There may be a safety reason for the armrest sitting the way it does, but who knows? I'm very happy with the design of the prius, even with the front storage box.

P.S. New Beetle cup holders were very poorly designed until 2002, I think, when somebody got wise at VW and made the cup holder actually "accessible" to the driver and passenger by putting it on a horizontal hinge. And in pre 2001 New Beetles, the side rear view mirrors created a very dangerous blind spot on the drivers side when sitting at an intersection at a slight uphill angle: you could not see the car on your left...... all you saw was an image in your mirror. They lowered the mirrors the next model year. You never know what complaining will do for next year's design.