Gen 3 versus Gen 4, from new owners point of view

[cviclark]

I had the wheel size problem with my Auris Ts Excel but I thought Toyota GB had come to their senses with the Prius. All models at launch could be orderd with a space saver and 15" wheels to put them in the exemption band. I can see no logical reason why a 17 " can not be ordered with a spare. In parts of Scandinavia it would be suicidal not to carry a spare. I am still angry that I was dupped with low profiles on th Auris.  If the Ionic had been any good Toyota would have lost a customer. Not that logic and Toyota GB are familiar.  They have accessories in the brochure but will not let you buy them they forget we are customers and take it or leave it attitude does not gell with "Go the Extra Mile". Once again we have been through this before.

[Chris Dance]

Hi Ian,   Picked up the new Prius this morning with side protection strips, and carpet mats as part of the deal. Also had the Toyota touch and go plus sat nav fitted and rear sensor. I am amazed of how little storage space there is in the car. Pete had pointed this out previously. You cannot even store anything in the wheel well space. I did get it in the garage. I have a tennis ball and I lined the car up so the ball looked to the right of the windscreen centre. I have a chimney breast in the garage and that gives problems getting out of the drivers door. It is tight but I got out OK. At least it is out of sight from the "yoboes" who are about. Length of the car is OK. Cannot carry my small tool box or tyre pressure pump in this car. Neighbour said you do not need tools for a new car!!

The salesman gave my wife a box of chocolates which was nice.

The owners manual is half the size of the Gen 3 manual.

Got to get used to all the switch location and operation now. One good thing is you do not have the lights in auto.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PeteB]

2 minutes ago, Chris Dance said:

...The owners manual is half the size of the Gen 3 manual...

The printed one is cut down - if you download the two part manual it comes to just over 1,000 pages!  Great for insomnia.

[cviclark]

My lights are always in auto no choice. They come on in the garage and often for quite a time even in daylight. The self dip is a bit slow but you get used to it.  The manual is half the size because the glove box is half the size.

When you drive it over a long journey in bad weather any shortcomings fade into insignificant, it will make you smile, it's a joy to live with. Got to go and put another coat of Autoglym on to protect the Gen coat that protect the lacquer that protects the paint that makes it shine. Enjoyment. 

[PeteB]

I'd love to hear from anyone with a Gen 4 Pius who is able to turn off the auto lights feature.

I certainly agree it's a wonderful drive, and the very few shortcomings don't seem to matter too much as you drive it, but the first time I have a crash because the lights have come on at the wrong moment I will probably revise that view!! ( 2 close shaves so far...)

[Chris Dance]

Gen 4 has seems to have numerous switches etc it will take time to get used to all the functions etc.

I can not lift up the rear windscreen wiper like I could on the Gen 3. Am I missing something?

I had the Supagard paint and fabric protection done on the new car. Blurb states no need to polish but I will still give it a polish now and then.

On our new car I can turn the auto light off. Have Toyota changed it on this years model?? I can turn it back from the Auto Setting to the lowest setting.. Salesman said you do not have to have it on Auto. I will let you know if I do get headlights suddenly coming on.

I put "rain away" on all the glass today. I put this on our other cars and it is very good at dispersing rain.

[cviclark]

No you are not missing anything its like that.  If you had Superguard you will need a glass polish or toothpaste to get the residue off before RainX.  There is a mention of two light switch types in the book and at first I was sceptical but if I hit ign in the garage the lights come on whatever I do. Maybe it is something to do with auto main beam? Or maybe once again Toyota is Beta testing on early adopters but they is no evidence they listen to constructive criticism.     

[kithmo]

To lift the rear wiper, pull the cover over the spindle downwards slightly.

[barrycoll]

All this very readable chat, about just how brilliant the Gen 4 is, is making me salivate. Now, constantly swallowing!

i know that the lack of storage is going to be a pain in the neck, and also the 'take it or leave it' options are difficult to accept.....

i would willingly swap the leather for a sunroof ( or even a glass roof), but Mr T says "no, please sit down at the back".

leather is cold n the winter, and hot in th summer.....

german cars have cream leather option, that really is sympathetic to any body colour, but Toy 'grey' is really ( sorry PeteB), Los Vegas white, which goes perfectly with the Candy Apple Red of the Oldsmobile Cutlass......and not much else.

 

personally I haven't ordered any of the Upselling products, as £0 cost plain white of the Gen 3 washed up well, and looked good against the old style 17s.

Ah yes, I tell a lie, as I did tick the chrome pack to distinguish the car from the  Über brigade.

[kithmo]

here's more to salivate on Barry, Gen 4 Excel has 2 level heated leather seats Hi or Lo settings, so not cold in winter. 

[Chris Dance]

New car is very good.

I had a frustrating afternoon trying to register the Sat/Nav on "My Toyota".web site.  My wife and I both checked the car ID, but after inserting the ID on the web site it kept coming up with ERROR.. Mr T can try and sort it out sometime. I do find "My Toyota" web site frustrating, Sometimes I feel the web site is not worth bothering with. If I get more issues with it I may forget "My Toyota" and just drive and enjoy the car.

 

[PeteB]

17 hours ago, barrycoll said:

17 hours ago, barrycoll said:

...leather is cold n the winter, and hot in th summer.....

german cars have cream leather option, that really is sympathetic to any body colour, but Toy 'grey' is really ( sorry PeteB), Los Vegas white, which goes perfectly with the Candy Apple Red of the Oldsmobile Cutlass......and not much else...

I love it anyway, and it goes great on a white car - like mine :)   Had I not got one with leather, I'd have gone to a trim shop and had an upgrade (would have done that on my old Gen 3 had I not been wowed by the Gen 4).

Would probably be more aware of the "hot in summer" bit if I took the car to Spain like Barry does...

I'm not convinced about getting grubby either - I bought a 1968 Riley Kestrel in 1974 with light leather seats (and walnut dash no less) - when I sold it at 8 years old with 64k on the clock it still looked good, and a 1997 Volvo with light tan leather looked perfect at 77k when it went back to my company after 3 years.

While I had the Volvo we did have some 33C summer days, and I stood outside the car with the Climate Control-A/C running (prolific on a Volvo) for a couple of minutes.

I'd love the Lexus RX or LS option of having Climate Control air forced through the inside of the seats though - warm air in the winter and cool in the summer.

And BTW Barry - the 4 months between ordering and getting my Gen 4 were some of the longest months of my life!

[cviclark]

18 hours ago, Chris Dance said:

New car is very good.

I had a frustrating afternoon trying to register the Sat/Nav on "My Toyota".web site.  My wife and I both checked the car ID, but after inserting the ID on the web site it kept coming up with ERROR.. Mr T can try and sort it out sometime. I do find "My Toyota" web site frustrating, Sometimes I feel the web site is not worth bothering with. If I get more issues with it I may forget "My Toyota" and just drive and enjoy the car.

 

I found you read the problems I had trying to update the Sat Nav you will come to the conclusion  that Toyota know about cars but not a lot about IT. I had pages of code and they expected me to pay for update. The dealer eventually sent me a memory stick because the expert could not zip it up and download the files. 

[Chris Dance]

What tyres did your Prius gen 4 come with? Our new car has Nano Energy tyres. I have never hear of them . I read some reviews on these tyres and they have good reports.

Agree with you Ian about Toyota & Sat/Navs. I never update our Sat/Nav now; the dealer told me to leave it to them. In the past both myself and the dealer had major issues updating the software.on a previous Prius we owned. It necessitate a new Sat/ Nav under warranty. Pete has reported problems he experienced.

I have only done short journeys so far but the car is great to drive. Still not used to all the switches etc.

[barrycoll]

"Great To Drive "......words that are music to my ears

but.....has anyone managed to remove th polystyrene side pieces in the 15 spare wheel car, or the complete one piece polystyrene in the 17 car as yet?

priuschat suggests that it is problematic??

[kithmo]

I managed to pull off the gunk kit pieces ok to fit my spare tyre pieces. They were very tight and TBH I wasn't bothered if I junked them, but they came off without damage and I used the same fastenings for my new pieces.

[barrycoll]

Thanks Keith...

But did you mean that the original single piece of polystyrene as difficult to remove, but finally came away in one piece??

folks talk of white coloured fasteners that are the conundrum...was that your experience?

 

i would have though that your dealer Burrows would have fitted the 3 piece spare wheel option for you....but it sounds as though this is not the case, and it was DIY?

[kithmo]

The original was in two pieces split down the middle, fastened at the front end, just behind the rear seats and at the back corner of the boot floor. As I said above, the fasteners were very tight but the polystyrene is stronger than you think and a good tug at the polystyrene was all that was needed. The front fasteners were less worrying as they go through a plastic part with a locating peg on it. These are deeper on the spare wheel polystyrene, but I didn't bother putting them in as they didn't supply them.

The sales manager had not seen a Prius with a spare wheel setup before so they were less knowledge than me at how it went together. The parts guy had seen it on the computer when he ordered the bits, but it was fairly obvious how it fitted. I did it in less than 5 minutes in the dealers car park, with them looking on. I gave them the old bits and the gunk, which I regret now as I could have sold them on eBay. 

[cviclark]

Sounds as if once again early adopters " that's us guys" are Beta testing. Maybe MUG'S  would be no more appropriate. You can see what the factory fitted 3 peice looks like from my pics. I would not drive a car out of the showroom without a spare. I  nearly odered a Mercedes C  estate until I was told a spare was not an option  and standard  profiles were only available  on special order. For practicality the Auris Ts was magic, ruined by stupid marketing choices of wheels. 

The Gen 4 is just magic. The technology makes me smile every time I drive it but why anyone would hobble it with Low Profile tires beats me. It was clearly designed to use  deep skinny  tires for ride and economy. 65 mpg Gen 4 49mpg Auris Ts says it all.

If Lp tires make 8mpg (Toyota own estimate) on a Hybrid what is the pollution penalty imposed on millions of diesels  the press and government are so busy to condem?   

[cviclark]

I have always felt I knew more about the Hybrids than the salesman. I felt sorry for them being let down by Toyota GB.  It's not helped by the different configurations of the same car in different countries  and the take it or leave attitude  of Toyota GB. I have always felt I bought despite them rather than because of them. With the Gen 4 I did not want a Sat Nav but the confusion about the implementation of sensors between the B and B+ pushed me that way. The Excel was rejected as soon as  15" wheels and a spare were off the menu.  If I had thought the white sanitary option had still not been sorted I would have waited. Now however I do not really notice it, my wife however still hates it so I guess it will be on my shopping list when I next go to North America.     

[barrycoll]

Thanks again Keith for finally shedding some light on the fixings, And th fact hat the polystyrene comes in two pieces. Getting them out, doesn't sound sound too traumatic but breaking the fixings seems inevitable.

Yes Ian, you must be dead right on the car being designed around 15 rims, but on the other hand, so was the Gen 3, and personally I couldn't feel a great deal of difference between that car on 15 and 17.

i am sure that on a rolling road assessment there must be an improvement on more compliant rubber. Fortunately, we as consumers, are not able to do back to back testing of wheel sizes, and our kinaesthetic memory is too short term to b much help.

[kithmo]

My fixings didn't break and I re-used the rear ones on the new poly bits. I didn't use the front ones as the plastic that the fixing goes through is deeper for the new poly so the old fixings aren't long enough. The poly can't go anywhere anyway when it's sat in the bottom of the boot floor, I don't know why it even needs to be fixed down. The spare is clamped down and the poly that goes over the spare isn't fastened to anything, it just sits on top of the spare.

If you're keeping the old poly and cutting a hole in it for the spare, then what I'd do is get a long piece of threaded bar to fit in the spare wheel clamp down hole to give you the centre of the hole. Put your poly in, and using the threaded bar as a centre, tie a piece of string to the bar and tie a white marker (tippex pen) at a distance equal to the radius of the spare on the other end of the string and draw round on the poly. This way you'll get the cutout in the correct place for the wheel. I haven't tried it but I hear an electric carving knife is good to cut the poly or if you have access to a hot wire cutter, even better. 

I found it strange last year when the Gen 4 first became available, that some dealers were saying a spare was not available when on the Toyota website "build your Prius" allowed you to choose 15" wheels with a temporary spare or gunk kit or 17" wheels and a temporary spare or gunk kit for all models. The current configurator just lets you choose the wheel size and doesn't mention the spare at all.

[barrycoll]

Thanks again Keith, for that heads up on just how to to cut out an eccentric circle.

 

i think that someone on Priuschat had a similar idea, but they also suggested just resting the two piece polystyrene on top of the spare, with maybe supports under both sides.......so you think that would work???

any thoughts???

it would allow a small extra space under the polystyrene, but not much.

 

interestingly, for the price of the whole spare wheel fitting, plus the £400 discount available for a 15 order, it would be a lot cheaper to order that, and then, if dis-satisfied, buy four after market 17's and new tyres, and sell four new 15's and tyres.

the insurance co.  may or may not be interested....I don't think that the Institute of Advance Motorist insurance would be.

[cviclark]

If Toyota and the insurance companies would not let me put 16" wheels on my 17" Auris Excel because it was not "Homiligated" for that configuration, with all the emissions regs affecting taxation classes now don't bother. Any modifications from standard, other than approved accessories, are seen as specials and will affect premiums. God knows how they will police the congestion charge differential between those on 15" and those on 17.    

[johalareewi]

But many of the configurations that are not 'approved' for the UK are 'approved' in the rest of the EU.