Blind Spot Monitor or Compact Spare

You're correct - only the 4 and 4 Touring have the Blind Spot Monitor. Those versions don't have the spare.
kevin

 

They don't want you to get hit while drive with a flat tire.

 

Something to consider - Blind Spot Monitor, if you want it, can't be retrofitted. A Spare Wheel, pretend type (or a full-size with even more difficulty & compromise) can, at a pinch, be retrofitted - though it takes a bit of messing about to do so.

 

Kind of a weird trade off?

 

I'd go for the spare, and grumble.

 

Me too. How on earth did anybody for before they put blind spot monitors on cars? Beats me.

 

I would opt for the spare, as well. I was only looking at the Two. The dealer had only a Two Eco on the lot when I went there to test drive. When he showed me the can of fix a flat in the trunk, I shuddered. Call me old school, but I want a spare tire.
And, I only had to wait a week for them to get me a Two.
My wife has the blind spot monitor in her Highlander, and it's a neat feature. But, it doesn't tell me anything I already don't know. I don't fully trust it and look anyway.

 

I own 15 cars (company and personal) ... we have used a spare once in 15 years.

 

I went for BSM instead of the spare on my 2016 model. I'm glad I did. It has been a tremendous safety feature for me. I find it very difficult to see those blind spots.

 

I'll chime in with a vote for BSM. As said, a spare can be easily added for a cost ($$ and weight). The BSM has already paid for itself in two situations I can recall where, if I had not noticed the warning light, I would've caused a serious collision.

I check my mirrors and turn my head to check blind spots all the time, but we all make mistakes. Sometimes that car that was two lanes over decides to merge toward you just after you check that blind spot.

BSM, no regrets.

 

This either/or situation puts potential buyers in a quandry though. Maybe of interest to @Prius Team ?

 

I would choose the factory BSM over the spare because like others have said, you can't retrofit a factory BSM system but you can easily retrofit the factory spare tire. The cross traffic alert portion of the BSM is well worth the money. It picks up not only cars but other moving objects such as bikes, skateboard and people running. Please don't think you can just add aftermarket BSM. Current sonar sensors based BSM system doesn't work on hybrids. You get false alerts. check out this video on a 2012 Plugin Prius. It clearly shows false alarm with no cars anywhere close to the PiP. Even the Gosher's site says not recommended on hybrids or EV. They are coming out with a radar based BSM that cost twice as much that'll work with hybrids and EVs. For that money, I would spend it on spare tire kit because aftermarket BSM kits won't do cross traffic alerts. No aftermarket systems do.

 

so how do you retrofit a donut in 4 Touring?

 

I thought I've seen a thread detailing how to retrofit a spare in a non-spare Prius. You gotta search for it.

 

Side vision was much better:

 

I would take the spare over blind spot monitor: to completely retrofit the spare, per a level 3, is well over a grand.