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Honda Announces Civic Hybrid Pricing

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by LaughingMan, Oct 8, 2005.

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  1. NuShrike

    NuShrike Active Member

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    Most of the time, NO. :) The usual usage is you turn it on sometime when starting the drive and forget it.

    But you need to address my point the placement of the buttons you mentioned is mostly a driver's preference and not really a down-side of the HCH.

    I should've been less vague and directly say I like to be able to hit the radio buttons, temperature buttons, info/consumption buttons directly without waiting for the wheel straight. The times I need this is say when I'm entering a parking garage and slowly driving up the winding turns and generally have no memorized-access to the buttons I want to hit.

    These are available on the MFD, but with the wheel turned, it's not easy to flip to the exact screens. It's also not easy to "reach" the MFD with the poor seating placement of the Prius. Mostly optimal seating for steering is not optimal for reaching the distant MFD, and I wear my seatbelts.

    Usually, I enter work's parking garage, key myself in, then have to go through a bunch of extra motions. Turn off the AC, reset the temperature to low 70s from 79 so the heater doesn't come on, flip to Energy screen so I can make sure I'm in EV-mode going up garage. Then when I park, I flip to Consumption screen to see what my overall average for the drive was. Not easy things to do when the wheel isn't straight, and I could be not even moving.
     
    #81 NuShrike, Oct 23, 2005
  2. LaughingMan

    LaughingMan Active Member

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    Sigh. :rolleyes: I'm not anti-anti-prius. I'm not against UI improvement suggestions, but where I disagree with you is on the importance of the MFD "instrumentation".

    Here's my beef: I don't believe that there is anything in the MFD display that is absolutely critical in the driving of this vehicle safely... why else would they give you an option to turn it off completely? It's not essential data (useful data, but not critical like the speedometer) so they kept it off to the side.

    Second of all, there is no rubbernecking involved in the placement of the MFD. I can see it just fine in my peripheral vision when I'm looking ahead, and I can just move my eyes and peek at it if i really want to see the information there in detail just like when I check the mirrors...

    But hey why not.. put that MFD information everywhere... i like the idea that was floating around before where the MPG information was displayed out of an LED display affixed to the trunk :D.
     
    #82 LaughingMan, Oct 23, 2005
  3. NuShrike

    NuShrike Active Member

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    Yes, exactly what I'm arguing the Prius should be like, and not against information clustering. I'll still disappointed that there's not some HUD in Japanese cars by now.

    So, not only is the instrumentation directly in front of you, but other information/instrumentation is still broken out into side dials by usage. Simply, most used in front, less-used to the side.
     
    #83 NuShrike, Oct 23, 2005
  4. LaughingMan

    LaughingMan Active Member

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    I think he posted those pictures as a counter point to what you said regarding :

    Well... what you are seeing is a consolidation of displays, and that's exactly what 9G-man showed you... a consolidated display... and the modern airplanes are moving toward glass cockpits now anyway... does that make you feel good about flying?
     
    #84 LaughingMan, Oct 23, 2005
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