The split rear seat is the only thing I would even miss in the 1. [edit, plus maybe the tilt steering wheel, depends on how horrible the C's is. Not my favorite part of my 2007] $1000 would pay for me re-upholstering the seat after I took a reciprocating saw to it... Clearly if driving is the 'bang' the 1 is the best for the buck. Most of the rest of that stuff didn't even exist 30 years ago.
Actually heated seats are more efficient than trying to heat the entire cabin and can reduce overall energy consumption.
That is an interesting point there! /\/\/\ But yes, I can confirm the C2 has telescoping steering wheel. Only diff between C2 and C3 mainly is navigation and option of sunroof, and a bit.
That sound's like it would be totally true. But my wife would not be happy with only a warm seat though.
Yeah, I would rather be warm all over including warm toes. But sitting in a heated seat would feel nice, not $1-2k nice.
I'm not so sure. Electrically heated seats get the heat to the passenger sooner, but it comes at the expense of fuel economy because all the heat is generated electrically from the engine. Without electrically heated seats, some waste heat that would be generated anyway is directed to the passengers.
Toyota put cheap seats in the 1 package, reviews say you need to upgrade to the 2 package to just get to even quality with a car like the yaris. Sure you can upgrade the radio outside, but bad seats and no cruise control is a bad package. 2 package best bang for buck upgrade to 3 if you want smart key and factory nav or a factory sun roof upgrade to 4 if you want better materials
Funny, most people I know have this thing called a heart that pumps the heat all through their body when sitting on a heated surface. If you have insanely poor circulation it wouldn't be worth it. If you have excellent circulation you'd be amazed at how quickly your toes will warm up. I have somewhat poor circulation and I use a heated mattress pad on my bed. Often I get in with ice cold feet and a few minutes on a warm mattress and my circulation improves. If you don't have one don't assume it isn't a big deal. People often say I've tried an electric blanket and it just doesn't work for me. Heat from above is not efficient nor effective, heat from below gets the job done so much better. I don't have heated car seats to compare that to but I'm so impressed by the difference the mattress pad made that I'm willing to believe that the car seats would be a huge difference.
Well I'm not aware of any converter so I assume the wires are heated by the 12V battery (esp. since they still work if the car is in IG-ON and not in READY mode. I can't remember if they work in ACC but I assume no since only the radio does and nothing else). While the second part is true, there's the balance of keeping the heat in the engine so that it can warm up faster vs. taking away the heat and putting it into the cabin and letting the engine idle longer to produce enough heat to get up to operating temperature. It's not a problem with a regular car since it'll idle anyway but with a Prius, you want to keep the engine off so you don't burn fuel and the heated seats can help keep you warm. The seat back and bottom are heated (unlike some cars that only heat the bottom) and I don't know about you but it feels really good when the back warms up. warm bottom and lower to middle back? Unless it's -20 outside where a thick jacket might be hard to penetrate through (but eventually I still can feel the heat through the jacket), the heated seat is a blessing for my back as I feel comfortable as soon as that warms up. The bottom goes pretty far forward as my thighs are warm too.
I went with the C3 because I wanted the Nav, Moon roof and Smart Key. I didn't see the point of 16" wheels, and I'm not a fan of leather. C3 seemed to be the best option for me.
I've never had them myself but I'd also imagine that what you mainly need them for is to knock the cold off the seats when you first get in. As soon as they're warmed up and the car is no longer chilled you could switch them off. Seems like they would be a minimal drain for a short time used that way. The same with the mirrors, which are essentially just like the heated defroster wires in the rear window. Only needed for a short time to clear things up. ron
I went with the two primarily because it has cruise (a must for me) and the price is still at the lower end of the spectrum. I have stand alone gps etc. and didn't need nav.
I was going for a 2 but with the push start is awesome no need to get your key out is nice and the nav on iPhone sucks do its not useful alone. Plus I like the tech stuff. Even if a aftermarket is better I won't have to find one or get it installed all will work together no problem.
Just got the c3. Now thinking should had gotten the c4. Don't care about the fake leather, but heated mirrors/seats are nice Don't care about the moonroof, but backup camera is nice Don't care about the ally wheels, but led fog lights are nice. for a price difference of about 2.5k, it's not really that bad with all those goodies Also, don't forget, the c3 has LED headlights compare to lower c2 and c1.
I bought the C2. I live in California so there is no need for heated seats. I religiously use cruise control everyday driving to work and only C2 and above has it. I didn't care for keyless entry or the advanced screen since I will just mount my phone on the dashboard.
I told the dealer what I DID NOT WANT, and he came up with the c One. My "not wants": 1) 60/40 split rear seat (I want it all up, or all down), 2) electronic access and operation (with the One, I can leave the pair of electronic keys at home, and use a mechanical duplicate of the "master" key, only), 3) moon roof (in my experience, they always leak), 4) alloy wheels and low, low profile tires, and 5) whiz-bang electronics (I brought my own Garmin GPS and iPhone, and that's all I need). In retrospect, I now want cruise control, but that, alone, is not a good justification for an upgrade to a Two (not withstanding the 60/40 issue) as the Rostra C.C. kit costs about $130, although you could do it for about $50 if you buy the piece parts separately (the Rostra kit includes many more harnesses than are actually used in a c One C.C. upgrade, and most of the logic is in software within the ECM, anyway, while the C.C. control switch is just a group of passive contacts which the ECM "reads" whenever a change in mode is made). Happily, my local dealer (only 5 miles away) had an excess of 2014 c Ones at the time I made my purchase a few months ago, and that contributed to the price for a brand new car which was very competitive with the price of a used car at the same dealership, or other dealers in the area.
