[HIVOLTAGE]

Just figured I would share my experiences with the Pri now that its approaching the 10K mark...

Current driving conditions; All highway, 50mpg solo with no criuse control on, speed 68: 55mpg drafting a Semi at 5 to 6 car lengths at 67 to 70 mph. I also feel that I can "out perform" the cruise control by a large margin.

CONS, in order of severity,

1. EVERYTHING RATTLES INSIDE THE CAR!! All the panels, the dash, the little bracket for the "mirror sensor", the "B" pillar cover, the Oh *#^% handle, ....and on and on and on...

2. THE SEAT MIGHT AS WELL BE MADE OF JELLO....Its also to short and has no side leg support. (The one thing my 300ZTT has that I truly miss )

3. The "shift" knobbie needs to be moved. Even a little would help. I'm over 6' and my knee bumps the thing occasionally.

4. ICE seems to have a hard time deciding to turn off once a day when I leave work. Scenario: Start car, drive to first red light about 200 yards away, ICE is running then while sitting at light it seems to spit, groan and moan then turn off. (lots of low frequency "vibration") It then never does it again.

5. Car threw up on me once, but figured out how to avoid this. I have read numerous posts here in regards to "don't top off your tanks". well...I fill up to the first click then pull the nozzle out to the tip area and just let the fuel "pour" in at a slow rate till its full.

PROS:

1. I am getting the rated mileage advertised..atleast by my calcs.

2. Car has plenty of power...almost impressive for what it is.

3. Lots of room inside, lunch crew likes that!

4. Stereo sounds really good to me (JBL Ver).

5. Plenty of room for storage.

As far as the emissions, its nice to know your not bugger'in up the atmoshere but its something you can't see. (unless your car throws up on you :lol: )

The car has met everything it what advertised to do as far as my experiences reveal. However all the "CONS" were obviously "NOT" advertised!!

I reccomend the car highly however. And if there is any insight as to the "rough ICE cutoff" I'm curious as to if anyone else experiences this.

 

[wayneswhirld]

CONS, in order of severity,

1. EVERYTHING RATTLES INSIDE THE CAR!! All the panels, the dash, the little bracket for the "mirror sensor", the "B" pillar cover, the Oh *#^% handle, ....and on and on and on...

I have 7,300 on mine and so far no rattles (and this includes driving on some rural bumpy roads)

2. THE SEAT MIGHT AS WELL BE MADE OF JELLO....Its also to short and has no side leg support. (The one thing my 300ZTT has that I truly miss )

My seat is very supportive to me, although I'm 5'6", 165. In 10,000 miles, it's highly unlikely the seat has deteriorated.

3. The "shift" knobbie needs to be moved. Even a little would help. I'm over 6' and my knee bumps the thing occasionally.

This may be an issue for tall drivers...not even close for me.

4. ICE seems to have a hard time deciding to turn off once a day when I leave work. Scenario: Start car, drive to first red light about 200 yards away, ICE is running then while sitting at light it seems to spit, groan and moan then turn off. (lots of low frequency "vibration") It then never does it again.

This is normal operation (from personal experience and reading posts here). The ICE needs to warm up from start. It will do it more in colder temps.

5. Car threw up on me once, but figured out how to avoid this. I have read numerous posts here in regards to "don't top off your tanks". well...I fill up to the first click then pull the nozzle out to the tip area and just let the fuel "pour" in at a slow rate till its full.

Others have posted about fillup/bladder problems. I've never pumped more than 9.7 gals even after a blinking pip. And I normally don't try to fill beyond the clickoff.

 

[DanMan32]

200 yards isn't much of a warmup time, so ICE wants to still warm up. It is normal to shudder or 'consider' to shut down. My guess is that there's still fuel in the intake manifold because of the atkinson/miller cycle pushing fueled air back out of the intake valve during the early part of the compression stroke. ICE mixture is a bit richer before it is warmed up and in feedback loop mode. Even in good ol' Florida, it can take 5-10 minutes for the car to be fully warmed up, as can be seen by the MPG bars in the consumption screen.

As for filling up, I too have had a couple of belches. Trick is, once you have gotten to your first REAL clickoff, only put in about 2 tenths of a gallon at a time, pullin out and returning the nozzle each time.
One time when it started to belch, I was able to purge the air bubbles without losing too much fuel by wiggling the nozzle a bit while it was still installed.

 

[Jonnycat26]

CONS, in order of severity,

1. EVERYTHING RATTLES INSIDE THE CAR!!

2. THE SEAT MIGHT AS WELL BE MADE OF JELLO

3. The "shift" knobbie needs to be moved.

My list of cons with the car pretty much mirrors yours. My car is pushing 30K miles, and believe me, the rattles get much worse with age.

There is a fix tho. You literally have to press down on everything that rattles. The car interior is, well, cheap plastic, and as such it won't stay seated over time. So if you press down and reseat everything, you'll eliminate the rattles for a few days or weeks. Temperature changes seems to make the situation worse, probably because the plastic is so thin it just works it's way loose easier when it's expanding and contracting.

For the seats and shifter, there's no solution. I'm 6'1, and my knee also finds the shifter on occasion, and due to the fact that you can't really adjust the seats or telescope the wheel, I've got a T-Rexish posture when I drive the car.

 

[2far4gas]

No rattles here after 5K, seats are great, etc.

My gripes:
Tan cloth seats/carpet show dirt quickly, if I had a chance to redo, I would get gray interior.
Occasionally quirky handling, especially in cross winds.
Rear visibility constrained by tappering roof.
Ditto rear seat head room.
Gas guage seems to have 2-3 gallons in the first bar & 2-3 in the last, leaving the middle 8 bars to account for the remaining 5-7 gallons

Pluses:
Comfortable, quiet, small, manuverable, averging about 48mpg overall, great stereo, excellent visibility in all directions, except rear, reasonable storage room, quality constuction/materials.

 

[redwein]

My car is pushing 30K miles, and believe me, the rattles get much worse with age

I have 27,000 miles on mine and have not experienced any rattles. I even removed many of the dash panels to install a satellite radio kit and have no subsequent rattles. Mine is a 2004 that I bought in Septbember 04. I don't know if it something about a batch of cars, random ones, or just something they fixed along the way.

Now my 04 Sienna minivan with 17,500 miles, on the other hand, rattles like crazy. Everything seems to rattle so I know what you mean about how annoying that can be.

 

[redwein]

Gas guage seems to have 2-3 gallons in the first bar & 2-3 in the last, leaving the middle 8 bars to account for the remaining 5-7 gallons.

I have never had a linear gas gauge. Most of them have been overly optomistic in the top half, meaning that when it read a half, I have significantly less than that. I think the only reason it seems worse in the Prius is because there are 10 discrete pips so you tend to think of each one having a certain amount of gas or miles. I think if the gauge was just a normal analog gauge which dropped smoothly people wouldn't think of it as so much of a problem.

 

[ChasSuitt]

At ~14,000 miles, no rattles, no repairs (excepting the recalls and NAV DVD update). I did avoid the "Fuel Gauge TSB" due to the extensive disassembly/reassembly and reports of no significant fuel gauge or capacity changes for those Prius owners who had it done. Seems the assembly problems would invite rattles if not actual damage to the dash area panels.

 

[HIVOLTAGE]

Well as far as the seats go....I have placed an order for a Recarro seat in which there is a previous thread on here for that info....

Gas "indicator" or lack thereof I find I have about 200 miles before the first square is gone then 25 to 30 miles for the second, 50 per square for the next three which puts me between 350 and 400 miles for the half mark. after that I average about 40 a square. Never have run it down to the "blinker" but have had over 600 miles indicated with 1 solid left.

I agree with the fabric issue....needs to be more "robust".

"T-REX" position....that's pretty funny...I have found myself in the "format"!

ICE issue..."Dan-My-Man" may have it nailed down as far as the rough cutoff. Everything he mentions seem to be make sense from the fuel point of view.

I will be taking my car to a Hi-End Audio shop a friend of mine owns and he will "de-rattle" the car for sure at the same time sound proofing the car even further from an inside the cabin perspective. (Should make the stereo sound even better maybe). If I could easily integrate the MFD and a high end "head unit and amp system I would do it in a heartbeat however with the complexity of the thing along with a time issue the JBL is sufficient (Sorry, I'm an extreme home audiophile and cars just never seem to measure up)

Visibility...I agree with the rear "view", I jockey'd the mirrors around like we did back in the EDT ("Evasive Driving Techniques") school days (Military) and that seemed to help. (Progressive viewing).

 

[bshef]

OMG....
recarro seats.....
sound-proofing....
high-end head unit.....
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

I've always marveled at the peeps who buy something brand new...and then start throwing more money into it.......Like those new truck guys that immediately lift it then put the new monster mudders, shocks and stuff....

I'm still making payments on my P*.....where's your money tree?
at least your mods are for comfort and somewhat practical.......as opposed to "look at me" mods.....
:wink:
I wanna see some pics when finished!

 

[HIVOLTAGE]

Sorry, but my ARSE takes an extremely high precedence! :lol: I drive over 800 miles per week and I will more than likely drive this thing until the sun gear explodes sending the tank bladder into a gaseous roadside nebula.....Yes my car is paid for and I don't really care what the outside looks like as long as it is clean. I do love my sound...and serenity,.. or my insanity shows! :shock:

If I could get 50mpg out of the C4S then I would definitely not be driving a PRIUS!

05 #5 Tideland with EV mod, full limo tint (I'm an extremely high skin cancer risk. Tint is not on the windshield of course)

Soon to be quiet, comfy and have surreal sound! woohoo!

 

[efusco]

At 10k miles you're still inside your "adjustment period" warranty. Take your car to your dealer and ask them to fix the rattles. They may not get them all, but they'll probably get most of them.

While you're at it, tell them the car 'pulls' a little when you drive and have the alignment checked if you haven't already. Almost everyone who's had their alignment checked has found it to be off (mostly toe in).

 

[HIVOLTAGE]

bshef wrote: "I've always marveled at the peeps who buy something brand new..."

by the way....whats a "peep"?

...if it describes a 40 year old automated systems engineer that lives in the middle of a forest then....eh...peep it is!

I don't seem to have any alignment problems that I know of and the "adjustment period" thing sounds like a good bet I will have them look at it but, the sound proofing guys will probably just have to take all that stuff back off again and re-install after the sound mats are put in.

Thanks for the advice "efusco"

 

[bshef]

by the way....whats a "peep"?

1. peep
Short for person or people.
How many peeps will be there?

 

[SYNCMASTER]

You guys with rattle problems, You don't understand.... Thats why you have the JBL 9 speaker audio system.
TURN UP THE VOLUME !!
Then you won't be bothered by rattles.

 

[HIVOLTAGE]

bshep wrote:
1. peep
Short for person or people.
How many peeps will be there?

aaahhhhh....

never heard that before....we all live in our own little worlds, I will add it to the vocab...thanks. Just wanted to make sure it wasn't a small "pimp" or something! :lol: :lol:

 

[bshef]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/
This ought to keep you busy for awhile....
Enjoy!

 

[DanMan32]

Nearing 40K, and no car related rattles. OK, get a tiny bit from the rear-view mirror sometimes. I get lots of rattle from the Sunpass holder. Lousy suction cup arangement has it tapping on the glass. Also got some rattle/squeak from CD jewel cases in the console, and their squeak sounded like it was coming from the dash. Also get a bit of ticking/squeak from my Norelco razor in one of the cup holders.

I got the rear spoiler rattle fixed by the body shop, though it still isn't properly aligned. They were concerned if they pushed it too far, they might cause too much strain on the glass, which might make it break prematurely. They put some double sided tape at both ends where the spoiler meets the hatch body. That deadened the bounce when you close the hatch. Now it goes CLUNK when I throw it closed, rather than CLUNK - br-br-br-br.