Consumer Reports review and ratings of Gen 5 Prius—with side-by-side comparison to Gen 4

That's the longest 3 sentences I think I've ever seen

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Didn't CR get something like 35mpg with the gen3?

 

Too Long, Too Hard to Read.

Sorry, that's not any better. This is one or two very long sentences that don't make sense,,, as far as I tried to read it....
Try using the English language as it's supposed to be written.
You know, punctuation, sentences, paragraphs, etc.
There may be tech that can help you with that. And it's free! Sorry if I offend.

 

It doesn't help that his first statement is completely wrong. He seems to think the Prius uses the 2ZZ engine. It doesn't, and never has. The gen1 & gen2 (1997-2009) used the 1.5L 1NZ-FXE, while the gen3 & gen4 (2010 to 2022) used the 1.8L 2ZR-FXE. And now the gen5 uses the newish 2.0L M20A-FXS (a member of the Dynamic Force series of engines first introduced in 2017).

He seems to understand a bit that the new Prius engine is related to the A25A engine introduced in the gen8 Camry(they're both Dynamic Force engines), but for some reason he seems to think that's a bad thing. I haven't heard anything really bad so far about the DF engines other than they're still a bit new to get long-term data from(the earliest examples are only 7 years old).

AMD(TheCarCarNut) gave them an honorable mention on his Toyota engine hall of fame video a month ago. The reason they didn't get hall of fame was because there just isn't enough data on them yet. He noted there were no recurring problems yet with the A25A, the M20A has a little data of them dropping thrust washers, and the T24A & V35A are much too new(though the V35A has been having some problems with the turbos and didn't get the honorable mention that the rest of the DF engines received).

Dynamic Force engines start at 8:39

 

Wth?

 

Which is why some of us have been criticizing CR testing for years.

 

Many of the ‘reliability’ dings are due to complaints about the screen.
I don’t know, but suspect, that due to more controls being available on the screen, it is getting more complaints.

I haven’t seen the details or CR’s testing of the Prime, but this pattern has happened before with other cars.

 

The survey can also include complaints that aren't real issues. Say from not reading the manual. Sure the gen2 had issues listed about the unfamiliar brake system noises. With more people being new to PHEVs, these could increase.

 

Or ultra minor stuff, like mine where the recline mechanism on my driver seat was just not lubricated so was jamming. I took it in and the dealer under warranty didn't charge me labour for inspection and then grease being applied.

That would count as an "issue" but I wouldn't say it's a reliability. It was just a manufacturing hiccup.

And there are some odd android auto sync issues but they seem to have resolved themselves with the most recent updates.the android auto app received. So for me anyway, it seems to have been phone based.

 

It would be nice if they gave more information on the lower reliability score. The only thing I can think people might complain about is the 12V discharging when leaving the car plugged in for extended periods of time. Contradicting this possibility is the fact that the 2022 Prius Prime with the same issue has a reliability score of 86. Maybe it will become clearer or the score will change as they get more data.

 

I have a 24 Prius XLE AWD, and I think the Consumer Reports was fair. I definitely find myself falling in/out of the car. It got to the point that I started wondering if I am just getting old and less agile (I'm 50). The visibility was annoying at first, but I got used to it. The smaller cargo was also annoying, as I went from a gen 3 to a gen 5, and with all the stuff I haul around for work or adult sports (mostly ice hockey), I miss the extra cargo space.

 

This is still a problem with the Gen5?
If you leave it plugged in for a month or two, while on vacation, the 12V battery dies (and after a week or so stays Dead because a lead acid can't sit around discharged)?
Even though the car is plugged into an external power source?

What does the owner's manual say about long term storage? Short term storage?

This seems like strange engineering. And it seems like a simple SW update would make it behave the way any other car would.

 

The manual says to unplug it.

The EVSE(the cable) only energizes for charging, preconditioning, or the battery heater. This is a safety feature of the j1772 standard. Simply having on all the time for maintaining the 12 V defeats that. Other plug ins will charge up the 12V if it gets low. If that is done from the wall, it is only a periodic power up.

 

If you're not going to drive it for multiple days, I could see this being an issue. But realistically, if you drive it every couple days and live somewhere really cold you can leave it plugged in so that the battery heater maintains itself. I'm going to assume that when those functions kick in, its going to charge the 12v at the same time otherwise the whole extended operation of battery heater option they include with the car would fail very very quickly and not be worth having at all.

 

Wonder if the RAV4 Prime has that kind of nutty configuration as well

But if you leave it plugged in because it's "supposed" to be freezing cold yet temps only drop to maybe 33°f ???
You're S-O-L a few days later?
guess you better go back & get a bachelor's decree .... become a meteorologist

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Well where I live, most of the time between December and March, its never above 0 and regularly below -20 celsius. This year has been especially warm and its been mostly hovering between -10 and 0C during the day, and hovering around -15C to -10C at night.

Climate change has made it weird though plus the el nino effect this year its been especially warm. Barely any snow out there.

Even in my partially insulated but unheated garage its normally below 0C and I keep things cold in there as its basically a fridge. And thats where I plug the car in overnight. At most it will go 1 day without being driven and if I don't plan to drive I just unplug it. But if we were having deep freezes, I'd leave it unplugged.

 

Correct. If you're someplace cold enough for the battery management system to kick the internal heating element on, then the charger will keep the 12V topped off while that is running. The only possible problem would be in the spring when you've self-trained yourself that it's ok to leave the car plugged in for several days, but then the ambient temps have risen enough that the battery heater doesn't kick on anymore.

Gokan's problem is that he repeatedly makes blanket statements without noting the exceptions.

Bad statement: "Don't leave the charging cable plugged in for multiple days because it will drain your 12V battery."
Good statement: "Don't leave the charging cable plugged in for multiple days because it will drain your 12V battery, unless you live in a cold climate where it's good to keep it plugged in to keep the battery warm."