Little and big things that should change

#2 - I did not have this problem with my Gen 3. Perhaps something in the air where you drive causes this?
#3 - Cabin air is used to heat/cool the hybrid battery. The Gen 3 has an air intake near the right side of the rear seat. Possibly the car tries to warm up the cabin air to help the battery get to operating temperature?
#4 - Toyota definitely changed something in the HSD in the Gen 4 so that it will go EV at far higher speeds than the Gen 3. As I understood it, the Gen 3 was limited to 46mph (74kph) in EV to avoid overrevving one of the electric motors. Because of the way the planetary transmission works, when the gas engine kicks in it slows down the electric motor(s). I don't know how Toyota engineered around this. And yes the battery in the Gen 4 seems stronger than the one in the Gen 3 did.
#5 - I agree that is very annoying and it seems the same in the Gen 4. On the other hand, this means that the car will run the gas engine as necessary to maintain its interior temperature and battery charge while just sitting there in neutral. Handy if you leave a person or pet in the car while you are shopping or whatever. I'm not sure if there is a logical way around this.
#5 - Stronger battery in the Gen 4 improves this. An even bigger battery would be nice but it would increase cost, add weight, and take up space (as it does in the Prime and the Volt) so there is a tradeoff.
#6 - Yes parking a Prius in a tight space is tough because the bumpers scratch so easily. I keep thinking of the Smart car that people park PERPENDICULAR to the curb, at least in Italy. The car is about as long as the width of the parking lane. "Smart Parking" indeed!

The #1 item on my wish list would be threaded mounting points integrated into the roof underneath the rubber strips on either side. If you wanted a roof rack, you would buy a set of Toyota accessory side rails, peel back the rubber strips, bolt the side rails to the mounting points, cut out sections of the rubber strips, and reinstall the strips. This is how many other vehicles handle it. Very little aero drag with just the side rails, and if you needed to carry something on the roof you would simply clip crossbars to the side rails. The crossbars could be aero cross section and in any case could be carried inside the car when not in use (no wind noise). For people that carry bicycles, this would be better than adding a heavy trailer hitch assembly to carry them behind the car, which adds weight (50 lbs for the hitch assembly?) and impairs access to the rear hatch. Probably will never happen.

 

Are you describing the $120k Lexus LS600h or a $30k Toyota Prius?
It's a $30k to get you to work cheaply. I don't expect too much other than it runs. However my $200k weekend car my expectations are a little higher

 

from what i've read here, most of those things are improved.

 

The battery is definitely stronger in G4. I can't say about the G3, but my G2 can barely run on electric only for 1 minute.

The battery has never gone below half in my G4 while driving or stopped. It's FREAKY. I was stopping to pick up my son from soccer practice one night. I waited in the car for about 30 minutes and the car only dropped one bar during that time with the A/C turned on and the radio playing.

The IPA works OK, as long as you scan for the correct spot. My car thinks you can parallel park in a 1 foot "parking spot" between two cars. I found that pulling up beside the car you want to park in front of and then scanning the spot works best. It works fantastic as long as the car scans the right spot.

 

The battery on my 2 ECO has been down to 2 bars. Just like the Gen 3, at 2 bars it gets anxious to run a regen cycle, I've never gotten it down to 1 bar. Perhaps Toyota thinks we will worry if only 1 bar is showing? At the top end, I don't think I have ever seen the top bar lit.

Not on mine. If I push the load a touch past the midbar the gas engine kicks on. It allows maybe one bar-width above the midbar and only briefly, unlike my Gen 3, which triggered exactly at the midbar. On a fairly level section of road I drive frequently, the speed limit is 40mph, which puts the load just at the point where it triggers the gas engine. I can manage 38mph on the battery but 40mph is a juggling act.

 

If I had to guess, and I am.
Perhaps there is a patent, or a tax or some other governmental block.

 

Yes, a recessed threaded mounting system would be excellent. I have a hitch mount on my Gen 3 and it works but is heavy with the rack. I am considering the SeaSucker suction cup mounting rack for my bike on my Gen 4- although Rhino Racks makes a top rack that fits both my Gen 3 and 4- but it has the metal clamp mounting brackets that will invariably cause scratches to the door edges.

 

UK Excel Gen 4 has an ECO setting for the heater, which acts the same as if you had the car in ECO driving mode when you don't. You can also choose S-Mode where it directs heat only to the front seats and the window vents (for demisting) and if the passenger seat is unoccupied only to the driver (and vents). The gen 4 does make more use of the electric motor and regen seems more efficient than the Gen 3 was. The SIPA is way better and quicker than the old gen 3 one was. With this one you just roll up press the SIPA button, once for parallel parking, twice for back in parking, and follow the screen prompts for when to brake and when to select D or R and it takes you in. If it looks like it's going to hit something it tells you to stop, change gear then resume, so it sometimes shuffles back and forth where a more skilled driver (parker) may get in first time. But it can get in to quite tight spaces where a less skilled driver may not have the confidence to attempt to park (although I personally choose not to park in tight spaces for fear of getting door dings). The engine still starts up about 10 seconds after the READY light comes on, but you can prevent this by pressing the EV button as soon as the READY light comes on, as you could with the Gen 3. Sorry but the stinky AC I'm afraid is down to you, you get out what you put in, if you let the inside of the car get damp, use the recirc button a lot, drive in stinky (industrial) areas and/or don't change the cabin filter often enough, you're going to get bacteria in the AC system vents.

 

interestingly, when i'm out of wall charge, my li-on behaves almost exactly like my '04 and '08.
i wonder if the newer batteries have changed, the software, or both.