Sat In The New Prius Today (pictures To Follow)

[OOTF]

While I've got 15mins (during the half time break), I'll share some of my thoughts and observations with you.

Well, I went over to Brum Bullring today. Spent about an hour playing with the new Prius T-Spirit and taking lots of pictures. I'll post a load of pictures tomorrow but in the mean time, my observations.

White looks stunning but I can't live with the mess it will look if it's not cleaned very regularly.

The heads up display was not working - the car has to be "started" and they aint gonna do that in the Bullring.

The first thing that struck me was the seat material. It looks like suade and has a nice feel. The interior upholstery was in a light charcoal which looked nice. No need for leather IMHO. Seats to me are very comfortable.

The display for the sat nav/audio did seem to be quite low resolution but good brightness and contrast.

There is a button for AM/DAB but it only works on AM (don't know if DAB will be on the final production car).

There is a mini USB socket behind the satnav/audio display (presumably to allow tunes to be uploaded to the hard drive)

Space in the back is OK. I'm only 5' 9" and my head was almost touching the roof but I am "tall" from my bum to the top of my head.

The boot is OK with enough room to satisfy me, with useful under floor storage.

Sound system was OK. The bass although pleantyfull for me lacked clarity and individual note resolution (but I am used to quality hi fi at home).

The car does look nice in the flesh, better than the old model IMO. Finish on the inside seemed to a vey high standard, with a good mix of different textured plastics, to stop it looking too bland and boring.

The Toyota reps with the car didn't have many answers but they did say that the brochures were imminent.

Overall very impressed with the car. I'm ordering mine next week

I'll resize the pictures tomorrow and up load them here.

[Stepppy]

Excellent, look forwsard to seeing your photos

[agfs]

OOTF mentions "AM/DAB". May I suggest that, probably for the majority of owners, abbreviations mean little, if not nothing at all, so the comments associated with abbreviations are useless for them (me included) so may I make a plea for plain language please, folks.

[chrismeilak]

OOTF mentions "AM/DAB". May I suggest that, probably for the majority of owners, abbreviations mean little, if not nothing at all, so the comments associated with abbreviations are useless for them (me included) so may I make a plea for plain language please, folks.

Am is of course AM radio(Amplitude modulation) and DAB is Digital Audio Broadcast, also known as digital radio which one day might replace FM Radio.

[OOTF]

Well chaps and chapesses, here's the pics, enjoy

[Stepppy]

Thank you so much for the great pics :D

Did anyone comment about the show car having LED lights even though we aren't supposed to be getting them?

The seats look really comfy and I love the fabric, it looks very luxurious :)

[OOTF]

Thank you so much for the great pics :D

Did anyone comment about the show car having LED lights even though we aren't supposed to be getting them?

The seats look really comfy and I love the fabric, it looks very luxurious :)

Definitely no LED lights in the UK. You are right the seats are superb. They look and feel like suade leather. The Toyota reps did dot have much idea about what was going on. They just repeat what is on the website.

[Chris Dance]

Thanks for the Pics. The Car looks great. I cannot see me getting one unless they give a very generous part ex on my immaculate Prius T spirit.

[DaronB]

Thanks for the photos OOTF , based on your pics I just cancelled the leather on my order , my wife and I were both stunned at how nice the suede looks on the seats , I was expecting the cloth seats to be like the Prius 2 cloth which I did'nt like . So thanks again you just saved me almost £1400 quid ! :D

[OOTF]

Thanks for the photos OOTF , based on your pics I just cancelled the leather on my order , my wife and I were both stunned at how nice the suede looks on the seats , I was expecting the cloth seats to be like the Prius 2 cloth which I did'nt like . So thanks again you just saved me almost £1400 quid ! :D

Excellent glad to be of service Daron. I did check with the rep in the Bullring and he said that the material on the car we were looking at was standard on the T-Spirit. I too was considering the leather but I'm not bothering now that I've seen the standard material.

[Yaumeister]

I was at the Bullring earlier this week and checked out the new Prius too.

Not a big fan of the fabric, and the grey interior isn't exactly to my taste, but I'm happy with everything else so overall pretty impressed.

Wheels were wrapped with Toyo Proxes (R50?) tyres, not sure if they were temp or is that going to be default choice for production models.

The reps were suprisingly knowledgeable compared to the usual present at these demos, there were aware that if you order the solar sunroof then the car can only come with 15" wheels on the T Spirit, I wasn't expecting them to know this rather obscure fact.