Most annoying thing about the prius?

Lack of an Auto Airbag Off sensor. Even our stupid '04 van had that and the smartest technology on that vehicle was maybe.... erh.... the radio? (I know this was corrected in the '06.) But I don't drive an '06.... so it's annoying! With all this technology it seems really odd that this wouldn't have been included. (It's also annoying that I don't drive an '06..... or an '07.....)

 

I wish the sun visor had one of those extensions that slide out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ScottR @ Aug 5 2006, 11:16 AM) [snapback]298266[/snapback]</div>

Microfibre eyeglass cloths...some wet stuff can fog the screen...

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ScottR @ Aug 5 2006, 03:27 PM) [snapback]298386[/snapback]</div>

I am still waiting for someone to hack the horn to play the Jaws shark music so I can stealth up on people and scare the carp out of 'em with that... :lol:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(statultra @ Aug 5 2006, 06:31 PM) [snapback]298468[/snapback]</div>

THAT is what annoys my 18yo son the most...If the exhaust isn't loud and obnoxious, it's a wuss car. Then again, he's not too thrilled at driving my hand-him-down '91 Acura anyway so...too bad!

 

as for the car, it's getting a bunch of little nicks in the windshield from the weird aerodynamic shape it has and picking up some little pebbles from the road. glad i put the mask on the nose of the car. oh, maybe we should recall the shape of the car... it's a safety issue i swear, it could cause a broken windshield...

can you tell i'm also annoyed with people who call for recalls on everything?

 

Can't believe I get to be the first to complain about the A/C controls! How NUTS is it that you can't toggle FAN ONLY and FAN SPEED from the steering wheel! ARRRRGGGGH!

ok, I feel better now.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Stan57 @ Aug 5 2006, 10:29 PM) [snapback]298498[/snapback]</div>

Ah, but you must be a "normal" person. I'm an accountant so it would bug me if I didn't use 11 :lol:

 

1) The "reverse beep" feature, and the hoops unnecessary to jump through to disable it. I don't buy the "safety feature" argument. I've never seen any other car with this feature (I've seen some with exterior beeps, but no others with interior). Perhaps #2 is the reason why, but the feature is still absurd.

2) counter-intuitive shift controls. To put the car in reverse I push the shift lever in an up/forward angle. To put the car in drive I pull down/back on it. While this does somewhat fit with how a on-the-floor automatic works, I find myself screwing it up a lot more on the Prius than a normal automatic. Perhaps it's because it's in a different orientation I expect it to make sense, but I'm aclimated to the backwards layout of a floor-selector.

3) pointless "b" mode feature, and lack of an EV mode. If EV mode is so bad for the car as Toyota USA claims, why is it standard on the European version? Or is it that Toyota is convinced Americans are just less smart than euro folk and can't make good choices about when to use EV? It would be really nice to be able to adjust my parking spot without the ICE firing up. (I often have to back out of the drive to un-block my wife's car. In this case, letting the ICE run when the battery is nearly full is a complete waste, and it is bad for emissions as the car won't warm up in the 30 seconds I have it on. But none the less, the Prius insists on trying to warm up the engine about 10 seconds after I turn it on...).

4) Weird decisions about disabling various MFD features while the car is moving. I know it's to avoid driver distraction, but I have two counter-arguments. First, the "energy" display is by far the most driver-distracting display on the MFD, at least for me. If you're worried about distractions that's a pretty serious offender. Second.. um, I have a passenger seat, why can't my passenger choose to look at the FM-station message to find out information about the song that's playing? I don't have the nav system, but the same argument would apply there. If my wife decides she wants to change where we're going mid-trip, why couldn't I have her reprogram it. (I bought a pkg 6, sans nav system, partly for this reason. I'll buy a third-party nav system that's less broken than Toyota's)

5) the JBL stereo "ASL" feature. This feature is right on the verge of being brilliant. Unfortunately, someone in marketing wanted to make sure people could "hear" how good it works, so they over-did it. The end-result is a stereo that's flat when stopped, and boomy at highway speed. Fortunately, this can be disabled, but it's a crying shame you can't adjust the amount of ASL effect. A very light dose of the same effect would make for very pleasant driving.

6) The scrolling cargo-area cover has a hard plastic flap that tends to "flip up" when it's retracted, blocking a significant part of the tinted-half of the rear window.

7) The seats are too firm for my tastes, and the drivers seat lacks several useful adjustments.

8) They "fixed" the cloth-covered dash on the 2006 by replacing it with deep-grained plastic that will also be hard to clean, and looks horrid IMO. The result looks to me like the end-grain of lumber that was sawed off with a chain-saw and soaked in water for a week.


Of course, in all of this, I still love the car, but there are some "features" that are unrefined, or broken-by-design. Oh well.. :huh:

 

The owners seem to annoy me the most lately. More precisely, the owners with one tank of gas under their belt - or less - worrying about lowered FE, brake pulsing, running out of gas, rusted rotors, fuel bladder, uneven tire wear, etc.

Unless the car malfunctions and is the direct cause of an accident, all complaints should be held for one year or 10k miles.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(McShemp @ Aug 6 2006, 07:16 PM) [snapback]298818[/snapback]</div>

VERY harsh McShemp... I have not gotten up to 2k yet...and/yet/but...ALL of my complaints have been addressed by PC, in one way or another...Like, I am NEVER gona be taller than my current 5' tall, but I've figured out how to deal w/ the hatch. And I FOUND PC by googling how to disable the backup beep...And I HATE leather seats...I gotta keep quiet?

Is hell freezing over due to global warming? B)

 

I think just about all of the annoying things with the Prius have been covered except...

My 2006 Prius has almost 8K miles and we still need to crack the windows open to let the interior chemicals outgas. This outgassing annoyance is offset by the 53mpg we are getting. Its a fair tradeoff in my opinion. We all have our crosses to bear.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(McShemp @ Aug 6 2006, 07:16 PM) [snapback]298818[/snapback]</div>

You know what really bugs me...besides everything and everyone in the universe?

Most annoying thing about the Prius:

1) Everyone who drives a Prius
2) Everyone who doesn't drive a Prius

I'd say that about covers it...

 

I'd say #1 is the way the dash comes in at an angle so there is less legroom near the console than there is near the doors. The fabric on the console and doors would be #2.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(McShemp @ Aug 6 2006, 07:16 PM) [snapback]298818[/snapback]</div>

Hey just joined the club and am one that hopes that Toyota might pay attention to this site. Therefore if people mention other than awesome features maybe Toyota will fix them. I myself love this car and almost got one of the first ones years ago. Didn't fit into the budgetary plans but I happened upon an awesome deal for a slightly used 2005 last week, yes a heck of a lot cheaper than a new one minus the tax credits. Part of the benefit of living in a Farming community that has a love affair with all vehicles big and domestic.

I dont like it when people say "You will never recoup the extra cost". Nope is my reply but I dont buy a car just because of mileage. This car has safety features that are not in comparable cars, a really handy console and yada yada yada. Point being that this is my main business car but will also have my family in it at times and if an accident happens it aint mileage that is going to protect us.

I also would like to see a Drivers seat that would lower, I am a large 6'4" guy but I fit very well. Last cars were a Corolla and a Tundra and they did not have that feature either so might be a Toyota thing.

So, Toyota, if you are listening - Great job and I am thankful but the next Prius I buy I would like to see a Drivers seat that could lower and go back some more.

 

I also have only 4k on my 2006, and most of my complaints have been covered, EXCEPT, when I buckle the seat belt, 90% of the time the belt folds in two and gets caught in the buckle slide, best way I can put it. This happen often in my 2002 Rav4 also. If I try to straighten it out some times it gets turned over and the metal part of the latch hits the window sill. I had to take the Rav4 in twice to straighten out the seat belt, but it is easier on the Pruis. I hope I explained this well enough and it is annoying and I only had to drive the car about 10 times to figure out it was doing the same as my Rav4. Must be some new safety thing because my two Supras did not do this.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ohgreys @ Aug 6 2006, 03:47 AM) [snapback]298575[/snapback]</div>

"Normal" maybe or maybe somebody who has pushed the limit of the gas gauge and walked too many times. <_<

 

Would be nice if in addition to a "Touring" model there would be a sport or performance option to get some more horsepower. Car needs more horsepower.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(esskay @ Aug 7 2006, 02:17 AM) [snapback]298885[/snapback]</div>

Hi Esskay,

I really do not think the Prius needs allot more horsepower. What it needs is a "Quick Launch" button. Press the button and hold it at a stop light, it brings the engine on and you can throttle up the RPM, so that when you take your foot off the brake there is no delay for the engine to come on.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(molgrips @ Aug 4 2006, 06:24 AM) [snapback]297573[/snapback]</div>

It should be both if we want everyone to do it. Though I wanted to put my money where my mouth was envorionmentally, I admit that I had to make a hybrid "pencil out" before I decided to buy one.

There are a number of small cars that would get better than 30 mpg for the kind of driving I do, and cost a few thousand less. If I had purchased a regular Honda Civic, the difference in purchase price would have covered 50,000 miles worth of gas at $3 gallon. And the regular Civic is a low emission car. This has been an economic fact since hybirds hit the road several years ago - you won't recover the premium price of the car through gas savings unless gas hits about $5.

So what do we do? We subsidize the hybrids. One of the reasons the Prius "penciled out" was the $3150 I'll subtract from the bottom line on my taxes. That covers most of the hybrid premium purchase price.

My reasons for buying a Prius (not in a partcular order, except item one drives me to the others)

1. I average about 500-700 miles a week. Most of that is reimbursable business driving.

2. 50+mpg and PZEV is good thing for environment.

3. The $3150 tax credit offsets some of the higher purchase price - Number 2 alone was not worth another $5K when there are other ULEV cars that help the environment.

4. HOV lanes access! Though I still don't have my plates and appear to be at serious risk of not being able to get stickers. Access to the HOV lanes will save me 1 hour per day on my longer trips - If I don't this, a big reason for going hybrid for me will be lost. My time is worth money and I will count time saved as part of the hybrid's value.

What I find annoying about the Prius? Same things other people say...

I think Toyota went a bit too far in making the Prius "different." I mean - Someone that has been driving cars all their life needs to "trained" to drive a Prius. Sure, once it is moving, it drives pretty much like a normal car. But there is nothing intuitive about starting it (uh.. powering on) or even putting it in gear - the lipstick thing trips people up because it snaps back, etc.

I have let several people try out driving my car. All of them needed "instruction" as soon as they sat down. the only person, aside from dealer sales/service people, that already knew how to drive my car was a valet at Jack London Square - I would imagine any valet on the job for more than a couple of days has had to move a Prius.

Honda went the other way. There is virtually no difference in the way you start and drive a Hybrid or conventional Civic. The hybrid Civic has a CV transmission, but they still use a familair shifter with P RND321, and you use a key just like most other cars to start it. Just gotta get used to the engine shutting off when you stop. Hybrid Civics have a tach - which of course drops to zero when the engine stops - A small "Auto Stop" indicator light comes on so you know it was a normal shut down. The only thing is, the indicator is red - in most cars, if the tach dropped to zero and you saw a red light, you'd instantly think something was wrong. The "auto stop" light should be blue or green, in my opinion.

That Prius back up beeper is annoying. But I have decided that until most of the world gets used to how that transmission selector works, it is probably a good idea to warn people that the car is prepared to move backward.

Ignoring the hybrid drive train, I think the Prius is not much to write home about. For $25K you can buy cars that are more comfortable, quiet, smooth riding, and have better handling. Look at the construction... If it wasn't for the high tech powerplant, most people would just consider the Prius another tin-can econobox. I doubt they would fetch more than about $18K with conventional power.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rufaro @ Aug 6 2006, 09:38 PM) [snapback]298829[/snapback]</div>

Sure it's harsh, but I recently read a thread from someone who doesn't even have a Prius yet but wants to get a TSB issued. That's verging on the ridiculous.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Curtis SAC @ Aug 7 2006, 09:28 AM) [snapback]298992[/snapback]</div>

The "lipstick thing"? What's that?