What I don't like about the 2016 Prius

I think all the available plug ins have heated seats and steering wheel as factory options. With cooled seats starting to trickle out of the luxury segments, they should have those soon too.

 

My hybrid Avalon Limited has air cooled and heated seats.

 

My husband's lexus has the heated/cooled seats but the cooling quality is poor (maybe ours just sucks). I was in a Lincoln once that had them and it was like sitting on an air conditioner. I would REALLY like a heated steering wheel.

 

I never really understood heated seats, I didn't use them in my previous car and I can't imagine I'd use cooled seats either. I always thought it was strange to feel a warm feeling emanating from my underside but maybe that is just me.

 

Yes, it's just you.

Here where the temp is routinely well below freezing, getting warmth like that within only a minute is priceless.

 

If you could put a number on how much the noise decreased on the gen 4 over gen 3 what would it be? The noise is the thing I hate the most about the Prius. On the freeway I have to turn up the radio pretty loud to drown out the road noise. We are looking into another car in June and I pretty much ruled out the Prius because of this but will reconsider if it's a big improvement.

 

Undercoating was always an effective aftermarket option for reducing road noise, so the old Prius can be improved.

What tires you choose makes a difference too.

 

Don't like the feeling of being cooked then?
They started out as part of a winter package to warm up a person while the ICE was too cold to heat the cabin. The efficiency of heating a person directly is a big boon for plug ins. Heating the entire cabin on a BEV can result in a large hit to range. Cooled seats might do the same in hot climates.

 

Not really; all I can say is that the difference from a 10-year-old Gen2 was quite noticeable. At this stage, I don't know if anyone has put meters on both cars in a controlled test, though I'm sure that's coming.

But if minimum noise is the goal, depending on your means, you might want to consider the Avalon Hybrid, an option too often overlooked by high-end Prius shoppers. It does cost appreciably more than a Prius 4 Touring, but if you don't need a hatchback it's a plusher, quieter, smoother-riding vehicle with 40 MPG overall, and certainly a much better value than the smaller 42 MPG Lexus CT200h. Both those cars (plus the Prius v) were on the list of vehicles I'd considered leasing as a stop-gap before we'd confirmed that the Gen4 was satisfactory.

 

I have a 2014 Avalon Hybrid Limited and a 2016 Prius Four. You are right, the Avalon is plusher, quieter, and smoother. Front and back air conditioning, and heated and cooled seats. A very nice car! but, 40 MPG VS. 65 MPG. LIfe is choosing your compromises.

 

I'd definitely try it, I was very particular about road noise as being something I wanted to avoid because my previous car was very quiet. To me, it is a very quiet car on the freeway, I can't remember now how fast I've gone, at least 80, maybe 85 and had no noticeable road noise.

 

heated windshield would be the nuts.

 

my wife won't use them, and we have them in both cars.

 

Good point....my passengers love it more than I do (on my OTHER car)

 

My mom, who lives in California, loves her heated seats, but I just could never like it. Not sure how to turn it on in the Prius, maybe if we get a really cold morning where I have to go out, I'd try it. Also, if I'm leaving the house, I'm already wearing a jacket and gloves and I also don't mind being a little chilly but also temps under 30 here are pretty rare.

 

Try temps under 0. I promise you, you will start to like them
Heating the seats also is much more efficient than heating the air of the cabin.

 

Which is why I don't live in minnesota But honestly, if I'm driving a short distance and I'm sufficiently warm, I don't put on the heat, I'll put on the defrost if the window starts to fog up but thats about it.

 

Just saw one today. I have to say it's pretty damn ugly car. Toyota got this all wrong .


iPhone ?

 

That's exactly what I had in mind couple years back when I saw Gen 3 prius, potatoes on wheels.