I can't believe power seats are not available, how awkward are the manual adjuster? My wife and I will share this v if purchase it and will need to adjust it each time we switch. We live in the northeast and sometimes see some slippery conditions . How intrusive is the traction control? Will it let you get rolling if you use very gentle acceleration in slippery conditions? Does it react if you are rolling on snow covered roads? I understand that it brakes the drive wheel if it spins faster than the others.
the seats slide back and forth quite easily. my wife and i share cars at times as well. traction control works fine on snowy streets. if you're out in it all the time and need to be somewhere, you might consider snows.
I have lived now on Cape Cod, Philly and Boulder with my Prius and have not had an issue with traction control. As Bisco stated if it becomes an issue a set of snows will fix it.
It is much easier to 'peel out' in a v than it was in my Gen 2, the traction control is much less obtrusive.
Wouldn't a manual seat be faster to adjust than a powered one? All I do is memorise which ratchet I need to be in. A powered one works if you have memory seats tied to the key - now that's convenient! The TRAC is better than in the Gen 2 Prius. It will allow some slipperage and works more like a regular TCS than one that kills all power when it detects slippage.
I have never found that to be the case. An important aspect of a power seat is that it allows you to safely adjust it as you drive. The manual seat would be a much bigger issue if my wife wasn't the sole driver except every two to six weeks or so when I refuel and wash her Prius. How do you do that? I've found that adjusting the ratchet and the seat position on its rails is a trial and error endeavor. I never seem to get it right and have to adjust it as I drive ... i.e. at stop lights or signs. Selecting the seat memory from a key is nice but our Lexus LS and many other Lexus and Toyota vehicles have two or three seat memory buttons on the driver door. All one has to do is push his/her memory button and everything adjusts to fit the driver - outside mirrors, seat belt anchor height, steering wheel tilt and telescope and all aspects of the driver seat except lumbar support. Our Prius v is the first vehicle made by Toyota we have bought that does not have a button to turn traction control off. With our other front and rear wheel drive vehicles including those having true winter tires (snowflake/mountain logo) the only way we have sometimes been able to get the vehicles to move at all in deep (6-12 inch) snow is to turn traction control off. The only reason it hasn't yet been a problem with our Prius is that the car is rarely driven and hasn't been needed during periods of heavy snow. We've been lucky so far but I assume that at some point my wife will get stranded and I'll have to rescue her. Looking back, I think we would have been much better off with the highest specification Lexus CT200h instead of the Prius v Five/ATP. My wife thought she wanted a Prius and I didn't even think to show her the little Lexus even though all I've driven for the past 24 years are Lexus LS cars. Prices of the two cars aren't all that different and the CT200h had key features her 2012 Prius was missing - DRL, side turn signals and power driver and front passenger seats with the driver seat having memory settings.
these are two completely different classes of cars. how could you want either one and not one in particular? the lexus is not likely to have a traction off button either.
The more aggressive traction control is needed to prevent an accidental over speed of MG-1. In the previous generation Prius this happened at a lower speed. The newer generation has a different reduction gearing and a person is less likely to over speed the Motor Generators. However, the electric motors have a lot of torque at low speed which can cause the wheels to break loose in snow (and even gravel). To disable TC would be a hazard as you could cause MG-1 to over speed to destruction. There are several good posts on this site about how the Prius drive works.
Yup, the power seats would be a real nice addition. Our other car is an Avalon Limited with the memory buttons for the driver's seat. Really nice when swapping cars. I can live with the manual........but it should be included in the V 5. So far in New England....no traction issues. If they develop, a 4-set of snows will go on.........
I agree and I do miss power seats but you normally would change the seat when you get in after she has driven so, aside from using the memory seat function, I would guess it's faster to just slide the seat fore/aft than to press and hold the power seat button. (Particularly the seat recline. I remember our Camry's power seat recline was painfully slow) Well for example, on our 2005 Prius, I know my ideal seat bottom position is 3 ratchets from the rear so if the seat position has been changed, I just slide the seat all the way back and then just count 3 clicks forward. Seat belt anchor is only on the LS . I don't think a power adjustable front seat belt anchor has filtered down to any other Lexus products (ok maybe the LX but I didn't look closely) It's the same for almost any Toyota hybrid. The traction control is built in by design to protect the electric motors from overspinning. That's the reason why it was so aggressive in the first two generations of the Prius. I know the Camry Hybrid has a TRAC OFF button which also functions as a VSC OFF button if you know how but the Prius has always been left without one. So far, the Gen 3 hasn't let me down. The deepest snow I've driven in is 15cm of powder (almost 6") and I was able to rock myself out. I live in a cold place, not a snowy place (so we usually get a 10cm+ storm 2 or 3 times a year but the snow sticks around for 6 months.). I've driven the Gen 2 on the coast where snow is rare but it's heavy and wet when it does occur. It runs on Nokian WRs (so not dedicated winter tyres) and it got me stuck once or twice on the factory Goodyear Integrity tyres (worst tyre ever - ok dry grip, horrid wet grip) but it probably wouldn't work where I am now as the Gen 3's TRAC keeps me going whereas the Gen 2 would've stopped me dead and potentially in a dangerous position.
