:roll: My first occasion to 'toot' at a friend. What an unpleasant sound for such an incredible machine! To greet a friend, I (for the first time) used my Prius horn - if you could call it a 'horn!' The sound rather reminded me of the rubber-bulb horn I used to have on my bicycle in the '40s. I suppose I was expecting a somewhat more elegant sound. So, fellow Prius-ites, what do you think of your 'horn?'
:roll: We have a '96 Camry LE and an '88 Camry Station wagon - both those horns sound very different from the Prius - more like 'real' cars. -Charles Suitt-
I've had multiple chances to use the Prius horn; it's not particularly glorious. And because of that reason, I don't honk unless I absolutely have to. Being that the Prius is quiet, maybe Toyota wanted to keep it that way by eliminating any unnecessary honking... In Manhattan, there is a 400 dollar fine now for honking... (Not enforced) Since our operating costs are low, Toyota makes sure we don't get a ticket in Manhattan for honking our horn when we shouldn't because of the cacophony. I know that theory sounds far fetched, but once when I needed the horn in the A4, afterwards I said "wow! This horn is awesome." It triumphantly blares this low tri-tonal German fanfare. Sometimes when I'm out on the highway I honk just because it sounds cool...
You could always do what a fellow employee here did to his Acura. He put a Ferrari horn (an air horn) in it Of course he add to demonstrate one day when he was coming up behind me.
[font=Tahoma:6c454b4a8d] [/font:6c454b4a8d]I changed my horn to an electromagnetic type like the ones in German cars like Mercedes and Porsche and in higher end American and Japanese cars. The sound is the fanfaren kind. With the included brackets, it was fairly easy to install the 2 separate horns where the original ones were. Just needed to take off the black plastic shroud over the top grill and radiator. The OEM wiring terminals fit the horns with no problem. Sounds great!
It's funny I beeped hello to a friend today and he beeped back and they sounded exactly the same but he was driving an Isuzu diesel truck. Maybe all the Jap. car manufacutres get their horns from the same supplier. The best horn was my old Roadrunner that went beep-beep. I loved that car and horn, but you could watch the gas gauge go down LOL
With all the computer gadgetry in the Prius, were you also expecting downloadable polyphonic ringtones for the horn? Imagine the possibilities! :mrgreen:
Hey Dad2nv ! Where did you get your horn at? Did they have air-horns there? I would love to upgrade mine. Please let me know if you have some info on where to buy. Thank you so much, -Robbie L.
The horn is a EMERGENCY WARNING device. So it is suppose to have an unpleasant sound; otherwise, it would not be able to cut through the sound of music playing in a vehicle with all the windows shut.
Hey i guess you never drove in NYC. There it's a "get out of my way" device LOL. Relax my NYC friends...."it's only a joke"!
But the Prius sounds more like an EMERGENCY WHINING device. "Waaaaaaaaa, get out of my waaaaaaayyyy"!
kinda remids me of my harley sportster horn which the gentle biker guys called a girly bike. all that changed when i got my vrod. instead of beep whiny beep it went honk!! blanking honk!!. i might change mine on smiley but i think ill wait to hear more horn expeiences.
Those who generalize this as a "Toyota horn" haven't heard the horns on the Tacomas and Tundras. They're far more "American", and I was really hoping that the Prius got the same horn. One more thing to mention though is for those who swap out the horn for something a bit more glorious, remember that those w/ the alarm have 2 horns - they sound almost identical, but one is buried up farther under the hood for the alarm only (at least in the case of the '02), and the other is in the grille area for road rage, err, warning use. I mention this so that those taking on this task will swap out the correct one. I wouldn't mind getting a wrecking yard Tundra/Tacoma horn for my Prius.
