Impressions from Down Under

I think I must have been the first Aussie to get the Prius III.

After months (which seemed like years) of waiting, I was told that Sydney City Toyota were getting their first batch of cars ready for sale on 20 July 2009 at 4pm. So naturally I was there at 3:30pm - and of course the truck didn't arrive until around 5:30pm.

I got what we call the "Stealth" colour but judging from everyone's pictures posted so far, I can't tell the difference between that and Winter Grey. I have been having the time of my life with the car so far - always looking for an excuse to drive it. Let me share with you some of my first impressions.

The HUD is awesome
I am sorry the US market doesn't have the HUD - what a horrible loss. At first I was upset that us Aussies didn't get the LKA feature and a voice activated nav system - but the HUD is an excellent trade-off. At first I had it set at the default position of just speed but then I started playing around with it. I tweaked the option that shows the speed smaller and underneath has that eco bar. It never actually occurred to me that once the bar get's above the midway - then the engine kicks in, and when it falls below it, the engine stops (unless recharge is needed of course). But you can't take your eyes off the HUD.

There is a really impressive feature when the nav system has a destination set. Not only does it have the turn signal with distance to turn - and not just a turn signal, but an actual map of the intersection - but the arrow starts to colour itself in and out as you approach the relevant intersection. It looks really cool - a photo wouldn't do it justice, you need to see a video of it. (Alas I don't have that tech available to me to show it to you).

So with all being said, I wouldn't trade the HUD for the LKA and voice activation.

Door Locks
I absolutely love the smart system - never seen anything like it in my life. We actually have fingerprint locks at home so my wife and I never carry house keys, but now I carry no keys at all! How cool is that?

Unfortunately I don't think the Australian cars allow for auto locking and auto unlocking - at least I don't think they do. I can find no reference to it in the instruction book (but hey, could have missed it) but I have also tried programming these features based on what I have read here, and they just don't work. [Edit: By this, I mean the auto lock when the car goes out of Park and the auto unlock when put IN park]

Looks from others
My wife says she has noticed others look at the car. I noticed three blokes in the car in front of me this morning straining their heads to get a good look. I also saw another guy in a Gen II Prius stare across so I waived at him. That brought a smile to his face and he waived back. It made me laugh at how ironic it was that for the last few months I have been staring down all Gen II Priora that I have seen (eagerly awaiting my own Prius) and I now had one of those drivers looking at my new car.

IPA
This feature wasn't exactly what I was expecting. My first three attempts didn't work. First attempt failed because the car had to back-up up-hill. Second attempt failed because I let the car go too fast. Third attempt failed because one of the front wheels had to go over a small garden rock to back into our carport. The few attempts after that actually worked (even though they all scared the hell out of me thinking I was going to hit the car in front or the side or whatever - not used to someone else doing the driving for me when I am in the driving seat).

Car Wash
I took my car in for a paint protection at the Crystal Car Wash - Coogee. They did an excellent job (but I am biased of course because I know the owner). But beware everyone - strangers who drive the car do not know how to put the car in park. Instead they put it in reverse! It is certainly not intuitive.

Finishing up
Well I could go on for hours about the car - I just love it to death. Naturally I am at the point where I am counting every little scratch or possible scratch that comes my way - but I am sure to get over that soon. My stupid phone doesn't bluetooth the full contact list - only one contact at a time - but I decided to bite the bullet and enter them one by one. At least this way I could group them as I did it and can leave out the rubbish in my address book.

Cheerio.

 

Thanks Peter. Tonight it was pouring rain, had the whole family in the car - it was dark and my wife wanted to nip in to the shopping centre to buy some mustard. 'twas a busy road and there was a very tight fitting parallel park available. I hit the IPA and let the car do the rest. I was surprised at how easily the car parked itself this time. I thought I was going to prang the car in front! No sweat.

Cheers.

 

Hey I was thinking of putting 17" wheels on myself too! Did you use ultra lightweight alloys? Tell me more - I am extremely interested in doing that.