for gas mileage, the prius is great. but unless toyota updates the v, i won't buy another one. road noise must be addressed, DRL's are a must, the seat comfort is horrible, (and who decided to put that dumb pumper for a seat adjuster??) front seat power adjustments, (with two drivers, adjusting the seat is insane !) lets get a better NAV system, and fix the dropped calls, and intermittent phone connections. ENGINEERS, lets get the low profile tires off the prius, it is NOT AN INDY 500 RACE CAR !!
Seat comfort (thigh support) is not as good as in our previous car, a 2003 Accord, but was OK on a round trip from Nova Scotia to Florida. GPS data base lacks some small, rural Canadian communities-not as good as in our five-year-old TomTom. Has there been a software update yet? No, according to the dealer. (We've had the car for a year and a half, and I was told by Toyota Canada that I could expect annual updates.) I've learned to drive with the seat in the position that works for my wife-higher than I'd choose, but OK. Voice recognition for Bluetooth phone commands is hit-and-miss. Has anyone been able to get the artificial-sound-when-moving disabled? Dealers aren't allowed to. Having said all that, I'm still glad I bought a Prius v (with Touring Package).
I've been gone for five weeks on a business trip and my wife has been driving "my car" (the '13Prius v 5 with ATP) while I am out of town. There is a possibility that when I get back home we will be trading in the wife's 4-Runner Sport for another Prius. When she drove me and a co-worker to the airport he thought he would have to give us verbal directions to his house as the Tom Tom he bought last year can't find it (he has lived there for 5+ years), but the ATP nav system took us there without a hitch. Does the v ride rougher and noisier than my daughters Camry? Yes it does, but if I wanted a ride in the Camry/Accord class I would have bought a Camry hybrid. No dropped calls (yet) - including a road trip from Florida to Missouri and back (wife won't fly -- phone is AT&T on a Nokia 920 - sadly no Entune). The trip was a duplicate of a trip taken 6 weeks earlier (mother-in-law's health). The earlier trip was in my 2011 Tacoma double cab (that got traded in for the v), and both my wife and I were impressed with the v in comparison to a late model Tacoma. Guess what I'm saying is it's all in expectation management. That said, I'm still under 5k miles on the v, so if you think I'm just a noob, so be it.
What kind of phones are you using. We have no problems with an iPhone 4 and a Samsung Galaxy SIII in our v/Five with ATP. Yes, the low profile tires on the v/Five are a bit silly - odd that the equivalent of the v/Five with the Tech package and more in Europe has 16" wheels. The ride and noise level doesn't seem that bad at all - the Prius v is not a luxury car. We would not have bought the car if we thought the ride and noise level were offensive. For us, this car has been and probably will be a "city car" - it's been out of the Kansas City metro area only once in the nearly 11 months we've had it. The front seats are pretty awful for a tall guy like me but fit my 5 foot wife perfectly -- I might have known if I had not been riding in the back seat during the test drive. I will rarely drive or ride in it so it doesn't matter to me. My main "grudge" is with the lack of DRL since I verified from the owners manual before the purchase that it had DRL. Even the dealer thought it had DRL and several dealer employees including a mechanic tried to turn it on. Looking back, my wife would have been better off with a different car. I wanted it for her entirely due to it having auto-braking Pre-Collision System and I liked the size of its cargo area. She liked the idea of a Prius but looking back I think a Lexus CT200h would have been a far better fit - particularly for its driver and front passenger power seats and driver seat memory. The CT200h also has DRL and turn signals on the mirror - I've added those features to her Prius but would have rather they had been standard.
The CT200h is a completely different class. The extra padding and sound proofing make the car much heavier but it is fun. Nowhere near as utilitarian as the Prius though. The CT's hatch is pretty useless. But if that is what matters, then go buy one. We have a RX450h and RX350 and both are a pleasure to drive. Lexus comfort is top notch. But you pay for it. It is not Toyota class, that's why they change the badge. Just like Honda/Acura, Ford/Lincoln, and all the others. There comes a point when upgrades and options merit a whole new badge designation and you pay for it.
Seems like I am in the opposite end from the OP. I found the Prius v very smooth and quiet except during hard acceleration. The seat is very good as I like firm seat. I also will not call 215/50R17 tire low profile and wheel design of v Five is pretty good.
we have hycam for the drive to florida, but i'm on my third prius, can't get enough of the good stuff!
As I said, we bought the Prius for its PCS. If I had known the Lexus CT was available with PCS, I would have shown it to my wife first. I don't think Lexus vehicles are in much of a different class than other Toyotas - I've drive only top of the line Lexus sedans as daily drivers for over 23 years. Until 2007, Lexus was sold in some markets under the Toyota brand. I wish I liked the RX more (it's available with PCS too) ... will be getting a loaner RX when I drop my LS off at the dealer tomorrow morning for service (the RX is all they use as loaners) so I'll pay more attention to it this time.
agree with the OP, gas mileage is all it has going for it....with todays gas cost that's enough for now
Maybe Toyota makes a 2014 option for power seat in Prius v effectively screwing the early adopters of 2012/13. That's what they did on the 2010 / 11 Prius. .... Perhaps they ought to put the option in the beginning of the car's generation, or not at all. .... but hey, we got Plasmacluster Ionizer and Rain Repellant Side Windows in 2010/11 four and five, so yeah, that's a big bonus.
***Disclaimer*** By using "you" I mean the general "you". Not a particular person. In a perfect world, you would rent a car that you are considering before plunking many thousands of dollars. In the real world, most of the cars we consider purchasing are not available to rent. Perhaps, it is best to lease before investing your hard earned dollars in a car that you might not be sure about. I mean... you don't marry a person before going out on a few dates... do you? Maybe even shack up for a while before making it official? Unfortunately, a few folks on these forums found out the hard way that the car they bought was an expensive bad decision. Buyer Beware! Spend more time checking out the ergonomics of a particular car before signing on the dotted line!!!!
I test drove the car more than once, as far as around town the car is fine, it's only after being in the car for longer than an hour that my back starts to hurt, it has now been relugated as the running around town car and have since bought another much more comfortable car for all else
Like a bed, Prius dr. seat has foam and springs (lattice?) under the butt area which will break in and 'give' a little more over time. The thighs area is supported by a rigid metal pan. So, no amount of test driving will reveal how the car's dr. seat will feel after 5, 10, 25+ thousand miles. Beware the buyer who doesn't get or have option of fully adjustable power seat to compensate for 'break in' of the driver's seat. Oh wait, power seat not offered in Prius v. Thanks Toyota !!
Toyota seems to me pushing for hydrogen cars by 2015 but I'm not sure if I find hydrogen gas station in Edmonton :-/ if at all in next 10-years :-( It wold be nice if they incorporated an inverter so we can use it as a backup generator in the next model.
I can't make you like the car, but you may wish to know that if you turn your headlights on and then never turn them off, they will come on with the car and go off 30 seconds after you turn off the car and open the driver's door. A user configuration option allows you to change the delay from 30 to 60 or 90 seconds, or (my favorite) turn it off so the light go off when I open the driver's door. (I park in a garage, if I was outside, I might want some delay) The light sensor in the dash keeps the instrument panel lights bright even during the day.
sorry, like women, glasses, dentures,ect. if they're not comfortable in the beginning, your not breaking them in, they're breaking you in. i'm not going to use my body to break anything in.
