2012 Gen Iii Centre Armrest - Design Failure

[Dave R.]

I may have commented on this when I first took delivery of the 2012 GENIII Prius T-Spirit last September - but it is now really starting to irritate me,,,,

For some unknown reason, Toyota decided to change the design of the centre armrest, shortening it by about 4 inches in order to reveal the cup holder that used to be hidden below the padded armrest top. This means that if I'm cruising along with my left hand on the bottom half of the steering wheel, my elbow is now sitting in the rock-hard plastic cupholder rather than on the nice padded armrest.....

OUCH!

[Duffryn]

Yep, my feelings exactly when I test drove a 2013 model. Seems that the designers' never had to drive a Prius for any distance.

[wass]

Why do cup holders feature in car interior design so prominently when its illegal to drink anything ( even water) whilst driving in UK?

[Devon Aygo]

I may have commented on this when I first took delivery of the 2012 GENIII Prius T-Spirit last September - but it is now really starting to irritate me,,,,

For some unknown reason, Toyota decided to change the design of the centre armrest, shortening it by about 4 inches in order to reveal the cup holder that used to be hidden below the padded armrest top. This means that if I'm cruising along with my left hand on the bottom half of the steering wheel, my elbow is now sitting in the rock-hard plastic cupholder rather than on the nice padded armrest.....

OUCH!

Yep, my feelings exactly when I test drove a 2013 model. Seems that the designers' never had to drive a Prius for any distance.

Toyota can't win . The change was brought about by customer feed back stating that the cup holder was poor because it was underneath the lid

Why do cup holders feature in car interior design so prominently when its illegal to drink anything ( even water) whilst driving in UK?

There is no law banning drinking or eating whilst driving however a driver can be prosecuted for various laws such as driving without due care & attention, careless driving etc if you are witnessed doing so by a police officer and its far safer having somewhere to put your drink rather than between your legs or resting it somewhere unsuitable.

[wass]

If the change was brought about by customer feed back then I would suggest that it was most likely negative feed back. It is most likely that the number of people complaining about the cup holder not being under their elbow outnumbered the number of people commenting that the arm rest was positioned in a very comfortable location which would be a most uncomfortable place to put a cup holder.

We had better tell Toyota what we really like about their cars otherwise they may change their designs on the basis of a few complaints which statistically out-number the positive remarks.

The same thing happened to motorcycles: many small people complained that they couldn't touch the floor on big bikes and so it became almost impossible to buy a motorcycle which would "fit" a tall rider; finally, some far sighted companies started to market bikes which had height adjustable seats- gaining a good slice of the market in the process.

I have a CT200 in addition to a prius and there are no fewer than 3 cup holders within easy reach of the drivers seat: two in the central console (where covered storage would be more advantageous and one in the door. The CT is very short of storage spaces in the cockpit area at the expense of cup holders. I do like the gen 2 cup holders which are set forwards of the arm rest AND have covers which allow them to be used for storage of odds and sods out of sight of passing thieves.

[Dave R.]

I must admit, I don't really understand the preoccupation with cupholders. What happened to the good old fashioned ashtrays?.... oh yes - everyone stopped smoking..... but that still doesn't stop you from creating litter in the car.... so now instead of useful places to put your rubbish, we have cupholders.

I suggest that every motor manufacturer should sit a designer in the car, give them a banana to eat and then get them to work out what to do with the skin! That would be FAR more useful than working out how to create places to put drinks.

In the meantime can someone come up with a padded insert to stick in to the cupholder to turn it back into an armrest??

[Bibsy]

My cupholders, as far as I'm concerned are little waste paper baskets, into which go parking tickets and sweetie wrappers until full.

Only time we've used them for their intended purpose is the occasional picnic stop on a long journey when it's too wet to sit outside, but as I say, they make excellent bins.

[johalareewi]

I must admit, I don't really understand the preoccupation with cupholders. What happened to the good old fashioned ashtrays?.... oh yes - everyone stopped smoking..... but that still doesn't stop you from creating litter in the car.... so now instead of useful places to put your rubbish, we have cupholders.

I suggest that every motor manufacturer should sit a designer in the car, give them a banana to eat and then get them to work out what to do with the skin! That would be FAR more useful than working out how to create places to put drinks.

In the meantime can someone come up with a padded insert to stick in to the cupholder to turn it back into an armrest??

This thread reminded me of this one...

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/122314-rubbish

As for rubbish bins, see the attached pic...

Available in different colours with different lids from various places.

[aCactus]

Not to bothered by the short armrest but find it very difficult to use the USB port under the armrest - had to add a short lead to make access easy.

[Opifex]

When we are in France the front cupholder has the garage key and bag of French money for parking meters. The rear cupholder has an English fuel card and a bag of English money for parking meters (much bigger than the French one). When we cross the Channel the two get swapped over.

If we want a drink we go to a cafe.

Rubbish gets thrown into a small bin that is velcroed to the floor between the rear seats.

It would be interesting to start a thread on what people keep under the central cover. I suspect it would be as revealing as the threads you sometimes find on the internet of what women carry in their handbages.

[Opifex]

I had a 2013 Prius as a loan car while mine was in for service today.

The first thing that leapt out at me was the gaping hole where the arm rest has been replaced by the cupholder. To further break up the interior lines of the car the hole is emphasised by giving it a chrome surround.

I suppose designers feel obliged to change something just to make it different from the previous model but this is definitely a backward step rather than an improvement IMO.