Why all the "bridge" hate?

The bridge probably wouldn't be a deal breaker for me.
It doesn't exist on The Prius v, or the Prius c, my guess is someday Toyota abandons the bridge concept.

 

Too bad as it created a high tech look I personally like and it was very easy to get used to - but with millions of opinions out there, there will never be a solution that pleases everyone.

 

Absolutely. One thing that cracks me up is the position of the temp up/down buttons on the GenIII. I can reach the climate control so easily with my right hand, it hardly seem that I ever use those two buttons on the wheel.

 

Well, I'm only guessing. I would only think, it's absence in the Prius v, and The Prius c, would illuminate that Toyota isn't at all commited to the "Bridge" as being a Prius Family icon.

But who knows? Feelings about 'The Bridge" seem to be all over the place. I just have a feeling we haven't seen the last of a regular Prius without a bridge.

 

I loved our second Gen 2005 Prius... except for one small thing. When I sat on the driver's seat, it felt like I was sitting on a chair, in front of a desk that just happened to have a steering wheel sticking out from it. Horrible driver's ergonomics.

One of the first things I did, after buying the 2005, was to write to Toyota about the car's driving compartment. I mentioned the chair and table and steering wheel thing. Then I mentioned that I knew they could build a car with a driver's oriented cockpit. As an example, I used Toyota's very own '90s Supra interior. If you want to sit in a car that dedicates all driver controls and functions to the person sitting behind the steering wheel, that was one of the best. It was a brilliant design. Here's a Supra right hand cockpit version below:



The picture really doesn't do it justice, compared to actually sitting in one. The materials on the seats pictured obviously show that not everything can be perfect... black leather seats looked way better!

When I saw the third Gen interior, I was really surprised. You sit in a proper cockpit. The ergonomics are vastly superior to the second Gen's non existent ergonomics. All the controls fall to hand as they should. They basically came up with a modern version of the Supra interior and I couldn't wait until we would own one.

Among all the significant improvements Toyota made from second Gen to third Gen, the best are the driver's compartment with the "bridge" console, the added accuracy and road feel of the electric boosted steering, and the improved road handling and directional stability compared to the previous edition. And on top of all that, the third Gen gets better MPGs!

Would be great if I had been in some way responsible for the console development and driver's environment in the third Gen Prius. Most likely they didn't even read my suggestion, but it's funny that it turned out similar to my example. It sure feels like it, every time I get into the car! I can't imagine not liking the way that this cockpit works for the driver.

Toyota needs to improve the interior with more durable and scratch resistant "soft touch" materials and should figure out a way to bolt things down tighter to mitigate creaking or rattling. Luckily, our third Gen Prius is still solid and doesn't make any noise.

So far, after almost a full year at the end of this month, I can say that our third Gen Prius has not disappointed.

 

Personally I hope not. I really like it.