I wonder if they improved the TRAC so that it would never cut off all power, or if they added a manual on/off switch (don't think there was such a switch on the cars I saw, but I might have missed it).
I doubt they'd allow TRAC defeat for the same reasons as in the past, some basic form of PSD protection is required to prevent overspinning MG1 if the wheels were to suddenly gain traction in a low traction situation (silly kinetic energy thing).
Simply watching Wayne Brown's old PSD simulator would convince otherwise. Imagine you're stuck in snow and get wheels spinning 30mph or so trying to break free. The engine is running at about 3500 or so RPM (or whatever max is at that speed) and MG1 is at max RPM (13,000 rpm). Suddenly you gain traction before power is reduced. The wheels catch a sudden bit of traction and thus MG2, connected to the ring gear of the PSD, will be dropped to almost a dead halt. The engine is still at 3500rpm for a moment spinning the planets, thus MG1 connected to the sun gear must be accelerated further, well past it's "redline". I'd hate to explode an MG1 rotor in a scenario like this, and Toyota thought so too. The brake assisted traction control is purely a bonus to be somewhat useful. Power limiting is power-train preservation first.
I guess what I never bought (or just don't understand) is the proposition that there's no way to protect the PSD except with a traction control system that cuts power completely to the wheels in situations or for periods of time such that the loss of power is dangerous (that snowy, gravelly or otherwise slippery uphill situation that's been experienced by many and written about frequently on this forum and elsewhere).
gen2 has 2 generations old traction control system now, what they will do is cut the time the power is cut so it is barely noticable or noticable at all... i also suppose that suspension will allow more traction to begin with.
I'm not familiar with the "priority" packages. Is this silver/gold/platinum likely to be the final packages, or are they going to break it up into 5 or 6 packages like before?
Silver/Gold/Platinum are the names of the 3 possible option packages Toyota made available for pre-order to selected current Prius owners and other enthusiasts. When the car does go on sale, there will be several other packages available and I'm sure all the packages will revert to the traditional naming system of letters/numbers.
Poor place (IMHO) to 'save' money. I presume you can pull the fob out to unlock the other doors if you would rather not walk around to the driver's door first.
I *THINK* VSC is federally mandated in all cars in 2010. So even the cheapest of the cheap will get more expensive with the addition of ABS and VSC.
What are "Active front headrests" exactly? Headrests that biff the driver in the back of the head if his attention wanders?
The prevent whiplash injury. They're activate when your body hits the seatback (recoil) after a rear-end collision. The bars in the seatback are connected to the headrest and thus bring the headrest forward.
Or short folks like me who may or may not appear above the lower hatch window. Wow, am I in a self deprecating mood tonite! Who's blind in what sense I suppose. Ya know what we didn't check - are there noise makers on our car to notify the blind?!
I'm a fan of the back up cam myself, but honestly, that's not that many. 2009 package #2 costs $575 for SKS, VSC, and backup cam, and that's with the MFD already built in. Let's lowball it and say the backup cam itself makes up $100 of that & ignore the MFD. $100*250,000,000 registered passenger vehicles = $25 billion. $25 billion is an awful lot to save a hundred lives per year. That's enough money to build and run a couple dozen children's hospitals and save the lives of more than 100 children every single day. Let's be realistic here. Toyota can't offer everyone the perfect set of options, and they have to cut some options from the low-end to keep the MSRP down. Toyota has their priorities straight here; they can sell more cars, and make a bigger difference in global fuel consumption and CO2 emissions with an affordable mainstream car than a high priced PriusChat dream-mobile.
I don't know if I'm just reading the options wrong, but why is the moonroof available for the gold package but not the platinum package?
Due to weight concerns adversely affecting fuel economy, the moonroof/solar vent package isn't offered w/ the high tech stuff. 17" rims already impose 1MPG hit, I suppose they're concerned the weight difference w/ the roof stuff is too much.
