Actual (not mythical) Prius Annoyances

[PF52]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
I'm intrigued, not necessarily annoyed, that they have LED brake lights but incandescent amber blinkers.


That seems to be part of the problem I was complaining about. Midday summer sun causes those brake lights to disappear in the glare of the reflectors. Or maybe am I the only one who has noticed?

 

[c502cid]

OK, saying that though, Toyota has put the cars in rental fleets around the country. The nature of rental cars makes them the car that everyone tops off, especially the further they try to fill it from the airport. And as you mentioned before, it emissions hit this poses through evaporation of the gas pollutes a bunch, maybe as much as the fuel it saves by being a hybrid. (That last line was a very uneducated comment though!) Still, I'll say this again, if it was a GM car doing this, the voices would be loud and clear on this board. Lastly, thanks for being a voice of reason around here, even if you do sip the kool aid once in a while

 

[PF52]

Originally Posted By: c502cid
Still, I'll say this again, if it was a GM car doing this, the voices would be loud and clear on this board.


I agree; it would be more than just those here on the board - Dateline NBC would probably have a special segment featuring footage of the car exploding after burping all the extra gas out from the tank.

Remember when the automotive press roundly blasted GM for offering the center-dash gauges in the Saturn ION? I've never seen any criticism of Toyota for its various center-dash layouts.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: css9450
...
Remember when the automotive press roundly blasted GM for offering the center-dash gauges in the Saturn ION? I've never seen any criticism of Toyota for its various center-dash layouts.


For the sake of clarity, remember that the Prius is not a center-dash layout car, though the MFD, which presents a lot of info is in the middle. The basic gauges, speed, fuel, trans selection, etc., are all right there in front of the driver.

This is a pretty poor picture of the layout (captured from the Toyota website -- to lazy tonight to take one myself). It's poor because it fails to show the angle well. The "55" you see in the picture is pretty much in front of the driver (actually very slightly to the right, but it's no "center dash" like some have had). BTW, the press slammed Nissan really hard for the center dash in Quest minivan -- so hard in fact that Nissan redid the thing half-way through the current product's life cycle, so GM isn't the only one hit for this by any means.

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

Wonder if they did a cost/benefit analysis about which lights were on more often, using precious power.


Consider that most drivers do not bother using turn signals.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
Originally Posted By: eljefino

Wonder if they did a cost/benefit analysis about which lights were on more often, using precious power.


Consider that most drivers do not bother using turn signals.


A sadly valid point Brian... Anyway, FWIW, the more extensively equipped Prius models come with HID headlights whereas the entry-level models have halogens. I've heard several figures for the power use difference, my takeaway is that the HID cars use about 60% as much power running headlights as the halogen cars. No detectable difference in mpgs (though in theory, there should be some difference).

 

[swalve]

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question424.htm

 

[Shaman]

Most HIDs are rated at 35w running, but warmup should be more. Don't have figures on that though.

 

[Buffman]

Originally Posted By: Shaman
Most HIDs are rated at 35w running, but warmup should be more. Don't have figures on that though.


all OEM HIDs are 35watts. As you stated they require more at startup. Aftermarket offers up to 50watt versions.

 

[Johnny]

I love my Prius. But you are correct about that darn fuel bladder.

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: rationull
. . .

The only other real complaint I can think of is that the brakes feel excessively grabby IMO, but once you're used to it I think that turns into a good thing. All I know is the first time I get in to drive it after a few months away from it, my first couple of low speed stops are a little jarring.


Ooops, I forgot to address Rationull's "grabby brakes" comment. This reflects another fundamental difference between the HSD cars and conventionals. In the HSD cars, most of the time, what the driver feels as "braking" really isn't braking at all. It's actually the motor-generators in generator mode, and their drag is what's slowing the car. The car's traditional friction brakes only work in two situations. First, they kick in as the car slows through 7 mph, and bring the car to a stop. Second, they cut in immediately at any speed if the driver is making an emergency stop (as in you stomp hard on the pedal).

In the Prius, the transition between MG braking and friction braking is noticeable, and does feel grabby. When you drive the car every day, you get used to it and actually learn to adjust around it. I have driven the HSD Camry a couple times, and while you can feel the transition, the engineers smoothed it out much more effectively than they did in the Prius.