If the Prime is a 4-seater, it would be nice if Toyota offered a pass-through in addition to the split-folding seats. In a regular 5-passenger car, you can fold the 40% and squeeze 2 passengers in the rear. In the Prime, you're hooped either way and can only carry one passenger regardless of which side you fold down. @Prius Team if TMC can't get the 5 passenger capacity/rating by the mid-life update, then can it at least provide a pass-through down the centre to carry 4 passengers plus long loads (e.g. skis + poles)?
I thought it would be better to have 40/20/40 split seats to allow a long load. Not a deal breaker but would be better. The issue is that the business case doesn't work if people say 'not a deal breaker'! iPhone ?
Yes a 40/20/40 was what I was thinking (I wasn't suggesting replacing the 60/40 with only a pass-through). I suspect it's just easier to keep the same 60/40 as the regular Prius rather than incur extra cost of design and manufacturing.
Nope. I mean, if you fold the seat down, it lies over the centre console nicely. So basically, they just have to make the centre piece of the seatback (the plastic bit) foldable.
I wish the center console folded out of the way like other cars, not fixed in place. Although I'm not sure if that's possible and still have a center pass-through which I think is a good idea. Also I wish the entire center console was soft, instead of having hard plastic at the end. When I sat in the back seat my legs were pressing against the hard plastic. Then again I don't plan to sit in the back seat so I don't have strong opinions about it but I had hoped that the loss of the fifth seat would at least be compensated for by more comfortable rear seats, but the current center console design tends to impinge on that comfort a bit, at least in my opinion.
Could be safety leading to expense? The seat backs should be anchored properly to the body when not folded.
they didn't specify, but in the early reaction to prime, as posted here, a toyota official said it wouldn't be difficult to get the fifth seat back, if four prove unpopular.
