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Prius Plus Practicality


sanzomat
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Just coming up to 6 months/10,000 miles in my new Prius Plus. So far all good and very impressed.

I've recently had an opportunity to test out its practicality so thought others might be interested.

Use as an MPV - I generally don't carry more than five so the extra seats were seen as a bonus rather than a necessity, however I have now had two adults in the third row. My passengers report that its not too bad. Okay for space but wouldn't want to spend more than an hour there. The biggest negative comments are that it feels quite claustraphopic due to the small side windows. Opening the sunroof blind helps a lot though. I've also carried six adults and a wheelchair (folded and upright in the boot next to one third row seat) this combination worked well and everyone seemed happy enough for a journey of around 45 minutes.

Use as a van - My son recently moved out - amazing how much you can get in it! I even managed to get a double mattress into the back. Several trips to Ikea have revealed that you can get a klippan sofa in the back. I've also been doing some DIY projects at home and have been impressed with its ability to deal with heavy weights. Based on the assumption that six adult passengers (at say 80kg each) would allow a payload of nearly half a tonne when just a driver is present I loaded it up with 450 clay plain roof tiles (eBay purchase!). It swallowed these with no trouble, still plenty of suspension travel left and drove fine with no obvious problems (slight adjustment of the headlight aim to avoid dazzling oncoming drivers). Other estate cars I've owned would have been dragging the back bumper along the road with this much weight in.

So far this car has passed every test I've subjected it to so it gets a big thumbs up as a practical car.

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Cool :D :thumbsup:

What's it like to drive fully loaded?

At the moment it seems the Prius+ is a lot better than the Auris Tourer HSD...

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To be honest it isn't much different fully loaded to just one up. Inevitably the extra weight makes acceleration worse and fuel consumption deteriorates a bit but otherwise you would hardly know. I had to go up a 1:4 hill with six adults plus other bits in the boot and an almost empty HV Battery (only 2 bars left). The engine revs went up quite high but it got to the top without any issues!

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I've had mine since last May, I bought it at 6 months old with nearly 11k miles on it and saved £5k on the new price. I've done 4k miles so far. i was looking for something to replace the 2010 Gen 3 T-Spirit as I was finding the drone of the road noise too annoying and as the 3 year warranty and free servicing had just finished I decided to look around. I was considering the Auris (the tourer had not quite come out then) and the Lexus CT200h but didn't like the lack of boot space in either. I wasn't in the market for a seven seater but when I test drove the Prius plus I loved it. I test drove a newer Gen 3 T-Spirit first as I'd heard that Toyota had stiffened the body and softened the suspension on the 2012 facelift model, but it had the same amount of road noise as the old one. I then test drove a Plug-in with 15" wheels thinking maybe it would be quieter, but no, it was certainly a softer ride but still as noisy as the old one. Then I drove the Prius Plus T-Spirit, wow what a difference, it has 17" wheels but still has a softer ride like the plug-in and the road noise is almost non-existent. I'll probably never use the third row seats and I rarely use the second row but the Plus feels much better put together than the Gen 3, more solid. The downside is it does about 5 mpg less due to it having more weight, but I've had 68 mpg (indicated) in the summer on a 90 mile trip where i use to get 73 mpg (indicated) in the Gen 3.

I can't really compare the Winter mpgs yet as the weather has been quite mild compared to last year. The only thing I miss from the Gen 3 are the guide lines on the rear view camera. The Plus doesn't have park assist or the direction arrows from the Nav on the hud but I didn't use them much anyway. I would have liked removable third row seats to save weight (and mpgs) as I don't use them.

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The only thing I miss from the Gen 3 are the guide lines on the rear view camera.

FWIW The guide lines on backup cameras are in the camera, so if you really miss them, you could look at swapping the camera.
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The only thing I miss from the Gen 3 are the guide lines on the rear view camera.

FWIW The guide lines on backup cameras are in the camera, so if you really miss them, you could look at swapping the camera.

On the Gen 2, the guide lines are superimposed by the IPA (Intelligent? Park Assist) ECU, the advantage is that the lines included curves that varied depending on the direction of the wheels. The dynamic guide lines are really useful, I can't imagine the static lines superimposed within the camera being quite as useful. I don't know what type of system was used on the Gen 3?

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On the Gen 2, the guide lines are superimposed by the IPA (Intelligent? Park Assist) ECU, the advantage is that the lines included curves that varied depending on the direction of the wheels. The dynamic guide lines are really useful, I can't imagine the static lines superimposed within the camera being quite as useful. I don't know what type of system was used on the Gen 3?

I agree with Timberwolf. I was hugely disappointed when I saw the rear view camera display on the PiP. I had naively assumed that it would be the same as the Gen3 Prius T-Spirit.

It was explained to me that the display in the T-Spirit depended on the auto-parking sensors and they have of-course been left off the PiP.

I have resumed the habit of turning myself around in my seat when reversing. The camera is useful for judging the distance to an obstacle directly behind the car, but it is almost useless in judging lateral location.

Caveat Emptor and all that.

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The only thing I miss from the Gen 3 are the guide lines on the rear view camera.

FWIW The guide lines on backup cameras are in the camera, so if you really miss them, you could look at swapping the camera.

On the Gen 2, the guide lines are superimposed by the IPA (Intelligent? Park Assist) ECU, the advantage is that the lines included curves that varied depending on the direction of the wheels. The dynamic guide lines are really useful, I can't imagine the static lines superimposed within the camera being quite as useful. I don't know what type of system was used on the Gen 3?

They are the ones I miss, the ones that curved with the steering so you know where you are going to end up, linked to the IPA.

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