets you enter without ever getting the key fob out.

The 2010 Trim IV & V have the feature which the Gen II had -- you could walk up to the passenger's door or the rear hatch and it worked the same way. Recognized the nearby rf fob and let you simply open it without taking out the key fob and pressing it.

Catch is, I acclimated to the Gen II version. Stopped carrying the key fob where I could easily get at it. Began carrying more grocery bags without putting them into a cart as I went to the car. etc etc

A small thing I didn't appreciate in the Gen II at first ... but its absence from the Gen III has made me miss that extra convenience. I'd never have guessed when I got the Gen II that it would ever matter ... but now it does, because I have to dig out the key fob even if my hands are pretty full.

 

While I certainly concur with just about everything on your list (some things are not issues for me because of vehicle spec or the way I use it), I believe you'll find a caution re: parking brake usage in winter in just about any current vehicle owner's manual out there.

Also, ask anyone who had an early TPMS-equipped VW why there's now an 8 psi spread instead of the 2-3 spread originally in place. The damn light was on so often, it was rendered worthless due to it's perpetually crying "wolf".

 

You can configure the RF key to unlock all doors at once or only the driver's (do a search to find out how). You can also press quickly on the hatch unlock button to unlock all doors and then open the door you want.