2010 Prius Driving Impressions DISCUSSION Thread

My thoughts so far (after the first 100 miles):

1) The complaints about the dash gages being towards the middle seem unfounded. I originally was concerned as I thought it was weird. However the speedometer, gas gage and instant mpg readout are reallly just barely off center. They line up with my right eye if I'm leaning on the armrest. I don't have to look down which is nice.

2) The other display pages are in the center but only requires a glance with the eyes. When they were build into my NAV (on my TCH) I had to look down, actually moving my head and tilting it down to see the screen. Now it is just a glance and you don't even move your head. Similar to looking into your mirrors which you should be constantly doing anyway.

3) I don't like the Bridgestones. Didn't like them on my TCH either. But they will do until I replace them in about a year, which I'll be lucky to get if they are like the TCH (wore out in 24,000 miles)

4) The road noise is mostly from the Bridgestones and the fact that this is a hatchback I believe. While noticable, it's not unusual or excessive

5) I'm still going to be about 10% better than my wife, but she drove 25 miles and was getting 52 mpg without any "special" effort. This is an incredibly sporty good looking economy car.

6) People do look at the V and comment on how sporty it looks. The word "funky" has not came up.

7) The bulges in the roof are really deep. I'm not sure how an aftermarket sunroof would work. Does the SR models have a flat roof? I have not seen on yet.

8) I wish the odometer reading was on the same display as the milage for the trip. I record this information at each fill up. My wife will if it's easy, but I don't think I'll get her to switch screens to do that for me.

9) The NAV does look like it has less resolution, but as I look at it, it almost seems like what it has is more of a frosty glass, perhaps to reduce glare? It's not as bad as some suggest (being a deal killer). I do wish it was more user friendly. I'd love to have a class on it rather than trying to read through the 325 page manual.

10) The rear end below the spoiler does get dusty quick.

11) Don't know why the mirror has to shake so much when even moderate bass is played on the stereo. The stereo does sound nice but it is hard to tell, even after fading to the rear some that there are rear speakers.

12) The heated seat controls are in a silly place. I don't know why with about 2 feet more wire they couldn't have mounted them on the console.

13) A lot of people complain about the location of the shifter. I don't mind it where it is. However I'm left wondering why do you have one at all? If you have a button for park, why not have one for reverse and drive???

14) I find myself having to think when I shift to Reverse as I want to pull the shifter towards me (which is drive). I've warned my wife as I don't want to replace my garage door or my wall in the garage.

15) The lower shelf under the console appears to be a great place for me to carry my dslr. I always have my camera with me and usually can't find a place close by to store it and still have it handy.

 

The new Prius will accelerate just as fast in any mode, the modes only affect the response of the throttle for the first 50% of pedal travel, full power can be accessed in all modes. Even in EV, press the pedal hard enough and the ICE kicks in to help.

This car understeers slightly when pushed when the tyres are at specified air pressure.
Fat bloke driving a Gen III Prius on a closed circuit.

 

And your other impressions??

Wayne

 

The SR models have a flat roof, in that there is no indent/bulge like the non-SR models.

There's a closeup picture of the SR here: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/61840-2010-factory-sunroof-3.html


I wonder how the roof affects aerodynamics.

 

#14 is exactly the reason I've decided to wait awhile and live with the annoying beep. Twice now I've put in in Drive, when meaning to go in reverse.

#15 is a great idea!! I never carry my camera with me, because I have no place to put it. Never even thought about that little shelf...thanks for the suggestion!!

 

No doubt the reason the 'shift pattern' is like that in the '10 Prius --- every automatic I've driven / seen with a console shifter is P R N D L from front to back.

I know - initially it may not seem logical but that's the way it's been for....ever? Imagine if Toyota decided to make it P L D N R for only the Prius.

Beeps or not --- lawsuits.

 

is that true about the acceleration being the same in all three modes? I sense that pwr mode, especially from a stop, has a real juicy sweet spot of neck snappin acceleration.

Maybe its the same for no mode, eco, and ev, but different for pwr?

tall skinny guy (well not as skinny as before)

 

Here's a non-technical explanation as I understand it, the difference is in the response for the 1st 50% of the pedal travel: in Eco response is held back and in Power it's all there. From a stop, you can really feel the difference, even when you don't push the pedal hard.

When the accelerator gets past 50%, the car will give you all it has in any mode. I think of it as a safety feature - in an emergency and you need to get moving quick, you wouldn't want a delayed response just because you're in Eco mode.

 

thanks

but i still wonder

0-50% pedal depression:

eco - muted
pwr - all there
normal? somewhere in the middle?

i get the over 50% its all the same, but pwr is geater than normal below 50%, no?

 

No way it is the same...
the reaction time on the Power Mode is almost instantaneous, while in the other two modes is sluggish...
Once you are past the first second or so perhaps, but one second makes a big difference...

 

There are definately better explanations running around here as this has come up before, I know HTMLspinner posted a good one somewhere. I did a quick search and found this (thanks gbee42):

So yes, Normal is in the middle. At least, that's what I experienced in my test drives. Hopefully, my car will arrive by the end of the month so I can do more testing of the modes!

 

Yes it is but response is quicker because you get higher power as you put your foot down, stamp the pedal to the floor and the difference is tiny as the pedal spends so little time between no throttle and half throttle.

 

Be patient my friend, all will be revealed shortly.

 

my DSLR sits on the shelf under the console as well. allowed me to get the pics of the Bald Eagles while cruising the Olympic Peninsula. protected so no worries on damaging the lens.

as far as the mode goes. i leave it in Eco all the time that way i dont have to pay as much attention in order to get slower acceleration etc... as far as power, if you floor it quick enough, there is little difference in any of the modes. at least when i tried it, i felt little difference in the response.

 

This is our first Prius (II, Barcelona Red), so cannot I compare it to previous versions. But, we've had serious Prius envy since the Gen 3 was announced.

Anyway, after 10 days and 125 miles (Nancy takes the Metro to work and I walk the 1/3 mile to the office most days.) we love the car. It handles well, has adequate power, is relatively comfortable, seems bigger than expected in a car this size and should be a 100% improvement in gas mileage over our 12 yr old Camry and Civic.

Instrument and control layout seems fine, but the tracer and MFD takes some getting used to after the analog systems we're used to. I'm getting addicted to the ECO drive bar and drivetrain display to track my driving habits. The view out the rear window also takes some getting used to, as does the ECV transmission (keep expecting it to shift!) but neither are too much of a problem.

We're "only" averaging 48.6 miles per gallon, but expect that will improve as we drive it more and on longer expeditions. I've got some driving to do this week so may update this post next weekend.

 

Welcome Ken!... the 2010 is the Gen III.

What may help your mileage is to put your tank mileage on trip A but then drive on Trip B and reset it at the beginning of each day.

Trip B will then depict your actions closer since it won't have so many miles to "average" with.

I have reset mine every morning so I can learn the new eco guage and what works best and what doesn't.

Its a bit harder when you have a whole tank to average with... you can do all the right things, but not see the results as accurately "Unless you look at the 5 min bars".. but those don't help me much as they are "too" tight and are influenced by temporary things such as car warmup, hills,.. they reflect unavoidable things you can't control etc.

Anyway.... try that and see if you don't find it easier to zero in on your driving habits a bit better.

You can always bounce back to trip A to see the average of the whole tank any time you want.

If any GenII readers read this:
The GenIII resets the mileage too when the trip is reset. but the different trip meters are independent now and you can use one as your tank mileage and another for a short trip mileage "or all day mileage" and get all the mpg stats that go along with it without having to mix the two.

 

slight correction - in the gen III the bars are 1 minute - in the gens before they were five minutes

my issue with the bars is they are for the time only, so if you moved 10 feet on battery you get a 100 reading - thy aren't weighted at all to give you a sense of which are "heavier"

 

While in the minute mode, you get a 15 minute history... so 15 bars....
While in the "5 min" mode, you get a 30 min history... so 6 bars.

You bounce or toggle back and forth between the two by holding the "Disp" button down while your viewing either.

 

Right...the Gen III has both a 1 minute AND a 5 minute display.