The Prius That Shook.. - VFAQ Prius Site

the driver. As a test, Sawa pasted a chloroethylene board
painted with the same colors on the instrument panel of the
Estima, a one-box car. Its instrument panel is recessed, far
deeper other cars. He drove it around a test course. Sawa
wanted to drive the Estima on city streets, but decided against
it because the painted board would cover the speedometer. In
the end, every member of the interior design team test-
drove the Estima and felt the two colors were not
distracting. People from other departments also test-drove the
car. Finally, the team was confident enough to try out the
new instrument panel.
Another challenge for the team was the gun-grip,
column-type automatic transmission shift lever. Column-type
shift levers are usually placed sideways, and the motion range
is in two directions. On Prius, the shift lever moves only in
one direction. Although the device proved to be more
comfortable to use than other types, it was not immediately
approved. Design approval remained pending because there
was not much room around the lever.
Hitting two birds with one stone
Another problem came up around the same time and
it could have destroyed the idea of designing
symmetrical instrument panel. In the original design, the
vents at the center of the instrument panel were in a
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