Gen 5 Prius and Prius Prime owners thread

i would put a donut in the middle, cut some foam for the sides, and a piece of 3/4 ply for the floor with carpet on top

 

If I ever buy another car, it will be a Honda. If I can find a hybrid. Unless I find a Chevy Volt. It's likely not gonna happen, though, I'll get an e-bike instead. Wife owns the car in my avatar pic, she like driving me around, trying to scare me.

 

3/4" is pretty beefy I think you could get by on 3/8 unless you plan on putting 300lb back there.

 

EXACTLY what I was saying!!! When you guys personally see how thick (and unnecessary) those blocks are, I'm confident you'll agree. If they had made it high for the entire trunk floor, it wouldnt be as obvious. But on the sides, the floor drops down a good 4 or 5 inches.

Sorry, I just to the end of the thread and saw the pictures comparing it to the LE. Why....WHY?????? did they not do the same witht the XLE? Like others, I see a mod coming in the future. It's just giving up too much space.

 

Having underfloor storage in the back is considered a perk. All my hatchbacks/wagons had a storage tray under floor. They also had a spare under that. A floor near level with the hatch opening also made getting heavy things out a bit easier. The car not having that was seen as the manufacturer cutting corners. Thus why the higher trims of the new Prius have that tray.

Of course in those other cars, the raised floor was the entire floor of the cargo space, and the components were made of much sturdier materials. The HHR's floor piece could be mounted at halfway up the seat backs to make a shelf.


Going further back, there was probably just the spare under the cargo floor. With a floor that was level with the seat backs when folded left a gap of unused space between the tire and floor. trays made that gap more usable.

 

It's easy to look at the pictures and see that it could have been done better. But one of the reasons that it's easy to criticize is that WE don't have to pass safety standards. We don't have to keep costs down by pleasing the customers who think that $28K is too much for a modern car. We don't have to engineer the car to maximize fuel efficiency and at the same time to minimize emissions.

The other problem that car designers run into is that car enthusiasts want every generation to fix all the shortcomings of the previous generations without giving anything up. A major cost during production is the cost of the huge stamping dies that create body and frame parts. The dies have to be near perfect in order to make sure that the parts stamped out by Die #22 are functionally identical to the parts stamped out by Die #23 in the same factory. If they are not identical, you have problems with fit and finish.

But what's the problem with the trunk space? Mainly, the people who have a Gen4 Prius have gotten used to a different storage capacity. Thus, they compare the two generations and declare the new one as inadequate because even though the car itself is faster, more efficient and longer range than it's predecessor. You can't fit an 80 inch wide screen TV in the back of a Gen 5, but it's easy to forget that most sedan's have limited storage and can't do it either. My Gen 1 Prius required that I cut 8 foot 2x4 in half in order to fit in the trunk. I could carry only small (1.5cf) bags of gardening mulch because anything bigger would not fit through the trunk opening. When I picked up 200 pounds of steel for my hobby, it had to be cut to sizes of 2ft x 3ft max in order to fit in the trunk.

The 2023 Prius gets 20.3 cu-ft of cargo space which is lesser than the gen 4 model's 23.8 cu-ft. But compare against the Camry: The 2023 Toyota Camry offers a competitive amount of cargo space for a sedan. With 15.1 cubic feet of space, it has more than enough room for groceries, luggage, or other items. (According to Google's summation of the car specs). Others to note: 2023 Corolla has space for 13 cubic feet of cargo, 2023 Honda Accord clocks in at 16.7 cf. Tesla 2023 Model 3 has 19.8 cubic feet of rear cargo room and 3.1 cubic feet of cargo room in the front trunk. According to Car and Driver, The Model 3 rear trunk is shaped like a long and shallow box. Its wide opening makes it easy for drivers to load golf clubs and suitcases. A well under the trunk floor helps with corralling a few grocery bags.

I'm still waiting to see the 2023 Prime up close so that I can decide for myself.

 

me too. but i don't buy the excuses. it is what it is, and we'll all have to make our own decisions based on personal needs and desires.

it's easy to say 'they couldn't do this, and they couldn't do that because xyz but no proof to back it up.

heck, toyota said people didn't care about 5 seats when the prime came out.

 

2016 was back when target customers were families who grew up with Prius, before Uber where sitting 2 couples comfortably satisfied need. Kids move on, getting the old Prius as a hand-me-down. Prius Prime was intended to provide that replacement upgrade. Knowing RAV4 would fulfill the larger seating & cargo role, it made perfect sense. This is exactly why KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE gets repeated so often. Toyota pursues opportunity, not being afraid to try something new.

 

Deleted. Not a nice post.

 

The gen4 Prime was designed for a smaller battery. When Toyota USA pointed out that staying with the same EV range as the PiP won't sell, Toyota had to make a last minute change or delay release. They went with the former, which meant having to address the added weight of the larger battery. Cutting out a passenger was the quickest solution vs reinforcing car structure.

It wasn't something new. It was done by GM in the gen1 Volt 5 years previously, and no one cared for it then.

 

if toyota knew their audience, they would have made a 5 seater from the go. obviousley, they were seriously mistaken, and have been ever since.

now, they're searching for an audience. will they find one?

 

There is too much history on this already for any rewrite attempt to succeed. So, rather than rehash audience, tell us about the supposed goal. Without being "seriously mistaken", what should have happened?

 

where did i mention a goal? i can only tell you what i want in a vehicle, i'm not in the car manufacturing business.

 

Just saw the Miller has the catshields for the 2023s
https://catshield.com/products/2023-prius-gen-5-cat-shield

fwiw, its already free shipping and I found a coupon code for 5% off CATSH5

 

I was looking though the manual earlier and found some illustrations that show a spare tire that looks like it's sitting in/on a chunk of foam. I think this is the part my friend found labeled as "with spare" It kinda makes sense that the foam would go on the floor first with the wires that run to the rear motors being down there, then the spare on top of the foam.

For the record these are the following parts we found. There isn't enough info available to say which is which yet though.


-Board Assembly Deck - Toyota (58410-47040-C1)

-Box Deck Floor Left-hand - Toyota (64997-47100)
-Box Deck Floor Right-hand - Toyota (64995-47080)

-Panel Assembly Deck Tri - Toyota (64730-47270-C1)
-Panel Assembly Deck Tri - Toyota (64740-47400-C1)

 

Dallas/Fort Worth dealerships were not being very helpful in getting a new '23 Prius. In fact a south Dallas dealership virtually refused to sell me an XLE they said was not pre-sold. Salesman said my trade in was "too good". I should just keep it. I think the truth was that they had some other buyer willing to pay more above msrp than I was.
Anyway, I found a white '23 Prius XLE available in Opelousus, Louisiana. Drove my '21 Prius XLE down from Ft. Worth on Saturday 18 March 2023 and completed the deal. Love it...but I think the larger engine's 60% increase in power is probably going to hurt mpgs a bit more than predicted.

 

perfect!

 

I just want to post about the remote start of my daughter's XLE. The other member posted it we need to tap/push twice on the lock and hold tap/push on the third to remote start. My daughter told me: just hold down the lock button to remote start.

 

1st time owner of a Prius or any hybrid car. Only 65 miles so far but very pleased. Good power and not at all overly tech heavy just to drive. Interior room is fine for us. Under 5’8” and plenty of leg room in the front and back. Been working to go thru the dash display and understand how to see what I want. It’s an XLE with the glass roof and 12.3” display. We were wanting a Limited, but could not find one available. Only area that I wish was different is the main display in front of the driver. It seems a little busy and the size of the information is small. Still trying to get the KPH off the screen. I’m thinking I’m stuck with it. Wish it had memory for the driver seat. This will be the wife’s car. Cabin noise is good to me. 75mph and little wind or tire noise. You can hear the engine when pushing it a little, but not bad. XLE radio and features are good also. I’m sure the limited sound system is better, but this one sounds fine to me. CarPlay works well. It had the digital key option and we set it up today. Seems to work as designed. No fob needed, just the phone assigned to the car. No spare and a lot of foam panels under the trunk floor. But there is a lot of room in the panels to stuff stuff. I’m sure I have a lot to learn with this hybrid stuff, but looking forward to some 40+ mpg!