Reviewing the Prius Plug-In Base after 550 miles

not sure i'd want an aftermarket moonroof at any price.

 

Yep... that along w/something else that can send the necessary messages over the CAN bus.

 

I for one will most likely get quiter tires even if it means losing mpg.
Road noise is big for sleeping babies on the car.
Car's noise has been getting worse for me lately, I'm guessing because of the many pot holes I put my tires thru.
You just can't dodge all these pot holes in NYC, just impossible.

 

Things that can be customized | PriusChat should give you an idea of what to look for. Many of the settings there you can change yourself now on the '12+ Priuses. Prior to 2010-2011 Priuses didn't all come w/touchscreens and even ones that did didn't let you change those settings via touchscreen.

 

These are the 3 OEM tires. Did you mean Bridgestone?

• Bridgestone Ecopia EP20
• Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max
• Yokohama AVID S33D

 

Any consensus on which is the best/worst of the three stock tires? I put Mich. Energy saver A/S on my '08. Immediately added 4-5 MPG fuel savings. Quiet, 40K and still over 50%.

 

...I think it is more like 15.6 cu ft seats up (see Toyota Canada specs). US EPA has apparently allowed autos to report "EPA" Cargo Space with seats down, so we would need to find out from Toyota USA what the heck the basis is for 21.6 cuft spec number. But 15.6 cuft is very good space and better than 14.4 cuft in Gen2. Put both seats down and you have huge space. Add a roof box for special hauls and you are in cargo space heaven.

 

I tried to search threads for how to disable the auto-complete but could not find it. Can the auto complete be disbled on the base model? How? (The auto-complete is VERY annoying.)

 

re: cup holders, don't forget that the front doors also have bottle holders

 

i feel like car manufacturers should just leave holes for cupholders and then give you a choice of different "molds" or "shapes" that you can insert into said holes to fit your needs. "one size fits all" is most gloriously inadequate as a design strategy in beverage holders.
for me personally, they work fine, but there aren't really enough of them – if there are two people in the car, each with a beverage, there's nowhere to put random other junk (such as phone or wallet) that you want to have close by.

 

great idea! toyota, are you listening?

 

I think it would go:

1. Bridgestone Ecopia EP20
2. Goodyear Assurance Fuel Max
3. Yokohama AVID S33D

None of them are great IMO. The Fuel Max is known to be ok for mpg but is loud and rougher riding than the competition. Handling is not great either. I would suggest swapping tires to the Energy Saver A/S or Ecopia EP422 if you want the highest mpg, comfort and quiet ride. They are not the best for handling performance, however.

 

If the Prius PIP is going to cost $32K to 40K+, it should have amenities similar to a luxury car. After all, it is in luxury car price territory.

Road noise is particularly a glaring issue that reminds you that the Prius is a very expensive economy car - particularly when the Ford Focus is available for $16K and is quieter at highway speeds.

 

I already stated it in what you quoted 2x. Road noise and interior is not any better than that of the much cheaper base model Prius. But, the base PiP does add some features beyond the base Prius. And, there's the tax credit and CVRP.

What $32K luxury car yields 50 mpg combined, has a nice interior amenities, can be plugged into charge, is a PHEV, has similar battery capacity and has the same features standard that the PiP does?

The Ford Focus apparently has lousy reliability and amongst the highest cost of ownership over 5 years amongst small cars (What That Car Really Costs to Own | Cost of Vehicle Ownership - Consumer Reports lists the TCO). Both the sedan and hatchback got much worse than average reliability ratings. Hatchback was predicted to be 169% below average while the sedan was predicted to be 62% below avg.

 

Andrew pretty much covered it.

Even our 2013 RDX has similar road noise and the ride is rougher than the PIP. MSRP is the same for both vehicles and there are pros and cons to each.

Having spent the last couple weeks driving around in a Corolla and Camry, I'd say the PIP has a lot going for it in terms of driving enjoyment.