I live in Victoria on Vancouver Island and am considering a 22 Prime LE but both driver and passenger seats are too low for my 5’2” wife. The Dealer recommended a local upholstery shop to insert foam to increase seat height for about $300 per seat. Has anyone done this and had success? Is there any other and better option? We owned a new 2005 Prius for a few years, so the Prius is not entirely new to us. Our condo has just installed 220 volt outlets at each parking stall and with our moderate climate and with most trips being within a 20 km radius, the Prius Prime should use very little gas for most trips. Several reviews have recommended the LE version rather than the higher trims, mainly because of the smaller screen and knobs and buttons to control key functions. Unfortunately, the highly desirable rear cross traffic alert, parking sensors, parking assist, and blind spot monitoring are only available on the higher trims. This makes the decision to opt for the LE more difficult than it should be. Comments and recommendations appreciated.
And this is after adjusting the driver's seat height? (The passenger seat cannot be adjusted for height but the driver's seat can).
As @Tideland Prius commented, first try adjusting the seat height. LE has a manual seat adjustment. If the highest position is still too low for your wife, isn't there a "booster seat" of some sort? Permanently altering the seats would make it difficult for other people to sit in them. It may not occur many times, but when the car needs to be serviced, or valet parking, or simply someone else need to drive your car, it may make it impossible to sit in the driver seat. Also, I would think a permanent change in the seat height may make the car unsellable when the time comes. As for the trim level, I highly recommend LE trim for the reason you mentioned, but if you must have the feature mentioned, then in the US models they are available only on Limited trim. This may be different in the Canadian line-up.
Appreciate this is coming from my Luddite Troll, but what a looking-glass world, when premium “features” make a level less desirable.
Ahh. That’s too bad. Hmm, I’m not sure how safe placing a cushion would be as it would increase the likelihood of you sliding forward in the seat if you had to suddenly brake. Are you set on the Prime? Is a RAV4 Prime too large? (Although there is a 2 year waitlist for it in Canada).
I am always a minimalist looking for value rather than paying for convenience or elegance. Premium features are almost always less desirable for me especially if they cost more. However, my DW has a different opinion on this. I had to buy Ltd trim PP because that was the last one they had. If I had a choice, I certainly would have bought LE. After driving Ltd for 4 months, I know for sure that some of the Ltd only features are utterly useless for me at least, such as fog lights, auto-dim rearview mirror, and most other Ltd only features such as JBL HiFi stereo, HUD, steering wheel heater, rear cross-traffic alert, parking sensors, parking assist, and blind-spot monitoring are nice to have but mostly not needed. So far, I have found only one premium "features" that I really wish to have on the LE trim. That is a rain-sensing wiper. There are a few other features I wish to have on LE but available on both XLE and Ltd. They are 3 doors SKS, power lumbar support, and auto on/off headlights. Two features in XLE and Ltd that I would not want are the 11.6" display and Softex seats.
Honestly if the car does not fit you I would keep looking and test driving a car that does. You need to be comfortable in the car you buy and there are lots of great cars out there.
5' 2" isn't even that short for a woman. Yes, if you can afford the Limited, get that trim instead, as I find its safety features such as the blind-spot monitor indispensable.
This may work.. It's memory foam so it will sink a bit, but still provides good lift off the seat, while providing support for that tailbone. It has a rubber dots on the bottom to prevent slip, but it does require a minor adjustment everytime you sit if it gets crooked. I definitely agree that someone that's 5'2" with the seat pushed forwards, and the steering wheel telescoped inwards with the seat at max height should be able to safely maneuver the '22 Prime, but there are also a lot of options out there that might be better. Be aware that you may not receive a '22 prime soon, if and when you do decide on that. The wait lists have grown.
One current factor regarding LE vs XLE & Limited: availability. We've been working with our local dealership for a couple of months and wanted the LE. Very few have been getting produced. Much easier to find XLE and Limited trim levels. So after driving my mother's RAV4 Prime that has the BSM & RCTA I loved it and decided it was worth it to go for the Limited. (My wife could really use the parking assist as well.) A week after changing our request the dealer was able to nab a Limited in our preferred color from the most recent allocation.
Try using an adult car booster seat. They got a million of them on Amazon 30-150 bucks. Just make sure that your car has the telescoping steering wheel so you can push it back away from her a bit in the case of airbags etc. Many of them are pretty much built for back aches etc. But they achieve the same results of increasing height.
