For me, the Prius C2 is not just my first hybrid car, but also my first car with any kind of high-tech or "bells and whistles". Heck, my last car (though it did have a stereo) didn't even have a CLOCK, and the only thing automatic about it was the transmission. I know I'm not the only one on in this forum having this experience, so this thread is for us newbies to go "gee, gosh, wow" about all the cool "toys" in our cool new cars. So... what is your favorite bell or whistle? What just tickles you when you use it?
Oh BOY! Where do I START? My last car had a clock (although it broken and was always 5 or 6 hours off depending on whether it was daylight savings time or not lol) but other than that, I might have you beat on the move from low to high tech. What's new to me? AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION POWER STEERING ELECTRIC WINDOWS (getting a picture yet of what a gargantuan leap this is?) All things hybrid All things 21st century: bluetooth, voice activation, a USB plug-in (gasp!) Keyless entry/start 4 doors Oh, oh! First moonroof I'm getting close to a month with The Cheetoh and I still often reach to shift gears or roll down a window. The shorter list for me might be "what's the same?" It's still called "a car" It has wheels It comes with seats It has a hatchback It still gets dirty and needs to be washed (to give due credit to my 14yo Chevy Metro - that car was reliable as h*ll and got good gas mileage - both were big reasons I kept the car as long as I did!)
I don't know about that... you may have more sparklies in your C than I have in mine, but otherwise, I think my 2002 Echo 2-door sounds a lot like your Metro. Or your clock cancels out my automatic transmission, ;-) Visually, the Echo was in pretty bad shape, but it could still pull 35+ MPG on long journeys, and also did pretty well in regular city driving. I didn't give it up because it couldn't perform any more, but I was starting to get that check engine light over and over and after dumping nearly 1500 bucks into repairs in just a few months, I figured it was time to move on. You left out the electric mirror controls! For me, that's about the coolest feature. I find myself wishing someone would bonk the mirrors just so I can fix them without having to undo the seatbelt, lean across the car, roll down the window... And the electric locks, I still find myself sometimes reaching across the car to unlock it for a passenger. You got the 3, which means you have more goodies than my 2 does. No moonroof and no keylessness. I like having a key, the thought of a keyless entry and ignition system kinda gives me the willies.
Oh, Tracy, you gotta sign up with Fuelly! It's another fun way to track (and verify the accuracy of) your MPG.
Yeah....I should. I work in the high tech industry and normally try to leave as much tech at the door when I walk in the house (thank goodness the car stays in the garage ). I have 2 or 3 forums where I spend some time, but mostly I don't want to hear the clack of keys when I get home so I don't get TOO involved in additional things (like Fuelly). There are so many things I left out - I kept thinking about your original post driving home this evening. I had an air conditioner in the old car, but it broke a year after I moved to Seattle and given our limited hot weather here, I opted not to fix it. It's awfully nice having a/c again! I skipped a whole evolutionary phase in music - the old car had a CD player (haven't owned a cd in eons). While the C has a CD player, I don't own CDs any more so it's mp3 time. Oh! And satellite radio! That was actually one of the reasons for me in getting the C - whenever I've rented a car over the last several years for a long trip, I would get satellite radio - love it. You're right about the differences between the C2 and C3; I did get the C3 in part for all the extra tech. I figure I have enough now that I can go at least....um....2 or 3 years before so much new stuff is out there that the car will start to show it's age (technology moves so darn FAAAST now).
O.K. I'll get into this. I just read somewhere on here about the bottom screen having a different mode where if you push the car button in the upper right it goes to an energy distribution screen. What is this all about. I leave the top screen in one mode and can't really tell you what its called. The bottom one had always stayed in the audio mode. Half the time, when I try to change radio stations with voice activation it tries to make phone calls. I can't begin to explain how confused I am in this car half the time. I sometimes think I should be rolling up my windows with a crank. The part I do understand is going PAST gas stations and finding my gas gauge and saying NOPE not yet. You all have a great day.
Your salesperson did NOT earn their commission! Mine spent 90 minutes with me doing a pretty good orientation with the car. We didn't go over everything, but we synced my phone, made a phone call using voice activation, set up nav, preset some radio and satellite stations.... In your shoes, I would make a list of what you need help with, call the SALES MANAGER and ask them to set up an hour for you with AN EXPERIENCED HYBRID salesperson to help you understand your investment. You know....I find it interesting that electronic sewing machines are sold with a clear understanding that the purchase includes an orientation lesson and by contrast, it is quite hit or miss as to whether a much more significant car purchase will be made with the same courtesy.
New "tech" features for me excluding the hybrid system are: Direct USB connection for the iPhone, Bluetooth audio, Bluetooth Handsfree, Voice control, Steering wheel controls, RDS information (station and song names on FM stations), Keyless entry and start (as opposed to remote central locking on the last car), automatic climate control, cruise control, touchscreen audio, GPS with traffic information, reverse camera and motorised folding mirrors. A couple of "returning" features that I've had on previous cars or are on my parents' cars, but weren't on my last: Power windows and MP3/WMA compatability off CDs. I won't really count transmissions - I spent many years and many, many kilometres driving automatic transmissions on parental and rented vehicles, but my two previous owned cars (and all rentals since that time except in the US) were manual. I kind of like the manual to drive and will probably still rent them, but really in a commuter they're a pain. In stop start traffic they're worse than a pain... and stop start traffic on uphills -> . Mine didn't either, but I didn't want him to. I showed him a few things instead so he could help the next person better, then left.
Actually, I believe he did a very good job, it would be me that dropped the ball. I'm a little behind on all the new technology, like my phone, I don't have internet set up so all of the stuff related to that was just garbled although he took the time in case I upgraded in the future. I think dealers should give you a very brief instructions on the day you pick up your car and then schedule an appointment a week down the road for all your questions. I suspect I'm no different than anyone else on here that, on the day I picked up my brand new C, all I wanted to do was get on the road and drive. I have been back to their customer appreciation day but that was a little busy to get many questions answered. I have no doubt they will answer any questions I have, but I also knew I could get most questions answered right here, as I had spent a considerable amount of time here before I received my C and I'm certain the folks here are more INTO the C model than most salesmen are.
Good points MNBud. I think I was probably prepared to take in more info in part because I had been hanging out in the forum here for a couple months. So I had been building a list. I *did* want a bit more than the basics though. My dealer had a checklist of things that the salesperson is supposed to cover with a new hybrid and he did all of that, plus some additional things because I asked. I think offering a follow-up visit would be a good idea. I wonder what happened to the dvd that used to come with new Prii? I've read comments elsewhere that the manuals or delivery used to include a one hour dvd going over features of the car. I've found a LOT of youtube videos for the C (produced by Toyota) which are nice, but it's a bit tedious finding them all - I wish those were all on a single dvd provided upon delivery.
How could I have forgotten the USB/MP3 player? I spent an entire evening ripping all my CDs to put them on a 16 gig stick which now lives in my car permanently. I almost feel like there's no point in even having a CD player now, especially since there is no convenient place in the 2 to store a couple dozen disks.
Would one of you C3 drivers post a picture of this double screen I keep seeing referenced? The 2 just has one screen, though you can scroll through what you want to have displayed.
The other screen is on the Headunit itself. The 3 and 4 have a touch screen that is able to show instant mpg, navigation, or power monitor...among other things. Sorry, don't have a pic offhand at work.
My last car was a 2000. Having all of these gadgets in my car is AWESOME. I'm a geek (before I went into education I worked in IT) so there have been days I've sat in my car and just played around with everything, haha.
