Excel vs Dynamic trim

[Au175]

Hi, I am torn between the two. Aside from the general spec differences, is there any one that has other massive advantages over the other. It would be useful to know why existing owners chose one over the other. Thanks in anticipation.

[philip42h]

In really simple terms, the Excel provides additional creature comforts and the Dynamic more 'sporty' styling and trim. I've no need to look 'flash', but I really did want Memory Seats so that my wife and I could more easily share the driving. So, Excel it was for me ...

In terms of engineering and dynamics both grades are identical and there's no real difference in price.

[Au175]

Thanks. I do like look of dynamic but not sure if black wheels are a fad as I will keep for up to 10 years. Any views on the alloys that come with the excel, the 10 spoke?

[philip42h]

Mine are the earlier 5 spoke - they are wheels, they are round ... 😉

[PeteB]

Hi Aj

I chose the Excel over the Dynamic because my preferences meant I want a nice colour interior and some equipment that the Dynamic didn't have:

Dynamic has that Excel doesn't:

• black wheels
• black gloss door mirrors, bumpers, roof, spoiler, aerial etc
• black roof lining
• Gloss Black protection moulding on side doors

Excel has that Dynamic doesn't:

• silver wheels
• body coloured door mirrors, roof, spoiler, aerial etc
• Chrome insert on door handles
• grey roof lining
• Front wiper de-icer
• Heated steering wheel
• Memory function on driver seat
• Washer fluid level warning
• Headlight cleaners

I particularly didn't want the black bits, and really wanted the wiper de-icer, headlamp wash and most of all the seat memory function - in my ideal driving position I struggle to get in and out because the roof is too low, so I have one memory for driving and the other for getting in and out.  I use the seat memory every time I enter or exit the car.  I also selected the door protection mouldings as an option (I chose black for those as it looks neat on the white paint).

Still, it was good the have the choice.

[Saxacat]

At the time of ordering, I wanted the Excel trim, but the 5 spoke wheels; purely because the alloys on my Volvo had been really fiddly to clean and I wanted a simpler design. However, since having the 10 spoke wheels I really like them; they don't seem to accumulate dirt and are easy to clean. I'd recommend the 10 spoke.

 

[PeteB]

6 minutes ago, philip42h said:

Mine are the earlier 5 spoke - they are wheels, they are round ... 😉

Reminds me of a conversation I had with my service manager when I had a 2002 Gen 1 Prius.  At the time, Toyotas still has a 3 year warranty, but as the first Hybrid Toyota gave the Prius a 5 year, 60,000 mile "bumper to bumper" warranty, which also included 5 years' full spec RAC recovery Europe wide.

It had rather nice (sensible 14") alloy wheels (5 of them - including a full size matching alloy spare wheel), but they had a habit of tarnishing over time.  I was doing 25,000 miles a year at the time so when I got near to my 60k service and the end of the warranty, my service manager suggested he should replace my tarnished wheels.  I told him I wasn't worried as they still worked just fine, but on my next visit I drove away with new wheels anyway!

[PeteB]

7 minutes ago, Saxacat said:

At the time of ordering, I wanted the Excel trim, but the 5 spoke wheels...

It's a personal thing.  I'm not really that worried about wheels (see my last post), I'd be happy enough with basic steel ones, but having said that I do like the look of the five spoke ones and not so much the current wheels.  What I really wouldn't be happy with is getting 19" wheel that they now fit on the Excel rather than the 18" ones on my car (which is possibly why the Excel no longer gets a spare wheel).  If I'd been given the choice, I'd have opted for  the 17" wheels that were on the design model originally, but I see that now has 18" ones.

[Au175]

Thanks PeteB, that was very useful and I’m leaning towards that one as well.

Saxacat - I currently have a bmw 3 series with diamond cut alloys and they are very fiddly to clean as well due to the number of spokes and the small spacing between them. Not to mention that they have started to corrode as well. I was told by dealership that these 10 spoke ones aren’t diamond cut but with a diamond cut colour, a positive in my book. I did like the look of the 10 spoke when I was in dealership.

[Au175]

I didn’t realise that there was no spare on the new excel, that’s a bummer!

[ernieb]

Do any of the cars still have a spare fitted? 

[Rav Rob]

Its funny how you don't miss things you never had until you have them.  On my Excel the wiper defroster works very well and has quite an effect on the windscreen in general - saves time, heated steering wheel why on earth? well I have moderately arthritic hands and the steering wheel is bliss relief! my wife uses the car a lot and she has Reynard's so gets really cold drained hands, she absolutely loves it too as it gets the blood flowing, Would hate to lose it now.

Memory seats didn't bother me either, wife and I are close enough to share the same position. But... as my mileage is now quite high I do vary the seat position at times to give muscles a change and sometimes move back, higher and more tilted on a long steady roadtrip, a bit lower and closer in on an urban trip for more sporty control. The memory feature means an easy reset back to my baseline optimal position that I found over lots of trips.

I know Toyota don't really do options as less variations means quicker building, but wheel choice at least would be nice, surely it could be on the factory order.

On my on order Black model I wouldn't have minded Black wheels and would have opted for 18" instead of the 19" it now gets as ride matter more than bling in my life, its a working car so has to be the best it can for purpose.

[Rav Rob]

13 minutes ago, ernieb said:

Do any of the cars still have a spare fitted? 

WLTP ratings put a right spanner in the works, every pound of weight counts now for keeping the CO2 down, My current Excel under the old system was 103g/km so very company car tax friendly. I think under WLTP its now 129g/km and with some companies setting a ceiling on permitted company cars by CO2 they will allow their employees to have - 130g/km being quite common, its a big market for Toyota which they are very aware of the situation so are wisely (Sales wise) shaving things off to keep CO2 down, a spare is an easy target but not one I am happy to lose. If it pushes the car off company car lists, I can't think of anything else they can junk to save the same sort of weight instead of the spare.

I will get a cheap 3rd party spacer saver and chuck that in when car arrives.

[PeteB]

1 minute ago, Rav Rob said:

... shaving things off to keep CO2 down, a spare is an easy target...

So of course, putting ever bigger wheels and tyres on is right clever!  Duh!

[Rav Rob]

1 minute ago, PeteB said:

So of course, putting ever bigger wheels and tyres on is right clever!  Duh!

Exactly! its probably what has cost us the spare.

All for looks, but easier to curb, less resilient to pot hole damage, less good ride.

[PeteB]

3 minutes ago, Rav Rob said:

...All for looks, but easier to curb, less resilient to pot hole damage, less good ride.

plus (usually) worse turning circle, worse CO2 and worse mpg (e.g. 2½ mpg worse according to official figures for the Gen 3 & 4 Prius with 17" wheels over the 15").

[Slightly Off Topic] [In the case of the Prius, it was the fact that the tyres on the bigger wheels were wider that hit CO2 and mpg (the actual diameter was almost identical).  This meant that the majority of owners were unable to benefit from London Congestion Charge exemption when it was available because the 17" wheels pushed the CO2 just outside the band for qualifying.]

[PeteB]

45 minutes ago, ernieb said:

Do any of the cars still have a spare fitted? 

According to the configurator both the Icon and Design get a space saver.

[ernieb]

I’ve always found that in general the bigger the tyres the worse the ride as they inevitably reduced the height of the tyre also the wider the tyre the worse they perform in snow. In my youth the car tyres were so very thin but I never had issues in the snow.

[PeteB]

3 minutes ago, ernieb said:

In my youth the car tyres were so very thin but I never had issues in the snow.

Indeed - I had to drive in some pretty severe snow in the 1970s and 80s in things like a Fiat 127 and a Mk1 Fiesta and they coped surprisingly well.

[Rav Rob]

20 minutes ago, ernieb said:

I’ve always found that in general the bigger the tyres the worse the ride as they inevitably reduced the height of the tyre also the wider the tyre the worse they perform in snow. In my youth the car tyres were so very thin but I never had issues in the snow.

Absolutely.

You might also find your PHEV extra difficult due to the weight.  I previously had an Outlander PHEV so similar in size, weight etc, and the 4wd made it easy to get some motion going on snow. The problem was stopping!!! had some real backside clenching moments no matter how extraordinarily carefully I drove, simple laws of physics, more mass takes more stopping force but the tyres and limited friction were no better than a normal lighter vehicle so inevitably stopping is far worse.

[ernieb]

@Rav Rob, that so reminds me of the first drive in the snow when I’d just bought a new Freelander, got going down the road with no issues, gently braked early and the car continued across the T junction and stopped after it slid into the curb on the other side.  After a gentle drive home to change my trousers I double the braking distance and still had issues. Great fun activity at theme park but not much else.

sorry off topic

[PeteB]

1 minute ago, Rav Rob said:

...The problem was stopping!!! ...

Did you stay with the stock tyres, or switch to Winter or All-Seasons?

I used winter tyres from October to March in my last 2 cars, but on my RAV I've elected to try All-Seasons.

My dealer is still swapping them twice a year and storing the unused set, and when the original summer tyres have reached 3mm I'll decide whether to use All-Seasons all year or go back to summer and winter tyres.  It's making placement of the 5 tyres (I bought a full size matching alloy spare) interesting, as I'd like all 5 summer tyres to reach my preferred limit of 3mm at about the same time.

I've only had a couple of brief drives in moderate snow in the RAV and it seemed to cope reasonably well on the All-Seasons, but the jury's still out.  Whilst I'm not exactly hoping for bad winters, it would be useful to get another test or two before decision time.

[Au175]

What’s the stereo like on the stock system? I require bass but according to some forums even the jbl is sub standard

[ernieb]

@PeteB, suggest you look at Michelin CrossClimates as an alternative to an all year around tyre. I’ve used these on my last 3 cars and can not recommend then highly enough. Great performance all year, good economy, noise levels and handling.  I especially felt a significant difference when travelling in cold very wet/standing water days on the the motorways a more frequent event than snow.

[PeteB]

1 minute ago, ernieb said:

@Rav Rob, that so reminds me of the first drive in the snow when I’d just bought a new Freelander...

[still of topic] and that reminds me of the most frightening drive of my life.  I'd driven 50 miles to a town where I had to work for a week.  Instead of the usual 1 hour and 50 miles, when I got there after a 5 hour drive I'd racked up 99 miles because of the number of times I'd had to double back.  But that drive, though tiring, wasn't the frightening one!

To avoid returning, I spent the night in a hotel.  The next morning was just a couple of mile drive to where I was working that week.  That was the frightening drive.

During the evening the heavy snow turned to rain.  In the morning the 5-6 inch deep snow had all melted, to be replaced with sheet ice.  Just getting to my car on the sloping car park was a trial.  But the 2-mile journey was truly awful.

There was a slow moving queue the other way, and I had a clear run as I was heading out of town.  I never went above 10 mph, and was mostly doing 5 or 6 in first gear, occasionally going for 2nd.  On a straight bit of road, I came to a parked car with insufficient room to pass it because of the opposing traffic.  I dropped to first gear some 30-40 yards away, the car snaked a little, and I then tried to dab the brakes very gently, dabbing on and off repeatedly, but I never stopped.  Luckily, the oncoming traffic, crawling at about 2 mph, gradually moved over just for me to squeeze through.