2010 Prius Driving Impressions DISCUSSION Thread

Hello! New poster here, who's been reading you all for several months. I ordered my 2010 last week and now I'm like a mom in an adoption agency - "I want my baby - NOW!"

I do have a couple of questions for you guys who have had experience with 2010. Last Thanksgiving I rented a Prius for the long weekend and a trip from the Boston area to NYC. I wanted to experience the car in a varety of driving conditions. One thing that bugged me was that at night a reflection of the instrument panel display reflected up in the windshield. Are you familiar with that? Has it been 'fixed'?

Other question: I live in the northeast on the ocean, and do not have a garage. My new child will have to weather the sometimes tough climate here. Any unusual issues with rust or with the battery living out in the cold for extended periods of time?

Thanks in advance!!
Maggie

 

Unfortunately, the only 2010 Prius driving events that most non-press could attend were the LA and SF ones which were held in the daytime. The SF event I attended didn't have us go through any tunnels or parking structures.

Yes, I'm familiar with the reflection you're talking about and it doesn't bother me much. A partial workaround it to turn down the brightness.

IIRC, the 2010 Prius still employs the design w/the mirror. You're not looking at the actual display, you're actually looking at a reflection in a mirror. (I remember putting my hand in between the mirror and display to confirm.) So, the night reflection issue might remain. :/

 

Turn down the brightness and the reflection is un-noticeable for most.

 

I was talking Series II Prius.

 

I really liked the USA review of the 2010 New Toyota Prius, especially the part about them improving the rotten seats, which on cross country trips, could require a trip to the chiropractor on the 2009 model.

I am a little concerned about the review part on the nearly unreadable gauges, since I always wear sunglasses in the desert & in the mountain snow.

I did notice that problem some what in the 2009 model, which require me to peak under my sunglasses to read the speed and other input.

Now our LA dealers are port upgrading them to tint which might cut some of that problem. I always have an add-on low tint installed starting at the top of the windshield running down as far as the cops will allow and then I get a removable one on the lowest bad glare part. :rockon::rockon:

 

I have a problem with glare because my normal glasses darken with UV radiation. Unfortunately, or should that be fortunately, the Prius screens out UV. As a consequency I suffer from glare that requires my wearing sunglasses with the result you descibed.
Please tell me about the removable tint. I have never heard of such a thing but it does sound like a good solution to my problem.

 

They have had removable tint strips at our local Pep Boys for years. I use to put it on top of my limo tint on my Toyota pickup and when I got stopped snow skiing by Utah police, I simply pulled it off.

When they left, I wet it with a little bottled r.o. water and my squeegee, and put it back on.

It is held by suction and the last one even said, Toyota. I went with the darkest limo tint here in the 350-sunshine day climate of Las Vegas.

They are even selling polarized tint now. I definitely will be putting limo tint and the add-on strip. I will probably even get the polarized tint. With mountain snow and desert sun you can't beat polarized tint and a great pair of Italian wrap-around polarized sunglasses from Costco.:rockon:

 

curious what MPG's people are getting in 2010's

people need start posting some numbers!!!

another note, Toyota is really pushing the Gen III. I can't count how many prius commercials Ive seen on tv today, plus 2 insight commercials.

 

I just took a 100 mile trip up to paradise on Mt. Rainier, Washington which is an elevation of 5400ft. Starting at a elevation of 400ft. Anyways the average MPG for the trip was 60.1 MPG. I was a little nervous what I would get going up the mountain and the average went down to 48MPG but the way down sure did make up for it. In fact from elevation 5400 to 2000 which was the entrance to the park the ICE didn't start once.

Another trip just around my neighborhood going 10 to 30MPH I went 2.2 miles and didn't use any fuel so what MPG would that be?

Anyways I'm still on my first tank with over 460 miles with it saying I still have 220 miles to go. The overall average for the tank says 56MPG but I've been playing with all the modes like Power so maybe next time I'll get even better mileage.

 

A few random comments after a ~400 mile weekend road trip in the '10 Prius.

• My husband, who's 5'11, finally drove the Prius this weekend and he had plenty of legroom. he had no complaints at all about the placement of the center console and didn't feel like it got in his way.

• Without trying to maximize our fuel economy, we averaged almost 55 (54.9, to be precise) MPG.

• We were thoroughly impressed with how well we were able to pass very slow vehicles (especially RVs) in the mountains. That "power" button is well-named!

• I have the JBL stereo. It has rich, full sound with a CD, but I only seem to get 2 channels of sound when I play my iPod through the aux jack. Anyone know if there's a fix?

• I love the keyless door locks. They unlock effortlessly when I hold the door handle, and lock effortlessly when I tap the little grooves on the handle.

• It's frustrating that we can't enter information into the navigation system while the car's in motion. I understand the reason, but a passenger can safely use the navigation system while the driver drives.

• The trunk is more spacious than we realized. We had no trouble at all hauling our suitcases, jackets, and several bags of souvenirs, even with the cargo cover in place.

• Blizzard Pearl is pretty good at hiding dirt. This car was absolutely plastered with gooey insect splats when we emerged from the mountains, but you had to get close to see that the car was even dirty.

 

Can anyone comment on the steering ratio in the 2010 with 15" wheels?

There is a lot of confusion over whether there is a 2.75 lock-to-lock or a 3.75 lock-to-lock ratio. Lock-to-lock means how many times you must turn the wheel from the furthest left possible to the furthest right possible.

edit: it's 3.75 for the 15" wheels

 

I test drove a 2009 (III) and a 2010 (III) back to back.

First things first- the ergonomics are hugely improved in the 2010, not that they are going to win any awards. The (cloth) seat is an actual seat this time- the most striking difference is the bottom pad. The 2009 feels like you are sitting on a table. There is no padding on the sides of the bottom in the 2009, but the 2010 cradles you nicely (I am 5'11" and 165 pounds). The 2010 also has a more pronounced side bolster. The seat is decent, which is a major step up from 2009's laughable. The raising and lowering of the seat is very nice as well. Add in the manual lumbar and you may have something to boast about, but for now keeping pace with the ~20K car class is good enough.

The cloth seats were very very nice looking, due to the pattern of dots on some panels. Although a tad plasticy, the rest of the dash was nice enough, and I feel it is a much better design than the 2009 which has tons of empty boring space in front of either seat. The addition of the center console gives it a much classier look (and a neat storage space underneath)- the empty center of the 2009 makes it feel like a minivan.

The steering wheel is a bit larger on the 2010 which makes it look less cheap. There is also a bit of flat section on the bottom giving it a more refined looking design. The tilt wheel is the same, but now the wheel telescopes out a couple inches. Telescope doesn't do much though- the wheel stays put too close to the pedals to lean back any decent amount. The tilt doesn't go low enough for my taste- I like to be able to relax with my elbows resting on the door and center armrest and hold the wheel on the lower sides of it, but this is not so easy or comfortable with the small wheel. It seems to want you to move far forward and hunch over the wheel with your elbows sticking out. There is no issue with the center console and knee room whatsoever- it is even scooped out so your knees won't touch it if you happen to be 8 feet tall or something.

I also felt it was very difficult to see the hood of the car, even leaning forward and trying to get a look at the corner. This could be a problem in parallel parking in a tight spot- and if the parking assist is anything like Lexus', it won' even try in that case.

Touch tracer is very cool looking. The light appears on a plane an inch or so in front of the speedometer (but not blocking it), which creates a very neat 3D effect. I drove in the day, and it didn't seem to help much as the line of sight to the touch tracer is just barely aboove the line of sight to the steering wheel. Either way you're moving your center of field of view off the road. I also felt like if you were to truly control the climate from the wheel, you need an off button at least, and then selcting the vents (defrost, floor, cabin, mix) should be there as well.

As far as the drive, the 2010 is a definite improvement in handling. The car's center of gravity seems lower and the stance wider. Much more solid feel to it than the 2009. However, the steering wheel does not feel very connected to the road- or anything at all. The power steering motor is far too eager to help you out, which is nice when parallel parking maybe, but not when driving. It felt cheap like a toy, kind of like an 80s caddilac steering wheel. I like it to feel more solid, especially when driving on the highway so it won't swing back and forth at the slightest movement.

The 2010 actually felt less powerful than the 2009 in regular mode. It was especially noticeable from a dead stop. I felt like I needed to floor it to cross a busy street from a stop sign, which was not the case with the 2009. Eco mode makes it even worse, as advertised. But once you switch into power mode, you can see where the 1.8L engine shines. Now we're talking. Accelerating, even uphill, is great. A marked improvement over the 2009. I realize this is all just a matter of varying the response from the accelerator, but the response was too muted in normal mode for my liking. I'll feather the gas pedal as needed on my own. Getting up to speed on the highway quickly is no problem at all (in power mode- I didn't even bother trying in regular), and I didn't notice any wind issues others have mentioned. The car actually feels pretty quick when you give it some gas, which adds to the overall feeling of a much much more capable car than the 2009.

 

I agree with Rick's assessment. Driving in normal feels very much like my '07, except that someone made the car quieter and better handling and forgot to take the special seat out! The Eco button should only be used when you want to make certain the A/C doesn't over-draw on the battery -- well, in my opinion, anyway.

The Power button just shouldn't be used. You'll forget that you are in a Prius, and you'll start thinking you're driving in the Grand Prix. It will ruin everything, and you may only barely reach 50 MPG.

 

OK. I'm finally at the point where I've driven enough to see some results.

The first two days accounted for only about 50 miles of testing out a few buttons. The real test came today.

Today I drove for several hours in almost all conditions: City streets, suburban parkways, state roads, interstate highways, heavy traffic, construction, rain. . .

I drove in normal mode and Eco mode. I also drove with the adaptive cruise control and the lane keep assist.

Mileage performance was best in the suburban and town-to-town driving, where at one point, after driving about 60 miles, I reached 67MPGs. For the day, with a total of 163 driven, the average mileage was 62.2 MPGs. Of course, it had been 62.5, but I left the car on when I went to check in at the front desk of the hotel, and the car was running when I returned!!

Pics from the day:









I should add some qualifying statements.

I used the Eco mode for much of the day. Not while driving in town, but when I was out of the stop-and-go traffic. I liked the way the Eco mode modified the A/C usage. I didn't really see a BIG drop in MPGs when the A/C was on.

I did attempt to maximize mileage for most of the day. A few times I didn't, but I am so used to the "Prius drive" that I probably was driving to max mileage.

Finally: This is from a Prius V with 17 wheels and brand new 215 tires. I think the MPG performance today, particularly when it was also raining, is amazing. If this keeps up, I expect to get a few 60+ tanks this summer. It took me more than one year to get there in my '07! I imagine the 195s on 15s will produce much higher numbers -- I'd be shooting for 70s in something other than a V!!