Prius annoyances

Cars rear windows are not behind the rear wheels in terms of placement, so they don’t get the “road wash” effect like that of a van or SUV.

The Jeep Cherokee I had awhile back was terrible for that in the rain and wet winter road season. But their electrical system issues allowed it to run all the time with the dimmer switch set to anything other than “dim”.

One of its more redeeming qualities .

 

The angle difference isn't steep. If sedans were liftbacks, they'd have rear wipers.

The squared off back end means more turbulent air which leads to to more rain, snow, and dirt getting deposited on the window.

 

So I have had my Prime for 2 months now and I have been meaning to start a discussion on some things I find to be very annoying\puzzling but I guess this is the perfect place. I am going to skip all the ones I see people have discussed, such as door locks, shifter knob, dash location, etc.

#1 on my list is remote AC. I turn it on in the cold morning to warm up the cabin but why does it shut off the moment I open the door? By the time I strapped in the baby all the warm air is already gone. My wife's Inifiniti OEM remote start turns on AC or heat base on outside temp and climate control setting. It would even turn on heated seats, steering wheel and defroster. You go in the car, press start button, and all controls are handed off to the key in your pocket seemlessly. It doesn't stop when you open the door car and then make you start it again. As security measure, her car would shut off if you touched anything inside other than the Start button while the car was started by remote start. Why couldn't Prime do something intelligent like that?

#2, Why is it necessary to turn the car off when I plug or unplug the charging cable?

#3 is trunk lighting. It is definitely the worst I have ever seen. My Previous Gen 2 actually had a cabin light much close to the back so when the hatch is open you got some of that from the top in addition to the small one on the side. In the Prime, the one on the side is all you got and it's almost completely useless if you had anything in the trunk. Luckily I think this could be an easy DIY fix.

#4, no mirror turn signal. Almost every other car has a signals on the mirror these days but we can't have one.

#5, DRL using actual headlight. I have the Limited and there are literally 16 LED lamps facing forward, 2 lowbeam + 2 highbeam + fog + 3 vertical on each side, and why do they have to choose the 2 most heavily used ones, and probably the most expensive to replace, as DRL? The 3 in the vertical lamp\turn signal seem to be the best choice. I understand not every model has those spots filled with LED's, which is another retarded decision to skip them. They would probably add $10 to cost and would make all the models look so much better.

#6, Auto highbeam seem to have a narrow vertical field of view. I live in a hilly area and there were several times already when I am going down even a small hill, camera doesn't seem to see oncoming cars just beyond the hill, resulting in highbeam remaining on and blinding others.

#7, I got seatbelt sensor on every seat, and an AC selector to choose driver only or all the seats. How about linking the two so it would switch off driver only automatically when there are more people in the car????

 

Toyota has seen those 'drive away with the gas nozzle' videos and worries you will drive away with the charger and burn down your house. They are sensitive that way.

 

Well that would make sense if they won't let me start the car or go into gear with charging cable connected.

So the situation kinda connect to #1.. knowing that AC will shut off the moment I open a door, in the morning I tried to go and start the car first and then strap in the baby, then unplug the car and go. But the car would shut off when I disconnected the charging cable. When I come home, it's the reverse. I stop but keeps the car running, go plug in and then get the baby out and go inside.

Worst part is that it doesn't shut off all the way, but goes into ACC mode... First few times it got me in the morning wondering why the car wouldn't go in gear.

 

Are you saying your PRIME lets you start the car or go into gear with charging cable connected?

 

For #5, I wouldn’t think worrying about the cost to replace is a big issue. They are LEDs which generally have a significantly longer lifespan than non LEDs.

 

If these LEDS are well designed and manufactured, then their life expectancy should be much greater than the car they are built in to. Failure is vastly more likely to be from external mechanical damage than from hours of use.

Have factory LED DRLs or headlights on any other Toyotas displayed any pattern of premature failure from full-time use? (Yes, many of us have our LED DRLs on full time.)

 

I would have valued my safety higher than a light fixture, but to each his own. I am sure I have burned a tank of gas in a decade of driving with my headlights on, but no one hit me.

 

i have never had drl's or used my headlamps in the daytime, and no one has ever hit me either

 

My thought too.

 

I'd like to add a vote for DRL's. The prime is my first car with DRL's, but my last car was a gen 3 prius and I kept my lights on all the time. Making sure people notice me is worth the extra wear on the lights. (the gen 3 lights never failed anyway)

 

I know DRL is required in Canada, but is there any states in the US that requires DRL? I don't think ours do. In many states, having wipers on requires the headlights to be on. I counted 20 such states according to this source. Headlight Use - AAA Digest of Motor Laws However, I have not driven any car that has wiper switch to automatically turns on the headlight.

 

LOL.. good point.. I never actually tried. It lets me start but the message is displayed on dash that charging cable is connected so I haven't gone further to put it in gear.

Yeah DRL is not required in US. I don't disagree that DRL is useful for safety and the cost of any parts is worth it if it might save your life one day. My point was simply that there are plenty of LEDs to use for DRL and I question the choice they made. Yeah I wished for headlights linked to wipers for a long time as well..

 

Around here you see a fair number of "ghost cars" (cars running at night with just DRL's):

No Back Lights at Night? Blame Daytime Running Lights (DRL) | Advanced Drivers of North America

 

Try it. I bet the car will not start (go to READY mode) if your PRIME is unmodified. However, now you mentioned it, I am not sure if it acccuary goes to Non-READY modes, such as ON mode or ACC mode. My guess is that it won't, but I have not tried that either.

Like you stated in your previous comment, the choice of using the main head light for DRL is probably due to the fact that other trims do not have other LEDs. For designing and manufacturing, it would be much easier and cost effective if all three trims used the same DRL circuitry. Also, I suspect that neither the accent lights nor the fog lights are suitable for DRL function to be visible by other cars? Don't know.