GEN 4 Prius a year on

[cviclark]

My Prius is now just over a year old and I still love it. Living in North Wales it still maintains an exclusivity, locally I have only seen another two.  I get a buzz each time I drive it and still just go out for the pleasure of driving.

Over the year I have added a few bits, fog light surrounds number, plate trim, scuff plates and at last a stone and bug deflector for the bonnet. I had to bring that back from Canada as could not find one here. see pics.

Stone chips have been a bug bear of both my GEN 2, GEN 3 and Auris TS and within a month I had a nasty one on the front of the bonnet and one in the centre of the roof. A Badge hid the bonnet one prior to the deflector the roof one still bugs me but nothing can be done to hide it.

That brings me to a warning about the body work. A few months ago I noticed a series of dents in the roof rails above where the  centre pillars joined the roof. Both sides so at first I put it down to internal welds. I have a friend who does dent repair so got him to look at them. He got them out ok but can not work out what caused them. My theory is that when I leaned across the roof to get to the chip I must have leaned on the roof rails.  Br warned do not put pressure on the sides of the roof, the metal is very soft.

Since the deflector I have not had more chips behind it but the bumper still gets them. 

[RWaggers]

My bigest bugbear with the Prius is the clock.....  15 years ago I had a Vauxhall Vectra which had a clock that set itself via RDS. 

Why on earth am I having to adjust the clock manually in a 2017 car?

[PeteB]

In most respects, mine is the best car I've ever had.

No car is perfect, and there will always be compromises and matters of taste.

Only three things that really annoy me:

1. auto headlights that cannot be disabled (and I rather think may earn Toyota a big lawsuit at some point when they cause a serious accident) - clearly, some markets get a stalk with auto and off positions - why not UK?  Other Toyotas and Lexus with auto lights that I've driven have the off position.
2. loss of class leading oddments space inside the car and under the boot floor that were so brilliant in the Gen 2 & 3 versions.
3. dreadful rear headroom - aperture is so low it's a pain getting in and out, cannot sit upright in back - that and loss of under-boot storage makes the car must less suitable for taxi use.

The things I like, or even love, are almost an endless list (just a few shown here):

1. Brilliant Adaptive Cruise Control (a major factor in trading a perfectly good Gen 3 for the Gen 4)
2. Extra 100+ miles per tank, even though it's claimed to be 2 litres smaller than the Gen 3 tank
3. all round sensors (although would have really liked 360° camera system that more cars are now getting)
4. Rear cross traffic alert - great when backing out of my drive, highlights pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles approaching well before I can see them
5. option of a light airy (cool grey) interior (all black interiors that seem so popular feel to me like being in a coffin)
6. sensible wheels and a spare wheel
7. excellent display and Head Up Display - best yet
8. Good headlights
9. Autonomous Emergency Braking, blind spot monitoring and lane keep assist (probably helped get £50 refund on my insurance compared to Gen 3)
10. Comfortable ride and good handling
11. Leather interior
12. Lots of little things that add up to a lot

A few things I don't like, but can live with (turned off where possible):

1. Road Sign Assist - shamefully poor quality, but can be turned off, giving extra info on the speedo screen in its place
2. Auto main-beam - a recipe for getting flashed a lot.  Only just about works on fairly straight single carriageway road, rubbish on bends or dual carriageways.  At least can be turned off but master switch is not ergonomically placed for cancelling while driving.  Often fails to give main-beam when you really want it on dark twisty country lanes, if the system is on have to resort to pulling to 'flash' position to get main-beams.
3. Auto wipers almost ok, but need a lot of fiddling switching between all four levels of sensitivity.  At least there's now an option to revert to standard variable intermittent, but dealer has to make the change - strangely not on menus that user can access.
4. The highly shiny "piano black" surround of the infotainment screen can give really horrible glare when the sun is in a certain position that is really unpleasant, and makes me twist awkwardly in my seat to avoid being blinded.

Some other things I wish it had (to make it perfect):

1. Electrically operated front seats and steering column adjustment with memory (available in some countries)
2. 360° camera system
3. Integrated dash cam, including info on lights, indicators etc
4. headlight wash
5. rear camera pressure wash (a la Chevvy Bolt)
6. Menu option to disable creep (like Tesla)

[PeteB]

3 hours ago, RWaggers said:

...Why on earth am I having to adjust the clock manually in a 2017 car?

good point.

[Chris Dance]

On March 1st our Gen 4 will be a year old. Best car we have owned mainly because of the brilliant safety features and the improved suspension. I am also glad we got 15 inch wheels and had the Sat/Nav upgraded on the business edition.   It is also easy and a joy to drive and comfortable. Excellent fuel economy and  little or no pollution.

Dislikes: Lack of storage compared to our previous Gen 3. I would like to be able to turn off Auto lights. I have sometimes the lights do not deep in time for oncoming traffic. Sat/ Nav not always accurate it recently it headed me onto a farm track.  Road sign assist is a joke!!  Drivers side wiper drags unless it is heavy rain. Dealer states it is OK on their tests!!

I agree with Pete B an integrated dash cam would be great.

 

[Catlover]

I am surprised that integrated dash cams are not standard on cars these days. Must cut insurance costs by a lot.

[cviclark]

I agree with all of PeteB points.  Rear headroom doesnt bother me, the Auris TS was far more practical but the Gen 4 is still the best Hybrid to drive. In Vancouver there is a huge choice of hybrid and EV  vehicles but Toyota's are far and away the  most popular.  Most Taxis are Prius V which are huge and great in the back. In Grand Caneria the Prius Taxi all run on AutoGas. The PriusV that picked us up had 150K on the clock all on Gas and was still like new.

For me it's the auto pilot features that make the  Gen 4 so special. Regular 68 mpg trips, it is quiet, fast and real pleasure to drive. My driving glasses are polarised so the HUD is hard to see but the big digital Speedo keeps me legal. The Sat nav is a pain but so rarely used I can live without it.  The Dab is nowhere near as good as in the Auris but in N Wales it's better than the FM for BBC. On most cars the radio is only used to mask the rattles, no rattles I enjoy the quiet. Nothing is perfect but this for me is as good as gets. I just wish the body work and paint were more resilient. 

Reflections have been an issue on all my Hybrids but on this it is mainly the rear dash cam that's affected. The dash cam fitment was better in the Auris, but like insurance you hope never to need it. Dash cams are not for entertainment, or "bling" as long as they show what happens the quality doesn't matter. In 4 years my Lukas Duo has only caused one issue. Now I follow the manufacturer recommended guide and reformat the chips regularly I do not expect another. Sure I would rather it was hidden from view completely but I have not found any that are. Installation and results for both Auris and Prius 4 are on this site somewhere.  

I still do not like the white or the piano black, the glove box is too small and the boot too shallow, but I can forgive all that for the pleasure it gives. Finally I have found my "keeper". Odd that although the Lexus IS, Gen 2, Gen 3 and Auris Ts all fitted my garage the Gen 4 was a problem. I had to remove a pillar from the centre of the wall so I could open the door. The others parked either forward or aft of the pillar without a problem.

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, Catlover said:

I am surprised that integrated dash cams are not standard on cars these days. Must cut insurance costs by a lot.

well, yes and maybe.

I've had dashcams since 2011 (permanently fitted since 2012) but not one of the insurance companies I've dealt with gave any discount for them.

That said, there is some evidence that people who have them active drive a little more carefully.  So it may reduce insurance costs by reducing likelihood of claims, as well as the more obvious evidence when the other party is as fault.

When I was researching them for a former employer's fleet of vehicles, a fleet manager of an Irish ambulance fleet was reported as saying their fuel consumption improved noticeably after the fleet had cameras fitted.

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, cviclark said:

...My driving glasses are polarised so the HUD is hard to see...

presumably you've tried turning it to max brightness?

[cviclark]

If you use proper polarised glasses the Hud is of little use no matter how bright. LED displays are also affected by polorised glasses. That said my presciption "drivers" are superb. My optician said I did not need them but when I went for an MGV licence medical 70+ the doc advised them. He said insurance companies will insist over 70s drivers have an eye test and try to wriggle out of paying claims against older drivers. The drivers have every coating you can think of and I wear mine as sun glasses out of preference to my Ray Bans

[PeteB]

5 hours ago, cviclark said:

...My driving glasses are polarised...

takes me back to the days of toughened windscreens, when polarised glasses I had at the time showed lots of patterns in the glass.

Until I read your post, I'd forgotten the joys of these screens (and the bang they made when they broke, and lots of little pieces of glass that got everywhere).  Along with manual chokes (great fun in the winter!), non self cancelling indicators, single speed wipers that stopped where they were when turned off, manually pumped screen washers, &etc.

[cviclark]

My wiper did drag until I fitted the deflector so you are not alone. Toyota never admit to a problem. The lack of an off for the headlights could cause a bad accident as it could be seen as a come on flash. On my Auris the lack of digital speed readout could have been easily  fixed with a firmware update and not allowing customers to pick wheel size across the range are just a few of Mr T' s faults. I did read somewhere there had been a fine in Japan because the steel used was bellow spec. The  capping on the roof rails is very soft I would not fit a roof box or even put it through an auto car wash, but I doubt Toyota would admit a problem.