What I don't like about my Prius

This is a nice opportunity to vent!!! I have read all the post here and can say I agree with almost all of the complains then will add what I think should be fix and bothers me

Definitley as every one has noticed that Toyota has decided to cut corners and save some money on the gen 3 model, some people say is because the hybrid system was too expensive to produce or they ran out of time before releasing the car and meeting the dead line, who knows?

These are my complains:
1) The driver sit or front sits are very uncomfortable (specially in long trips!), leather sits as mine are very prone to deform and look like very old quickly!
2) Rattles everywhere and easy to scratch cheap plastics!
3) The center console box hits people sitting in the back
4) Bottle holder on the front doors need to be enlarged like other cars just a curved extension.
5) The dimming control has no light? and can turn all off? they need to fix this and also the auto dimming in the speed/MFD screen, in a rainy day I turn the lights on I have to put the dimmer in max in order to see the information. Auto light would be nice since a corolla have it why not the best hybrid?
6) The MFD software interface is ugly and there is so much space for improvement here just pop a color LCD the same size and new improved software showing many thing like symbol of gas station when running low, some animation during different stages like using the sit belts, windows type alerts not a huge empty box with a blurry text, show miles to empty all the time etc.. it's amazing the current fluorescent screen is more expensive than a color LCD and uses a lot more energy and also has ghost effect like a plasma screen. mine already has some marks beacuse I use 90% of the time the hybrid system indicator. the improvements here are endless!
7) I drive north/south every day to work like 80 miles round trip and the sun visor doesn't have the extension that would be nice for me.
8) SKS in all doors, because of this I keep the fob in my hands instead of pocket If I knew this would paid more for a IV model.
9) DAY TIME RUNNING LIGHTS yes DRL I actually installed LED bulbs for the parking lights and keep them on in dark days people in Florida are nuts it's almost a must have here.
10) The AC screen seems to be borrowed from another car the LCD is deep inside and not negative and doesn't belong to the rest of the car design? you can see the new Prius V has a different screen more according to the design.
11) The noise coming from the brake pump it's something I believe they are aware and will be improved in future models. actually like minutes before you shut down the car you can hear the noise.
12) My car came with a 12V regular battery I thought Prius comes with OPTIMA batteries, specially if is sensitive to change the 12V battery (like setting etc..) and some complained about unexpected drain over long period of time.
13) I have the solar roof. I thought besides keeping the car vented in hot days would use some of that energy to cover the 12V load during driving like AC or Radio or keeping the 12V voltage when parked, well I found was not the case pretty much for the money is useless just a marketing thing in winter is pretty much off.
14) Darkness under the flying bridge I have installed and LED under to see in the dark very annoying.
15) I have experienced twice that in hard break the tires locked up bad and wasn't my intention I was gradually pressing the break pedal to stop but the tires looked up on me like I was slamming the breaks?. I'm not convinced that break system is 100% ok I still feel the break sometimes looses at the end this is an area Toyota is probably working on still. My wife doesn't like to drive my car because of the funny feeling of the breaks, probably is a hybrid thing but would be nice to be tweaked a little bit.
16) cruise control is very rough should be more gentle/progressive to conserve energy and also if you press the brake you really have to push more to cancel the current speed set point.
17) The rough start, for some reason when the car starts moves the car a little bit and some times is very loud? I have developed a habit of starting in EV when available and release EV when the car is rolling to avoid the start shake! this is something they need to improve. I'm also one of those with the violent start with knocking which you can find even in youtube happened to me many times in winter time.
18) Engine noise during acceleration, is more noisy than any other cars I have owned before don't know why is loud, some said is because it doesn't have timing belt or chain is all gears?

I believe is enough ! LOL

 

The 12v battery has always, as far as I know, been a small house brand. Optimas are what are used by many when replacing the oem.
With all said...still one heck of a car !

 

Some tweaking then you get a master piece! most of the changes are not too expensive I hope!

 

Yep, 2013's will have all the bugs removed !

 

But the spelling errors in these posts will last forever.



Tom

 

1) agreed
2) Really, cause at 120,000 miles I don't have any rattles except when I have an empty soda can in my cup holder, and no scratched plastic except from my dog's paws.
3) Uhh, how does it hit them, it is between the front seats and doesn't move
4) it is sized for a regular drinking bottle, and works well at that. If they made it big enough to say hold a liter bottle it would hit some of our legs, and if you were to put a smaller bottle in, you would invite some of the rattles you hated in #2
5) diming control has no light, really this is an issue? I haven't, and i would guess most people are the same, touched mine in years. Typically on cars they only light the controls that would normally be used while driving. I don't think the dimmer would fall into that. That is not just the case with the Prius.
6) MFD ugly? You mean the screen itself or the graphics? I don't think the graphics are great, but get the message across. I don't want to pay more for a HIGH resolution 1080P screen in my car for to see what radio station I am on. LCD's also tend to get washed out easily in the sun, no? I have no ghosting after 120k miles, so not sure why/how you would. That might be an issue.
7) sunglasses? baseball hat? Not a problem I have, but I'll give you that one. Even though I drive most of my commute east to West, so into the sun
8) so you have the SKS system or you don't and would have paid more now to get it? Again, not sure exactly what the complaint is.
9) DRLs are Federally mandated, not sure what the complaint is here either, you like them? don't? want them to be LED?
10) Huh? AC screen? isn't your AC control on the MFD?
11) I think what you are hearing is the thermos being filled
12) why oh why would you think that? it isn't in any of the literature or reviews I have ever ever seen
13) Ditto, all that I have seen about the solar roof all is pretty clear it is just to clear hot air from cabin
14) what is it that you need to see under there while driving?
15) You shouldn't lock up tires as your car is equiped with ABS, isn't it?
16) rough how? like to maintain your speed? it would have to accelerate harder or softer depending on what you faced, small hill, mountain pass what have you. If you limited it to soft accelearation would you live withit not maintaining the set speed at times? I would rather have it not make that choice for me and maintain the speed I told it to.
17) this is more likely when the car is cold, almost sometimes it is like it cant' decide whether to shut off the ICE or not. I know what you are talking about, but I wouldn't describe it as violent. Also with miles, it seems to fade. Could be I have grown accustomed or could be the car is broken in.
18) it isn't billed as a luxury car. I would like it to be quieter too, but I also knew what I was buying when i got it, a $25,000 car that had the features of the $35,000 car. I also knew every step had been taken to make the car as light as possible, so that usually means less sound deadening material, which equals noisier interior. Although I note more tire and wind noise than specific timing chain noise. That too might indicate you have a problem with yours.

 

I want to do a rear wiper delete! It bugs me. Anyone done it,or interest!

 

The only two things that come to mind:

1. RATTLES. Holey crap, the rattles that never go away. Multiple dealer visits and still rattling.

2. Hitting a pebble while braking results in a total loss of regen. So wasteful! It's like the car just gives up and you have to disc it down to 0. I haven't figured out a method to pump the brakes to get it back into regen during deceleration. It's like it knows what I'm trying to do and is like "No no, I know you hit that pebble back there, and I'm going to screwwwwwwwww you!"

-Iain

 

Yep, I no what u mean.

 

2) I have lots of rattles mainly from the front dashboard area, some are coming from the back sits too
3) Slides back before you can open the lid
4) Fits your water bottles only, some bottles didn't fit probably Coke plastic bottle? vitamin water? energy drink? don't remember.
5) First car I own with some controls in the dark. I also installed in the dealer the auto dimming mirror with home link and those buttons are in the dark too, probably some people are ok with this but I found to be odd, just to share I rented a Chevy Aveo the other day the cheapest one you can find and the dimmer control had light really made me wonder why mine was in the dark.
6) MFD graphics and resolution, would be nice a color LCD doesn't have to be 1080p if you like the monochrome Atari interface good for you!
8) I have SKS in driver door only, IV and V have in passenger door and hatch
9) Would like to have DRL so people can see you better. I believe it really helps my other cars and bike have that feature.
10) It was mention here, the A/C liquid crystal screen not MFD
11) Break pump, Gen 3 doesn't have thermos
12) I realized later that people were installing them and is not part of the original package.
15) Hope you don't have to break hard one day, you will know what I'm talking about or probably my ABS is defective like you said I don't know? they did lock on me twice.
16) Toyota is aware of the problem, break has to be pushed hard to cancel the cruise control.
17) My car has 17K miles still sometimes I experience the rough start, the knocking happens in winter time only

Best regards and sorry for the spelling errors!

 

Shouldn't the dealer be able to fix that kind of engine knock?

 

3rd gen rough engine start

The 3rd gen specific weird engine start up sound that Lsegovic potsed a video of has been a LONG ongoing source of discussion/debate. See http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...troubleshooting/70128-rough-engine-start.html. (If you look at at bwilson4web's posting history, he's not just some random dude w/no technical knowledge.) There are other threads about the same issue like http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ogress-fixing-engine-knocking-2010-prius.html, http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...ntial-solution-rough-start-engine-rattle.html and http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii.../86722-1-8l-starting-rattle-knock-events.html.. I'm sure there are many others.

I don't have a 3rd gen so I don't track the above closely but AFAIK, there's still no fix for it and hasn't been an acknowledgment from Toyota about it. If someone knows of something different, please correct me.

 

Wow....

 

Front side visibility in this I noticed at first as poor but don't think about now. Rear I noticed at first as poor and it absolutely still is but no longer really bothers me. I have a strong tendency now to back into parking spots when parking, so then I don't have to worry about it. I am sure this is a safer way to park anyway.

http://theweek.com/article/index/212052/why-back-in-parking-is-safer

 

Re: 3rd gen rough engine start

You speak of that which we must not speak!

I think you're still right, though. No official word from Toyota. I don't know if I've read of people with 2011s having this. I have 24k on my car now and it's happened 2-3 times (definitely not 3, definitely at least twice and am not sure if I forgot a third time!). It's rare as hen's teeth and I don't much care about it but would like still to know its cause.

 

It seems to be fairly rare. We have never experienced it in 22 months and 20,000 miles

 

Boy, some people got nothing better to do than whine.

 

Heck, I'd have no problem with an MSRP increase of $500 if they brought back the 3-door version on the III. I at least think that it should be offered as a option. Not everyone likes leather.

 

The public's perception that most owners are smug, self-righteous liberals trying to save the world.

I bought it to save gas money.