biggest prius disappointments?

Garsen, I'll agree with you on #2, I cannot find a comfortable spot to rest my arm. I have found it is restful on occasion to kink of hang my hand from the handle in the roof.

As far as mileage, I think you'll get better as you learn the car. In combined driving I get 50. On short urban trips though, 43 sounds about right. Just think what your non-prius was getting.

 

I learned from my nephews, that the proper name for that handle is the "Oh, Jesus! Handle"

 

LOL. Is that something like the "air brake" on the passenger side when you were learning how to drive?

 

43 mpg aint bad considering you would only get mid 20's in a compact around town

 

1) Interior plastics are very low quality

2) A lot of noise penetrates the cabin. Sometimes I feel that the windows are open!

3) Rims, rims, rims... sure they are mega aerodynamic and lightweight, but pleaaaaaseeee give us optional rims!

 

IMO......
- JBL "premium" sound system = disappointing
- Lack of under-hood engine light = disappointing

 

I find the bumpers of equal quality to most cars today. They are ALL very vulnerable. I have had my car for 20 months and no bumper scratches at all. Granted I rarely parallel park, but sometime I do.

As far as noise is concerned, I find it to be a very quiet ride. It may be because I ditched the OEM rubber which is pretty awful. I also tinted the windows and believe it or not, it does help.

I would say that the interior noise level is equal to that of my former C320 sedan.

 

My '04 Prius is 1 year old this month with 22k miles. The only thing (and it is minor) is that my sunglasses do not fit in the sunglass compartment above the rear view mirror. They are a nice pair of Oakley's, but don't fit. I had to really think about what disappoints me with this wonderful car. Maybe I need some new sunglasses!

 

My bad points are:

Boot door needs to be really slammed hard to shut properly - must remember not to use the back spoiler to do this as it is not strong enough and is starting to creak.

Bluetooth sound quality is REALLY disappointing - almost unusable. Sound comes through driver side lower door speaker and sounds VERY muffled. In my wife's Lexus RX300 the sound comes through the A-pillar tweeter and is perfectly understandable. Why not on the Prius, it does have the same tweeter in the same location?

Also, screen fluid level warning would be great.

Bluetooth software is really basic. My phone (P910) has various numbers stored per contact, when uploading to Prius, only the first number in the list gets transferred, the rest is simply ignored. Any spaces in the numbers also render the whole number useless, with lines inserted after the space.

Otherwise - really happy with the little car

Florian (UK)
2005 Prius TSpirit

 

it would probably close easier if you called it a hatch instead of the boot.

other than being able to reach it, ive not seen anyone who thought it closed hard. i think you should get it checked

 

I felt the interior plastics are pretty high quality. Of course, my previous car was a Ford Tempo, so my basis for comparison may be a bit different. It's actually sort of nice to come from my inexpensive first car to the Prius b/c it is such an upgrade to me.

As for the rims, do you mean different rim options? It sort of sounds like you mean the (aluminum) rims should be optional and steel rims should be standard, but I'm thinking you actually mean more aluminum rim options.

I just top it off when I change my oil. The reservoir seem huge and I personally don't think I'll ever manage to run it dry within 5000 mi/6 months.

I would surmise that the tweeter may not be present in the non-JBL equipped Prius and that all Prius use the same speaker for the Bluetooth phone for consistency/ease of build. Maybe you should try playing with the Bluetooth diagnostics screen to see if you can get better results with your phone.

I'll agree with the basicness of the phonebook software. I have discovered that using lines (at least from a laptop) works fine. The Prius just omits the lines, but doesn't corrupt the number.

 

I was kinda bummed that the top-of-the-line stereo did not read MP3 CDs. Not the end of the world, but I had just figured out how to get a big pile of my iTunes all burned onto a single MP3 disk. Could not wait to get it into the Prius, but it will not read at all.

 

This is interesting. I was excited to find out my CD player (6-disk player in #6) will play audio burned onto CD-R/W disks. None of the other CD players around the house would except the one in my computer.

The audio files are audio books downloaded from Audible.com and also play on an MP3 player, though they are not technically MP3 files.

 

how bout

- no background light in the cluster on the driver side arm rest for window and mirror controls.
- cannot use voice command to call out a number and have BT dial it out. 05 Acura TL does that
- and when it rains...crack the window open and it pours. All my other cars, when i crack open the window a bit during the rain, only a little bit of water comes in when the car is not in motion
- and as someone said - the cd player cannot read mp3 files
- the hatch makes it look like a cousin of the Pontiac Aztec

i guess thats it

 

With it being the summer months, I slather on sunscreen on my arms. However, it transfers on to the door where I rest my arm and discolors it horribly. Any suggestions on how to clean that off?

 

Perhaps a solid sunscreen, as in one without solvents, weak acids, or emollients, would help prevent the discoloration. Generally, the solid sunscreens appear to vanish when the carrier (usually a porous cellulose) liquifies on your skin, leaving the sunscreen on the surface of your skin without the use of plastic hungry compounds. Nothing I can recommend at the moment, as I am still knee-deep in the 55-gallon drum of sunscreen I purchased at Costco.

Sara

 

if the sunscreen destroys a plastic, imagine what it might be doing to your skin...

 

SEATS are terrible. WAY too sticky (I'm not pulling 1.1G around turns so why have rock hard and sticky sticky seats). I've got 48K on my 04 and the seats are still hard as wood.
Plus, who's narrow butt fits in the bottom of the seat all the way toward the back(for best back support)? I think these were Japanese ergonomics designed for an average person who is 5'5" and 110 pounds.
Sorry, I feeel better now(except for my butt)