HEI: I ordered my Prius III couple weeks ago. In the part of Europe where I live, the car is offered in 4 trims, Comfort, Advance, Executive and Premium. The price differences are not that big between them thanks to the tax system here, so I ended up choosing Premium which pretty much has everything, including HUD, solar panel, Pre-Crash, leather, parking assist, adaptive cruise, etc (no LKS though and of course no 17'' alloys). This is obviously fairly impressive list, still there are a few 'common' features I wish they were there as well: dual-zone climate control powered front seats leather trim in door panels parking sensors front and back CD-changer Powered tail gate Air-vents in the back I came up with this list after comparing Prius with the Euro Accord (TSX in the US) I was considering. I won't see my car until September, and dealers won't have demo-cars ready until August, so I wonder if someone can give a confirmation on the things I wrote. BTW, has anyone already tried to fit 16'' or 17'' wheels on models with solar panel?
In germany you can buy as enhancement: front parking sensors (EUR 330,--) and back parking sensors (EUR 290,--) as far as you have NO navi with backup camera
Can confirm the following missing features: dual-zone climate control powered front seats (leather seat option has powered lumbar support, but still stuck with manual seat adjustments) Powered tail gate Air-vents in the back Can confirm the following available feature:
Only "vents" are floor heat vents under the front seats for the rear passenger. There's also the intake "vent" for battery cooling (bottom right rear passenger seat), but this isn't for user comfort. Since the CD Changer is my vid - I'd say yea, it's there ;-). This is specifically for the NAV version's 4 disc changer. The 6 disc in the Prius III w/o NAV is standard and has a visible slot.
no offense but "powered tail gate"? you put your hand on it and it unlocks. a slight upward pressure and it opens. then you close it when done. to each his or her own but i don't want the added complexity and weight and another thing to maybe go wrong (even with rock solid toyota reliability)
I really wish that the HUD would be offered as standard or an option, or even aftermarket in the US... it sucks
I did not think that the car was big enough for dual zone to be overly effective. The motors and acuators needed for powered seats and hatchback would add weight and affect mileage. I don't share the car with anyone, so the seats don't get adjusted much anyway. I know that is not the case for other people. The parking sensors would be nice. And an interior tire pressure indicator would be a logical add on. From what I can see in the owner's manual, there is an alarm when your pressure gets low, so since the car must know the pressure to know if it is low, why can't they display that. And with the number of people who are concerned with tire pressure, it seems like it would be a popular feature.
I can do without the stuff mentioned, but a tach is one thing missing. A visible tach in conjunction with the HSI screen will tell you a lot more about what the car is doing.
Auto-on headlights. Now that's a common feature that is missing from the US models. (It's in the documentation, so it must be provided in some markets, but not here.)
Have had our Prius for 2 days now and love it, but I agree, the following would be very nice (especially considering the vast other tech Toyota thought to put in the car): -Yes, the auto on headlights -Power seats (at least drivers) is something I will miss from my old car -Dual Zone, in my opinion is a bit overrated, especially for this size of a car. Had it in my FX and rarely used it, as it "adjusted" temp, but fan speed would remain the same as the driver's -Powered tailgate-maybe it would be nice, but it is SO light, I barely have to tap it to close it (and I am not a big person). My FX was not powered and is very heavy in comparison. All in all, I think they did a good job, and hopefully we will see these features added in future models.
Never had a vehicle w/ parking sensors - only old time curb feelers - but seems sensors could be useful, especially since the front end seems soooo low; I avoid pulling up to the curb in diagonal parking spaces and fortunately the rig is so short that one can get away with such a procedure. Wonder if anybody has smashed into a curb yet? . . . My wife did complain about the lack of cool air to the back seat early on in 108 degree Goodyear, AZ.
Oh, didn't even realize there were vents back there! I'll have to take a closer look. Thanks for posting your videos!
It would definitely be nice to have front and rear sensors. I have the rear back up camera that comes with NAV, so the rear aspect is mostly taken care of. However, I'm not tall at all, so seeing over the front end is an issue. Front proximity sensors would help a lot. Other than that, I'd put power memory seats and power liftgate on my wishlist. Those are features that I miss from my now departed Mercedes R-Class. However, I bet that almost all of the features we're mentioning here would be available on the Lexus HS250h (except no power liftgate, obviously).
If thats all thats missing then nothing is missing. I want one! (actually the steering wheel needs to extend out more, but thats the only fault i can find.)
Auto-on headlights are mandatory in this country, so I guess I'll get them by default. I also think a dealer can have this problem fixed quite easily. They did this on my syster-in-law's GS300. Anyway, thanks for all the responses, I will post the pictures when I get my hands on my car (hopefully no later than September).
:mod: One can solve the auto-on headlights by simply turning the headlight switch full-on and forgeting about it. Lights turn off shortly after (within a minute?) power button shuts vehicle off. Missing: a slide-out tinted extension on sun visor(s). Current visors are rather short and don't cut sunshine at side doors early and late in the day when driving north & south.
My dad hit a curb in his 2010 on the first day - broke the wheel cover and scraped the right front bumper right near the front wheel well.
