I have a question and I'd like to ask you all your interpretations. When the new Corolla was introduced in 2014, I wanted one. I travel a lot for work, so I drove plenty of them in the last two years. It has some basics that I appreciated. For example, it has a half press on the blinker for lanes changes and it will blink 3 to 5 times, user adjustable. Not push and hold, mind you, but just nudge and it goes. As well, it has the back up grid lines on the rear view. They aren't active, meaning turning with the wheels, but the superimposed lines really facilitate a better backing experience. When it came time to get my new car, I became more and more interested in and eventually bought a new Prius. So now for my question- does Toyota not trickle down slight improvements year to year? Do they only do that at generations? It seems my 'advanced' 2015 Prius should have these seemingly simple improvements, even if it was released as a generation in 2010. Is more of a Toyota thing or a car industry thing?
I think it's a Toyota model thing. For example, my 2010 Prius II has one touch roll down on all windows and the Wife's 2014 Corolla S fully loaded and with every package only does the driver's window that way.
It's kind of strange or often unpredictable what features appear first with what cars and models. I'm sure there is some logic applied at some level but it often seem like chaos run amok. It seems to me, like the industry likes to put "something special" in almost every model, if only as something for sales people to point out during a test drive.
I wish one feature could trickle over: With our previous vehicle, a Honda: if you set the wipers to fastest intermittent setting, they did intermittent when the car was stationary, then went to low speed continuous when you started rolling. Come to a stop: they reverted to intermittent. I found that immeasurably convenient, think about it when I'm driving (the Prius) in light rain: every time I come to a stop, with the wipers lashing back and forth.
Yup!.........(I have a 2010 Prius II).......I also have a "Tundra" 2014;...... no such luck on the "One/Touch" all/way/round........
i'm not sure toyota does these things in a predictable way. they are famous for decontenting future years of the same package though, within the same gen. is that trickle up?
Well when I was shopping for my first prius in 2012 I wanted power adjustable leather/softex seats. That was one feature that was really important to me. To get that on the prius lift back required going with the advanced tech package. That convinced me to check out the prius v wagon and go for the luxury package which did not offer power seats, but they were softex, had adjustable lumbar, and it was overall cheaper than going for Prius liftback with adv tech package. Fast forward to 2015, now if I was in the market for a new Prius, I could grab a Prius liftback touring package and get my power softex seats, or go with a slightly cheaper still Prius v luxury package with power softex seats. Sure the current Prius v luxury package doesn't have a pano moonroof like my 2012 so I suppose they do shuffle features around a bit and take stuff away, but generally you get more stuff for your money over time in the same model vehicle. Notably this year the Prius v tech package now comes with lane departure warning and auto high beams. So if you want a sneak peek of what features your corolla or Prius will be equipped with in 5-10 years from now as standard features, take a look at a current Lexus, Mercedes, BMW.
