A question about Dynamic Radar Cruise Control (DRCC) on the Prius v. I am thinking of buying a 2018 Prius v (in Canada). DRCC comes standard on all trims as part of Toyota Safety Sense P. Because of knee troubles, I require adaptive cruise control that can bring the car to a full stop and then resume. Does the DRCC on the Prius v have the ability to function in stop and go traffic? I don't think so, but before ruling the Prius v out, I thought I would check here in the forum. In the manual section entitled Canceling and resuming the speed control on page 4-5 it says Unfortunately the other Prius models are not options for us because we need more rear headroom than they provide. As background, I have arthritis in my right knee that is exacerbated by repeatedly using the gas and brake pedals while driving. In our other car (a 2017 Subaru Outback) the adaptive cruise control will engage at any speed with a minimum set point of 40 km/h and then follow the car in front. When the car in front stops, the adaptive cruise will bring my car to a stop. When the car ahead starts, I can resume following using a thumb switch on the steering wheel. This is great for my knee, particularly in stop and go traffic.
Not on the Prius v. It only works down to 40km/h before it cancels (as the owner's manual says). The 4th generation Prius (2016+) has a lot of front headroom so I'm not sure why you're discounting that. All 4th Gen Prii have all-speed radar cruise control that goes down to 0km/h For the Camry, LE models have "low-speed" DRCC (that's the one that cuts of at 40km/h), XLE models have all-speed DRCC. I believe the RAV4 is only "low-speed" DRCC but the next gen should get all-speed DRCC.
Thanks for the detailed reply and other options. We need rear head room too, which is why the other Prius options don't work, but maybe we need to revise that requirement.
Would waiting for the 2019 RAV4 Hybrid be an option? I anticipate that the rated fuel consumption won't be that far off the Prius v despite having much more power (222hp vs. 134hp), weighing more and AWD-i (or E-Four... whichever name they decide to use this time around). I'm guessing around 5.8-6.0L/100km combined for the 2019 RAV4 Hybrid vs. 5.5L/100km for the Prius v. The hip point is lowered in the new RAV4 so it should be easy to slide right in rather than drop into a car. The all-speed DRCC will meet your requirement (and it'll have TSS-P 2.0 so there's a few upgrades over the 1st generation).
Thanks for the idea. The 2019 RAV4 sounds like a good mix of utility and fuel economy. I can't find any information on when it will be available here in Canada. Do you know? I see a local dealer has the 2018 on clearance through the end of October. Maybe the 2019 will be available in November? We could probably wait until the end of November or mid-December at the very latest.
My understanding is the gas models arrive before the end of this year with the hybrids arriving early 2019.
