Your Prius Annoyances And Quirks

[sjrainsford]

Hi all.

I've been driving my Generation 2 T Spirit for a while now, I'm beginning to find some of the things that give me slight annoyance etc. All cars have them! So I just thought I'd list them down, and see what things bother other people. Maybe if you have any fixes for your or other peoples issues you could point them out too?

I respect that other people may not agree with some people, as a cars quirks are rather subjective.

1. Touch screen display - I don't really like the way certain functions become greyed out when the car is in motion, such as on the sat nav screen and the audio screen like the folder list. I know it's there for safety reasons, but I want to change things when I'm moving slowly in traffic!

2. I like to have my climate control in Auto when I'm moving around, but prefer to switch it off for energy saving quite often. The button on the steering wheel is useful for this feature. But I wish the aircon wouldn't turn on when Auto mode is selected. I know it needs to be on for full auto mode, but it would be nice to have this function disabled.

3. The reverse beep! - I know it's an annoyance of many of us, and I'm aware that it can be disabled. And when I get chance I will! But when you've got parking sensors like me, I can hear the reverse warning beeper over the parking sensor beeper which kind of defeats the point to me.

4. Being a T Spirit, mine has the JBL sound system. Overall, with a bit of setting up a fairly decent sound can be achieved. But it's obvious that the door panels haven't been beefed up or better deadened to cater for the upgrade in speaker system. Looks like I'll be fitting sound deadening at some point!

That's it so far... I think hehe!

[Jan&tone]

I know I've now got a gen3, but I remember the gen2 ...

1) try below 5mph, above that it IS unsafe, actually as bad as holding a mobile phone. You have to concentrate on the satnav programming, you should be concentrating on the road. (thats the official line anyway! )

2) Agreed. I much prefer to handle that sort of thing myself, the Gen3 is a little better on that score I think, but whenever 'auto' is installed you lose the ability to do things yourself, for example, in olden days and on cheaper cars the movement of the car was sufficient to blow enuf air to the screen to keep it clear, these days the blower must be on!! Why??

3) reverse beep, bone of contention here and lots of comments last year. Two points, first you have a camera, you know you are in reverse, the tv screen tells you so, second, why pay for reversing sensors when you have said camera? Waste of money

Having said that, there are those that seem to think that Prius should be different to all other automatics and have the shift going forward to move the car forwards?? Then the beep would be necessary, the difference between Prius and all others would make it necessary.

I could understand it on the t3 and t4 where there is no camera, but on the t-spirit thw beep is unnecessary.

4) JBL sound system, frankly i cant tell the difference! On the gen3 i dont have it but the sound hitting my ears is just as good to me as in the gen2

My biggest beef on all my recent cars, including the gen3 and the wifes Aygo is the 'runs' on the sides of the cars after you have spent 2 hours washing them!! It's high time that manufacturers stopped building in water traps around the bottom of window trims and mirrors....

[timberwolf]

1. The nanny restriction was removed on the 2008 sat-nav, what is daft is you can attempt to change routes via voice command but it still requires a number of touch-screen button presses! I agree that it is too distracting to change the sat-nav as the driver, but for a passenger it wouldn't be a problem.

2. The air-con is pretty efficient and will pull in outside air if that is cooler - I leave it on auto all year around.

3. Sorry, you can't disable the beep on a Gen 2. Fortunately, my brain/ears are very good at filtering out the beep to the extent that I forget that the beep is there.

4. I think some of the car manufacturers think more Speakers is better vs installing fewer better quality Speakers. The JBL unit does play MP3 data discs that the base unit does not.

I solved the drip washing problem by changing the method of washing to the Optimum No Rinse method.

[Calymene]

I have a Gen 3 T Spirit which I generally like. The one thing I miss from my previous car is electrically retracting wing mirrors. I hate having to get out of the car to manually move them before driving into the garage.

[kithmo]

I have a Gen 3 T Spirit which I generally like. The one thing I miss from my previous car is electrically retracting wing mirrors. I hate having to get out of the car to manually move them before driving into the garage.

How do you get out of the car ??

[Calymene]

The garage up-and-over door is the standard 8 feet wide but the width inside the garage is considerably more (if it were not then I guess via the hatch would be the only option).

[Chris Dance]

I have no big gripes about my Gen 2 T Spirit except I would also like electric retracting wing mirrors. The "beep" does not bother me at all. Sound system is more than adequate for my needs. A warning would be good if the rear boot is not fully closed.

I am considering a Gen 3 T spirit purchase later this year. Anyone know if the special edition is in the showrooms yet?

[britprius]

I have a 2008 Tspirit witch still has the "I agree" screen and the restrictions on use even for the passenger that could use the system safely. The passengers seat already has a sensor for the seat belt beep witch could have been used to allow the system to be used by the passenger.

The parking brake does not turn off the auto creep mode of the transmission depleting the charge of the HV Battery when stationary at lights etc using more fuel to recharge it. I know if you put your foot on the foot brake this cuts the power to the electric motor but this also blinds at night the person behind.Again a simple switch (witch is already there) connected to the ecu would cure this.

Why oh why does the car not have heated mirrors in the UK? In Florida where they do not know what frost is they get them.

When reversing we get beeping in the car witch again in the US can be turned off but not hear! but in reverse the car is silent the ICE is not used the beep should be on the out side.

The demist function works well but when cancelled puts the climate control in auto when not needed.

Both the head lamps and fog lamps have very poor output for a modern car.

The above rant might sound like i hate the car I DO NOT it is probably the best vehicle i have driven in 45 years just a pity Toyota did not get the market research wright and put a bit more thought on basic controls.

[sjrainsford]

My headlamps are spot on. Really not bad for filament lamps.

[timberwolf]

I have a 2008 Tspirit witch still has the "I agree" screen and the restrictions on use even for the passenger that could use the system safely. The passengers seat already has a sensor for the seat belt beep witch could have been used to allow the system to be used by the passenger.

I get the "I agree" button each time I switch on and use the sat-nav. My 2008 came with the new discs released that Autumn/Winter as I bought it in near the end of the year.

[kithmo]

The only annoyance I have is the amplification of road noise through the suspension.

Quirks, useless auto wipers (although no worse than other cars I've had) and the telescopic adjustment on the steering wheel could be longer.

Other than that I love it, even the NAV that some say is rubbish, is quite good when you get to know it. I was looking a Sat navs online over christmas and you have to pay a lot of money for one that has the features of the Prius built in one.

My favourite gadgets are the reversing camera and the park assist.

[sjrainsford]

It seems we all dislike similar things.

Keep them coming folks, it's a good read.

[Sagitar]

Has anyone mentioned the rear window? It's the one thing about the car that I really hate.

[timberwolf]

If it hasn't already been mentioned, I find the rear wiper clears the wrong side of the rear window, I think Toyota should have swapped the arm around to sweep the other way.

[sjrainsford]

If it hasn't already been mentioned, I find the rear wiper clears the wrong side of the rear window, I think Toyota should have swapped the arm around to sweep the other way.

Yeah actually the back wiper is pretty poxy in general.

[sjrainsford]

Oh yeah, after my first long trip in it today I cant believe the steering wheel is only rake and not reach adjustable. Its just a bit too far away for my liking.

[DrCez]

It seems we all dislike similar things.

Keep them coming folks, it's a good read.

Apologies to those who already know this, but the good news is that a lot of the Gen 2 annoyances listed here have been addressed in the Gen 3:

Telescopic steering adjustment as well as rake is provided, plus seat height adjustment (don't know if that's available in Gen 2). The Gen 3 should be a more comfortable long-distance ride with these extra adjustments, not to mention its bigger engine.

There's still no retracting wing mirrors but they are now heated as standard on all models.

Aircon/auto mode is no longer automatically switched on (I think the car remembers the state it was left in previously).

Auto mode is selected after using the front demist but I think that's reasonably logical. The default settings now avoid using aircon (good news for fuel economy), e.g. although it is automatically activated for demisting it is switched off again when demist is stopped, and even if you set the temperature control to minimum you still have to manually switch on the aircon (that one caught out the salesman who was trying to cool us down during my test drive!).

The continuous reversing beep is still there: an annoying default setting but should be sorted out at delivery IMO. My dealer, while not perfect, was on top of this one and I didn't have to request it (I have a reverse parking sensor as well).

The rear wiper is interesting because presumably Toyota must have considered where to position it for the Japanese market. The rake of the back window makes it difficult to clear with a wiper; at least at high speeds it remains dry. I find the lower pane more problematic: there's no chance of keeping that clear in the winter, even with the rear demist on.

I find the "P" button illogical, for me it would make more sense to have it on the joystick. Moving from a manual car to the Prius, the hardest thing to get used to was the parking brake/P button operation and in particular pulling off from stationary once they have been set.

There are plenty of other little niggles on the Gen 3 of course but I'll save that for another thread (in fact I'm sure I've posted about them a while back). These are all minor issues, overall I still love my Prius :)

[Jan&tone]

If it hasn't already been mentioned, I find the rear wiper clears the wrong side of the rear window, I think Toyota should have swapped the arm around to sweep the other way.

Yeah actually the back wiper is pretty poxy in general.

Agreed, but have you noticed that once you are moving you dont actually use it!!

[timberwolf]

Agreed, but have you noticed that once you are moving you dont actually use it!!

It depends on the direction, if I'm reversing I think I would find it very useful, and although I do squeegie all windows when required before setting off there always seems to be a bit that I miss. As for going forwards, mostly I put up with it, but if there is a lot of spray, then I will use the rear wiper if I'm merging into traffic e.g. joining a motorway.

[Seamaster73]

Perhaps something like Rain-X is the answer?

[timberwolf]

Perhaps something like Rain-X is the answer?

I put Rain-X on the first car that I ever owned and it made the windscreen Wiper Blades squeak badly, I swore never to use the stuff again. As I find it difficult to throw things away, I did come across that old bottle of Rain-X (it must have dried out by now?) whilst looking for tools to take the tumble dryer apart. :o

[Jan&tone]

Perhaps something like Rain-X is the answer?

I put Rain-X on the first car that I ever owned and it made the windscreen Wiper Blades squeak badly, I swore never to use the stuff again. As I find it difficult to throw things away, I did come across that old bottle of Rain-X (it must have dried out by now?) whilst looking for tools to take the tumble dryer apart. :o

Maybe the wrong place to ask, but this post prompted my query.... How do others clean the windscreen to stop wipers smearing?? They are obviously new wipers (the car is only 4 months old)

I've teied commercial windscreen cleaners and obviously the antifreeze screenwash, but still smeary - at night it's worse obviously

Ideas welcome please....

[agfs]

Have you tried cleaning the screen AND the blades with vinegar ?

[Jan&tone]

Have you tried cleaning the screen AND the blades with vinegar ?

Oops, i thought that was an old wives tale!! I'll try it over the weekend

[timberwolf]

Maybe the wrong place to ask, but this post prompted my query.... How do others clean the windscreen to stop wipers smearing?? They are obviously new wipers (the car is only 4 months old)

I've teied commercial windscreen cleaners and obviously the antifreeze screenwash, but still smeary - at night it's worse obviously

Ideas welcome please....

I think it's just that time of year, lots of muck on the road (salt and grit), this is what I do:

a. to start with try not to use your wipers.

b. once you do have to use your wipers then you'll need to use the screen wash often.

I haven't needed to buy any for a few years, but I liked the Shell screen wash, which was pale blue and had a pleasant smell (unlike the cheap brands).