What are your thoughts on the Gen. 4 Prius?

Not impressed?!

Some Gen4 owners are adding goldfish to the water in the headlights! Kind of a "mini aquarium."

Now that's impressive.

 

??? water in the headlights?

 

You're absolutely right
And maybe the styling will grow on me?
I knew I'd upset some Gen 4 owners or that a lot of people would disagree with me, and that's OK, because impressions on looks are subjective.
I'd just say...the first time I saw a Gen 2 Prius...I liked it.
The first time I saw a Gen 3 Prius...I liked it.

My first glance at a Gen 4.......well...no....

 

Same here. I liked the Gen 3 over the 2, still do. The 4 leaves me a bit, cold. It looks to me like 3-4 divergent teams worked on competing designs, and they incorporated all three designs just to be fair. More of a "kit car" look, add ons, nothing really seamless. But then again, the Prius has never been the most stylish out there.

To be fair, there are a number of "me too" cars out there now, and some are genuinely fugly. At Burton Snowboards here, they are having a BMW electric car show sponsored by Burton. They look genuinely stupid. At least as ugly as Burton's sponsored Mini car fleet, but more so I guess.

Point being, if you want a car to have widespread appeal, don't go out of your way to make it look silly. Looks and style do sell, it's just the way it is. Tesla knows it, Ford has done a very good job overall with the Fusion. But maybe Toyota is lucky, auto design has taken a wrong turn and is struggling to get back on track.

 

Many manufacturers have had periods when it looked like that. Remember 1980 Cadilacs - Seville and El Dorado - it was as though the chap designing the front wasn't allowed to look at what the chap doing the back was doing. The end result made the Edsel look umm balanced. People laughed at the Volvo 244 with the slant nose - but within a few years - Mustangs, LTDs, Pontiacs, Golf etc etc and eventually most cars had copied it.

 

Have Prius Three Touring rental this afternoon to compare my 2011. Drive in new one much better. There are sections of speed dots / bumps in our street. Hit bumps near 30 mph in my 2011, it just rattles into the cabin. The 2016 mutes the bumps much better, at least as smooth as our 2005 Accord, if not more.

The ride is smooth at low speeds and freeway on the 17 inch wheels, 45 profile tires. Probably feels lot more planted on the road than on 15's. Steering is pretty light and doesn't have quite the connected feeling as a (2016) Honda Civic. Ride and body control in 2016 Prius vastly improved over 2011

Acceleration from stop in normal mode much better than 2011: gen4's electric drive pulls harder from a stop in normal mode which makes the drive feel more like a 'normal'? car. gen4 drives like a regular car in many ways and they've got the electric and gas transitions / blending so smooth now.

You can actually sit low in this 2016 if you want. The 2011 has ineffective seat lowering for tall drivers. Seems the 2011's seat goes from slightly under medium height to Really high.

I tried the Full speed radar cruise control in stop and go. It works. It stops a little farther back than I do, leaves a over car length of space, can move it closer with accelerator then it does 'waiting' mode and hold car still without needing foot on brake. Just press resume to go or press gas for quicker take off. On freeway DRCC adjusts speed automatically. No sleeping though, still gotta watch.

My butt doesn't agree with the seat cushion much as I'd like. One of those things. Sometimes brand A just works better than brand B for some reason, blah, blah...

Doors sound Much more solid when closing. 2011 rear doors sound sorta like tin can. Even sounds better when closing the hatch. Must be lot more sound insulation.

 

nice write up and review, thank you.

 

Thanks, very informative. I'm intrigued with the "waiting mode". Anyone know what actually happens - does the Prius engage the park brake (which isn't an electronic brake so unlikely) or "foot" brake - I'd suspect the latter?

 

Good question and I don't know the answer. Maybe they use electric motor programmed to hold car in place (zero MPH) while in 'waiting' mode, but only a guess. Maybe automatically applies brake pads to hold car. ?

Realized car applies brake lights automatically every time it slows with radar cruise control. Pretty cool how they've taken load off the driver.

 

How does it work on a steep hill (either up or down)?

I'm really looking forward to RADAR cruise - particularly in the ever increasing and frustrating stop-start traffic. Watch out - in 10 years, we'll be reminiscing on how we used to think while driving, technology is advancing so quickly.

 

I went over 680 freeway from Fremont to Sunol (the Andrade grade, one of our steepest). Car did fine in DRCC, kept nice follow distance from car ahead. Adjust 1 to 3 bars follow distance. Used accelerator n brake a couple times over miles of slow and go, so much less than manual driving.

btw, 2016 Prius sure seems to accelerate quicker and more strongly getting onto freeways than my 2011

 

Definitely got to rent one of these for an extended test drive. The DRCC seems like a must have option.

 

DR Cruise Control is great. Was in heavy freeway traffic at 65 MPH. Couple times changed from 1 bar to 2 bar follow distance or vice versa to keep space I like best but other than that it is automatic driving.
I didn't try Lane Keep Assist but have heard on Hondas keeps car in lane. Cool stuff.

 

When drivers cut you off after passing... despite having no one behind them, so no reason to do that... it's really nice.

I find it quite annoying that some will compromise you safety and their own for the sake of getting out of the left lane as quickly as possible. It wouldn't be so bad if they kept going at the fast speed. But instead, they slow down. That's when the radar comes in really handy. The car will automatically slow down to regain the proper following distance.

 

Sunglasses holder in the 2016 Prius larger, I could close sunglasses door, but in my 2011, cannot.

Very quiet engine in 2016 Prius, my 2005 Accord loud compared to it

Reverse beep in 2016 Prius easier on the ears than my 2011

Surprised how smooth the ride is with 17" tires, handles bumps very well. Checked tire pressure and they were at spec.

gauge read over 60 MPG while I had it.

Upper rear window seems a little taller (view) than my 2011. Mentioned before, view out front greatly improved, taller windshield.

Well documented, but glove box and tray not too much storage space, but the front doors now have 'map pockets' and 2016 front cupholders much better. If front seat bottom cushions to my liking and little deeper drive footwell (more wheel telescope) I might be planning to get one, but it's ok, I've got something to drive. Cheers.

 

I did not know that. I learn something new here everyday... thank you Tideland and PriusChat!!

 

Yeah. The doors closure is Lexus like. I greased the latch and check straps. Sounds even more solid now.

LG-H901 ?