2016 Prius - let's hear from buyers

Me too up here SUV and trucks are the main vehicles. I have yet to see a Gen 4 on the road here, plenty of Gen 3.

 

i haven't seen one either. saw one on i 95 in mid atlantic at night, tail lights were gorgeous. and one in florida in the daytime, beautiful car.

 

Since I bent your collective ear with whining about my earlier purchase attempt (no, those clowns never called back), I just wanted to share that we took delivery today of our Hypersonic Red Three w/ATP and Harvest Beige interior, exactly as we wanted. The other dealership in town (the one closer to our house that we originally blew off when the salesman proved bad at returning calls/emails) came through at a slightly lower price than we'd agreed with the screwed-up dealership, and no shenanigans. The missus is very happy with her little red beauty.

One interesting wrinkle - when we got it parked in our garage, I noticed that the dome light wasn't coming on when the doors were opened, regardless of which position the dome light switch was in (there were only two - ON or DOOR). This is actually controlled from an interior light master switch in the front ceiling cluster, with the personal/map lights and the sunroof controls. Someone had apparently hit that button during pre-delivery checkout, nobody noticed in the daylight, and though I'd been looking the manual over for weeks while waiting for the car, I'd never studied the section for interior lights. HA! The first of many little learning experiences, I'm sure.

 

@Vike Are you thinking there's something wrong, dome light isn't working?

On our 2010 the switch has three positions: constant on, on when a door is open, or completely off. I prefer the latter, for 12 volt battery preservation.

 

Mendel, is it just me, or has the -actual- "list" price of the car disappeared from the window sticker? I thought it used to be there. It was also missing on the 2016 I looked at in Edmonton (a base, of course). The salesman pipes up "oh, you just have to ask me and I will give you the price". Yeah, RIGHT!

Congrats VIke. Where's the picture? I bet she's a beauty!

Warning, red cars are always going faster than they really are. Ticket magnets.

 

Here's a crop:

 

KENBUCK, is your car an ECO Two? That's great mileage out of the box.

 

No, but for a minute I thought there was - I was wondering if there'd been a wiring SNAFU (egads!). As I mentioned, the dome light in the Gen4 does NOT have a 3-position switch, just 2 ("always on", "on when door is open"). The "don't light up when a door is open" switch is on the FRONT passenger area light and governs BOTH the front and rear lights (the manual refers to the dome light as the "rear passenger" area light). Made sense once I looked it up, but not intuitive given long past experience. So heads up to new owners - your passenger area courtesy lights have kinda funny switches. That also means it is NOT possible to have just one of the passenger light sets (front or rear) come on - it's both or none.

 

Mudguards are well worth the price. See my avatar. For G3, Priuschat store sells two versions, and were also available on Amazon.com. In time mudguards will be available for G4, the marketplace needs to catch up. You might want to try Daytona Toyota (FL), they sell a lot of accessories on line.

 

The gunk I'm talking about is the stuff that accumulates over time behind those mud flaps, when you take them off after a winter or two.

 

I noticed that my Toyo 15" tires stick out a bit beyond a certain point, down by the lower body panel. Maybe it's just my imagination, I don't know.

I definitely would like to get the mudguards when they become available for the Gen4. We get very little rain, or NO rain in my area. The streets are dirty.... and so are my Pearl white fenders! I should've got the red, dark grey, or god-forbid, black. Who talked me into a WHITE car?!? I must've been drunk.

It looked great the first week it was new....

 

Cheer up! I assure you, black would have been worse - that's a color for car-finish fetishists, showing every scratch, streak, and dust mote. Or maybe on the opposite end of the spectrum people who don't give a rat's patoot for how the car looks.

For those that like the car to look okay but don't want to sweat it, there's no beating silver or gold metallic finishes. Neither shows dirt unless you're right on top of it (silver's better in the grimy gray east, gold in the dusty brown west) - just wash your car when the glass bothers you . [My apologies to any car care enthusiasts now sputtering and choking on their beverages.] Okay, okay, I'll amend that - I do think it helps to clean cars regularly in areas where they're fond of seasoning your roads with rock salt.

I've always favored gold, but it's seriously out of fashion, leaving the admittedly uninspiring silver. I reminded my wife we'll need to clean her red car (replacing a silver Gen2) more often, but yeah, I'm as tired of silver vehicles as everyone else, so raised no actual objection.

 

The one we saw at a Canadian dealership yesterday had mud flaps front and rear, and the sales lady said something about "included, they all have them". I beleive Tideland Prius mentioned something similar. Strangely, I see nothing on Toyota Canada specs or the window decal.

All I can reiterate: a little bit of splatter is minor compared to the mess those things can retain, and I've been getting cars with mud flaps since the early eighties. Don't miss them on our third gen.

Here's a snap from our look-over, yesterday:



Speaking of grit collecting: time will tell but those silver plastic bits may be grit catchers too. I tried lifting them: they have a fair bit of flex, are just snug against the actual alloy rim.

 

Thanks Vike and Mendel. I like those mudguards. Perfect! Thanks for the photo.

Right behind that mudguard, is where my white fender is getting black stuff all over it. I wash it, and the next day of driving causes more black.

Why don't the US dealers have any?! I can screw them right on... the holes are already there. Have you seen any in NM, Vike? I wonder if a Canadian dealer would mail me a set.


Merged


Hey Vike, you forgot to mention the new Gen4 "Bobby-Soxer Blue."

I liked the Gen3 Midnight Blue, and almost bought one when the price got down to 20K.

 

You could try. Google "Open Road Toyota Port Moody", there's email contacts for parts. They might be able to give you a parts number too.

Still, the grass always looks greener on the other side...

If you want convenient DIY install/removal, a real stubby screwdriver is handy.

Just wrapped a bit with some hockey tape:

 

It's just the standard boring Prius Two (not the ECO version). It sure helps having 12 years of Prius driving experience with my prior 2004 Prius.

 

I agree with key points in your review. We rejected the Gen IV and bought a new Gen III. The main reasons were:
1) White accents
2) No spare
3) More laid back and lower drivers seat position.
4) Steering wheel design does not allow me to have a hand on the bottom of the wheel.
5) Lack of small cubby storage spaces including the dual glove compartments.

The exterior doesn't mean much to me, evidenced by the fact that I own two Prius cars now which many consider one of the least appealing cars on the road.

 

You have no idea how much code is needed to make a car simulate a simple switch.

Bob Wilson

 

The aggressive ad campaign (certainly more than I expected) has likely stirred up the pent-up demand of folks who'd been waiting for the new car but might not otherwise have been aware of its arrival. I still think that, barring some unexpected gasoline price spike, things are going to settle down as we go into the summer. Toyota needs to sell Priuses, so they will be blinking on price when the buzz dies down. If you can wait, doing so will pay dividends.



Merged.

Not around here, no. Probably not surprising in desert NM.

I don't think that would help much either, probably worse than our red. The Sea Glass (light green metallic) might be the best bet after the silver (probably part of why I like it), though I don't imagine that's a color with wide appeal (e.g, .the missus was having none of it ).




Merged

I probably do, truth to tell. And I'm pretty sure this is purely electrical - there's no reason for software here.

 

I can wait figure inventory will build up in the following months and with gas still low consumers will be opting for SUVs and trucks. The Dealers will have be more aggressive to move the Prius at that point.