What are your thoughts on the Gen. 4 Prius?

It's truly is a polarizing car. You either love or hate it. That's good for the lover's... since they are not flying out of the dealerships, good deals can be had.

The one thing I'm trying to get past is the sonar sensors that the Premium Convenience Package adds to the front/side and rear bumpers. In some colors, it's a distraction from the cars clear clean lines and looks. I have to have a closer look in person and consider if features/benefits outweigh my aesthetic concerns.

 

the 2016 Prius , I saw the photoes , I watched the Videos , I didn't like the looks , Today came
Out of the store , and next to my 2012 was parked a new 2016 ,,, black ,,,, totally awesome looks
I was like a kid again in the 60s looking at the new cars ,,, as for exterior , love the 2016

 

too funny, congrats!

 

Me too

 

The Prius needed a new look. Like it or not, the look is working cause I see a lot of 2016's rolling.

 

Yep, they must have out smarted us again.

 

Now that I'm 3 weeks and 3400 miles into ownership...

The AC controls still bug me. The iPhone - stereo thing seems to be working correctly now, even though I didn't change anything, so that's good. Still comfortable. Still economical. I love the fact that I only have to fill up every other day, as opposed to every day with my previous car, and when I do fill up, I'm only spending a few dollars more with each fill-up, even though the total miles covered is twice what it was in the previous car.

I found the buzz at the base of the steering column and fixed that, but now there's a different one....it seems that when I added the foam tape, I slightly altered the relationship between the two panels that are vibrating against one another, and I just moved the buzz to a different part of the same panel. So I'll get under there this weekend and put foam tape in several spots around the edge of the panel.

A new rattle appeared, this one in the hatch. From tapping with my fingers, it sounds like it's the plastic interior panel that surrounds the vertical portion of the rear window. I'll pop that off this weekend and get some foam tape in there too.

 

My Gen 4 2016 Prius 3 Touring

First, a little background:
Retired GM Senior Experimental Test Engineer for 35.5 years. Then ISO Laboratory Quality Systems Assessor for 13 years. Re-Retired in 2013.
2009 Prius 2 Color: Silver, bought new 04/2009 right after gas prices hit the ceiling. Put 35000 miles on it. Onboard MPG calculation 52 MPG lifetime average.
2012 Prius 2 Color: Winter Grey, bought new 04/2012, needed to get rid of bladder gas tank in 09 (real pain) Put 28000 miles on it. Hand calculated 52.5 MPG lifetime average.
2016 Prius 3 Touring Color: HyperSonic Red, with custom pin stripping, and Moonstone interior. Bought new 04/05/2016. Extras: Carpeted and all season floor mats, rear bumper protection appliqué, and blackout kit for white china.
First impressions when I first saw the car were Gorgeous Exterior, and Moonstone interior OMG what was I thinking, should have ordered the black. So taken aback that the next day called the dealer and wanted to know if I could cancel deal or what would it cost to give car back and get one with black interior. Got over initial interior color shock about three days later and the Moonstone began to grow on me to the point of really glad I did not get the black interior.
At this point, 05/21/2016, 46 days into ownership, 800 miles I really love my Gen 4 Prius. Rides great. Seats are comfortable for me and the wife. Extra room in the hatchback cargo area is great. Love the radar active cruise. Lane Departure Assist is nice. Voice activated commands seem to understand my requests so far. Bluetooth works great. Navigation is working well. Hand calculated MPG after first tank is impressive (52.5) and climbing after every trip. Was really cold here thru April. Did find, as reported by other owners, a 5% “fudge factor” with the onboard computer. Not much different than my other two.
I do miss the loss of storage as compared to the 2012, but as with all new scenarios, I will endeavor to discover new ways of storing the essentials needed for everyday driving and eliminate the unnecessary items. I have been able to accommodate all the items I had in the 2012, by removing several of the non essential owner’s manuals from the glove compartment. (This also reduces the cargo weight for everyday travels). Did change out the front door courtesy lights and the hatchback light for LED, much brighter. Also increased the tire PSI from door sill recommended to 37 PSI.
So at this point I have to say I am really enjoying the Gen 4 Prius.

Will post again later when more miles driven.

 

I've noticed gen4 Prius does not have Automatic Brake Hold feature with Electronic Parking brake, EPB. I have a 2016 Civic rental now which has both features and I like them, especially the Brake Hold. Just press the button the enable upon startup, once stopped, take foot off brake and it holds the car until you press accelerator again. Rest foot at stop lights. If need to lean over and pick something off floor, no problem, car holds itself. Turn and hand something to child at stop light, safer to do so.
Yes, the brake lights remain on while brake holding. Yes, the brakes would remain engaged if rear ended.**

I think it's a detriment the Prius gen4 doesn't have the above. I've read EPB saves weight and frees up cabin space. No more foot parking brake pedal.

Would you suggest that feature for a next gen or refreshed Prius? What do you think?

** PLEASE drive carefully!!! I had at least half hour delay last night driving past horrible accident. Wrecked car was 10 ft up, embedded in a tree. Maybe fatal. Be careful !!

 

seems like a good idea at first glance, but i must admit, i've never missed it, or even thought of it. maybe they will put it on gen 5?

 

Thumbs down here. We already have the "P" button next to the shift lever which does something similar, so why add a "PB" button and confuse people even more than they are already confused by all the other layers of features? Plus one more expensive-to-repair item that could potentially fail.

Why not have electric parking brakes on motorcycles? Or electrically-deployed kickstands and maybe even motorized center stands? I think motorcycle riders understand the elegance of simplicity. In the car world we seem to be riding an escalator of ever more complex "convenience" features with diminishing payoffs. Electrically folding mirrors being a case in point.

I think it would be a good idea to modify the "P" button so that it turns on the parking lights and maybe the brake lights too.



merged

If by "hand calculations" you mean dividing miles shown on the odometer by gallons displayed on the gas station pump, that method may be inaccurate.
(1) dkrouse and I have been using a GPS app called SpeedTracker (there are many others like it) to measure distances covered (at least according to the app) versus miles shown on the odometer, and we find that the odometer appears to UNDERSTATE the distance covered by 1-1.5%, which would increase the actual MPG ABOVE that determined from "hand calculations".
(2) It's harder to know how accurate the gas pumps actually are. They are supposed to be accurate within +/-0.5%, but how can we check that? We can be fairly confident that any errors would be in the MINUS direction (they would tend to pump slightly LESS gas than we pay for), so that could mean an INCREASE in actual MPG of maybe 0.5%?

"Hand calculations" on my Gen 3 gave a fairly consistent 5% "fudge factor", and I'm embarrassed to say that I never thought to check the odometer. I don't have enough data yet on my Gen 4. I'd like to run several tanks through it, total up the gas used and mileage covered, correct for the odometer, and see where it stands overall.

 

It's kind of a reach though, to say Toyota is adjusting mpg display to account for (their) possible odometer error (and it's not that much) and possible gas station short changing.

The path of least resistance: they want to fluff the stats, and a lot owners are happy to help them, rely on the what the car tells them.

I'd be happy with a display that at least jives with the displayed odometer and gas receipt calc.

 

can you check a gas pump by filling a one gallon container?

 

You make valid points. But honestly, if we're talking about the possibilities of gas pumps being a tiny amount off, or odometers being a tiny amount off, we're kind of splitting hairs.

I think the bigger issue in getting accurate MPG figures is the pump shutoff. I always go to the second click. But on any given day that I put gas in the car, that doesn't mean that it's filling to exactly the same level. Add that to the fact that I don't fill up at the same station or even the same pump every single time, and it'd be easy to assume that the pump could be stopping sooner or later, considering just those variables. We could add in other variables too...where the pump shuts off can be affected by temperature, whether or not the car is level, which way it is facing (uphill, downhill, leaning to one side or the other), pump-to-pump variations in the cutoff, etc.

I'm of this mindset: We all already drive efficient cars. Worry less, and enjoy the drive.

 

so when i sell my car at 100,000 miles, how many miles does it really have?

 

Now that all the low hanging fruit has been picked, we're splitting hairs on just about everything in the fuel economy business. Consider that all the redesign work Toyota put in for the Gen 4 yielded an increase of just 4% in the EPA rating (50 to 52). And fuel economy has never been about a single big savings, it has always been an accretion of smaller savings.

bowerda47 claimed that Toyota has had a 5% fudge factor. I was simply pointing out that it may not really have been that large. That's all.

Your sig shows a Fuelly average of 52.1. How would you feel if it were actually 49.5 (5% lower)?

Not really. Errors in pump shutoff average out if you divide total miles driven by total gallons pumped. Tank numbers are just indicators along the way. And big changes can't be explained by tank shutoff variations.

I'm of a different mindset: "I bought a fuel efficient car, so I'd like to see how fuel efficient it is and savor that. If I had a Porsche I'd probably want to enjoy seeing what it can do. I certainly don't want to just sit there and bliss out on XM radio. Nor do I want to look at numbers that are off by a lot."

If it's a Gen 4, probably 101,000-101,500, you got an extra month or two of warranty coverage. Hooray!

 

I found my PiP was adding about 1/2 mile for every 15 miles I was travelling, so at 100,000 miles, that would have been around an extra 3,333 miles.

 

WoW!!! Guys, Gals, Fellow Prius owners, please calm down. First of all let me apologize to all of you for breaking open this hornets nest. Second of all let me give a name to what I see happening here. It's called "Measurement Uncertainty". Without going into a lot of detail it is the identifying the factors that cause the answer to need a correction factor to be accurate. Please don't make me go into anymore detail on this. Now, I have a question. And I'm not sure I even want to know this. Without having a smart phone, how can I get an accurate calculation of the possible error in the vehicle mileage measurement? Any and all reasonable cost ideas appreciated.

 

from the time tyres are new, until they are worn beyond passing inspection, is the odo affected?

 

Likely. Tire composition is layered. Hard near the cords...soft near the top. As you wear them down, the handling and performance characteristics change. This is why many motorcyclists replace tires long before hitting the "wear indicators."

I've not seen a huge drop in MPG, and I'm going to likely need new tires on my 3rd Gen before winter. I know they're getting low, and last winter had sketching handling on snow/ice compared to the first winter.

Others might know this better, but I'd say the tire (if a LRR type) is at it's optimum performance when new, and as it ages and you get down to that harder rubber, something is lost. Maybe not enough to be obvious, but I think my MPG has gone down a little over the years since buying it. I wonder if the MPG will bounce up some IF I were to install the same OEM brand of tire the Prius came with.