New to Prius: Plug-In vs Regular Prius

welcome to priuschat! can you plug in at home and work?

 

Also if considering HOV with PiP then you should make sure which freeways are available for green stickers. There are some restrictions from what I have seen on this forum. I think if you are in Pasadena then you might be on the 110 or 10 which has restrictions on the green stickers. If your commute is 25 to 30 then a Leaf be better although 70 miles would be cutting it close in a Leaf. Leaf have white stickers that don't have the restrtictions I think. Haven't lived in LA since school and that's been 12 years so.

 

Diane Whitmire has a supply of Plug-ins with the hov stickers, might bet worth a look. If I am correct there is a $2500 Federal and $1500 state incentive on the Plug in, making it close in price to a basic Prius 3. To me the one big negative to the plug in is the lack of a spare tire.
As a side note BMW's are also known to their owners as Break My Wallets. If you want to save some money a Prius will save you money vs a BMW.

 

If you can plug in, the Prius Plug in will give you about 12 miles on electric power. In my situation, the power I pay for costs me about half as much as gasoline per mile. It may be less for you. If you can plug in for free at work, that's a big plus.

The real advantage of the Prius is the fuel economy. No other car can give you the best combination of fuel economy, interior space and mechanical reliability, in my opinion. Other cars excel in other factors, such as EV range, but the Prius puts it all in one package.

If my goal was to commute on mostly electric power, and my commute was longer than 20 miles, I'd probably get a Volt, but I'd be sacrificing fuel economy, interior space and reliability. If all my driving was in range of a charging station, I'd consider a Leaf or a Tesla.

If you work it out on paper, it takes a long time to get back the extra cost of the Prius, compared to a similar-sized economy car, even with subsidies, but you can't beat the feeling of spending pocket-change on gasoline every month.

 

and besides your commute, you have to consider other trips. i do a lot of errands on ev only.

 

The PiP has been selling like hot cakes in Ca. due to low prices, green HOV stickers, and state rebate $1500. Thus (in Ca.) PiP is almost a no brainer especially if HOV is important. But the green HOV stickers are running out so you gotta make a move on a PiP soon although they *might* add more stickers.

If HOV is not important or you live in another state it's a little harder to decide if the PiP (no spare tire, slightly smaller gas tank) is quite as useful to you. If you are committed to plug-in concept then PiP is a candidate.

 

I like my pip, HOV is priceless (in AZ) and the mileage is great for the amount of room, not exactly fun to drive. If you are a BMW guy there is the i3 and i8.

 

We were in the exact same boat and live in SoCal. We bought the PIP for the green sticker, great incentives and better MPG's. If we couldn't get the sticker, we would have bought a Prius 5

 

you're gonna hate the 70 mile commute more than your gonna love the house.

 

Assumes facts not in evidence

 

true, but my father always told me, keep your friends close, your enemies closer, and your workplace closest of all.

 

Did your father have a farm?

 

nah he worked for the gov'mint. spent more time at home than at work. classic no show job, phoned in his advice and they mailed him a check. that was 100 years ago, seems like it's caught on pretty well.

 

I've had some long commutes in my day, and I never hated them. When I lived in Idaho, I had a 90-minute trip each way to drive to work. I enjoyed the scenery, and it gave me the time to enjoy the audio-books I never had time to read.

 

I agree the plug-in sounds great for your situation. Under your current commute it sounds like you could do half of your commuting gas free. Is the charging at work totally free?

One thing I would suggest, coming from your BMW is to test drive both the base and advanced models. The advanced model has a synthetic leather and a lot of tech that makes the car feel more upscale. As much time as you'll be spending in it you may find that worthwhile, and it may ease your transition.

 

Don't be too hung up on the solar roof (an expensive gimmick). 10 seconds with the windows rolled down cools the car down just fine.

 

I'd be looking for a way to rewire the solar roof to charge the battery.