My 09 brake pedal measures 2" closer (higher off floorboard) than the gas pedal. That does not seem right, and it is awkward. With brake pedal at right distance, then gas pedal is too far away. I measured an 09 Camry, and the difference is only about 1". Guess I need to stick a pad on the gas pedal.
I've really never noticed it being substantially different compared to other cars I've driven. Its not designed to be adjustable, AFAIK.
Went to dealer and I have a standard gas pedal. Most car's brake pedal is closer in height to gas pedal. Some Camry's 1" difference. Prius is like 1 3/4". Obvious fix is to attach a pad on gas pedal.
Huh? By god the Prius is a great car! It really annoys me that the Prius gets dirty when I park it outside and there is rain after a dust storm. I wish Toyota would fix that, gee it bugs me! Sorry I was struggling to find something to complain about and I didn't have a ruler handy. Did you notice this during your test drive? How could you bear it?
Pat has it down to a science. We have talked about this before, that the Prius is so well designed that we need to nitpick to find something to complain about. As for the difference in pedal heights, I never noticed. It certainly is in the normal range for cars. Some, like my old Jeep CJ-5, had about 10" of difference between the gas and brake. The brake was lined up with the clutch pedal. You had to move your entire leg to go from the gas to the brake. Even that was manageable. Maybe I'm not picky enough. Tom
I think that its customary to have some height difference between the brake and "gas" pedal heights. It allows you to more easily distinguish the difference so you don't get confused and use the wrong one at the wrong time.
I just asked my 16 year old son who is learning to drive. He has a 1976 manual Corolla and sometimes he drives my Prius. I said to him, "does it bother you that the Prius brake pedal is a full 50mm higher than the accelerator pedal?" He screwed up his nose at me as if to say, "get real dad."
The things I realized is Toyota does 'cheap-out' some hideous features on the Prius: No Auto Door lock is one, the video-game style of gas padel (cheapo 1 plastic-piece) and smaller-than-standard brake padel is the second and third..... If you look at the gas+brake padel set again, you'll find them very tiny (or look weird) compare to the size of this car.
In performance cars the brake pedal is designed to be even with the gas pedal during hard braking. Why? In a manual transmission car, to properly downshift one must match engine RPMs with ground speed. This is done using a technique called "heal / toe" braking. In order to brake and blip the throttle to match RPM's at the same time, the left side of the right foot operates the brake while the right side of the right foot operates gas peddle. Done properly you get a very smooth shift with no change in braking pressure just a very sudden rise in RPM. I still can't do this quite right in a car, though I can on a motorcycle. (With a motorcycle the right index and middle finger operate the front brake while the ring finger and pinky turn the throttle. The left hand operates the clutch, the right foot operates the rear brake, and the left foot operates the shift lever.) Of course this doesn't apply to the Prius with a CVT but I'd bet that peddle arrangements are pretty standardized.
This will be a cheap and easy fix for me ... just put a racing type pedal over top of the OE gas pedal with a pad in between.
If you get the Type R pedals, you will be able to go faster as well. :madgrin: Type-R Racing Sport Non-Slip Steel Covers Car Pedals - eBay (item 370190015883 end time Apr-21-09 20:21:10 PDT)
Am I the exception here that when I have the car in drive and press on the accelerator, the car moves forward? Other than a difference of 2.5 centimeters between something and something else, I'm not sure what this thread is about.
