Prius Plugin Regrets

I can empathize with you. If you are committed to EV, you really got the wrong car. The PiP is a hybrid. The benefit is that you can drive more than 500 miles before you have to think about refueling - and still end up with 55-65MPG. It excels in around town trips - those are the kind that burn the most fuel at the least efficient rate in a regular Prius. The HOV sticker is a wash - especially if you live in one of the urban centers where you thought it might be helpful. (The sticker CAN help you get ON a freeway faster if you know where the Diamond Lane Ramps are located…)

Doesn't help to mash the accelerator since that'll throw you into gas mode, so driving like a grandma (and no faster than 62.5MPH) IS a necessity if you want to maintain EV status.

 

this has been discussed, but i'm not sure there was a conclusion. you do get enough fresh air for you, so maybe it's enough for the battery?

 

Don't haggle, it's a waste of everyone's time.

When you see a good incentive (last year they had $6500 dealer cash or something), then start emailing dealerships and go with the one that has the lowest price.

If you go in and they don't honor it, walk out the door and move on to the next dealer. Easy peasy.

I've also noticed that expressing a lot of interest via truecar/costco, and not buying if the price isn't right can be helpful. They know you want to buy, but only if the price is right, and might be less likely to BS.

 

I drive more like a grandmother than my wife. I tried telling her about the sweet spot for acceleration on the HSI bar graph, but she's still prone to mashing the gas, into the red zone. We're dropping the grandkids off with Mom today.

 

yep, women tend to have one driving mode, and they're sticking to it. that's why i got my wife a hycam, even she can pull off 46 mpg in good weather.

 

Old article (from 2011), but gives you an idea.. some employer incentives can be pretty substantial.

Corporate Incentives for Hybrids and Alternative Cars - HybridCars.com

An ex-coworker who now works at 20th Century received $2500 for buying a Prius (not even PHV). She's eligible for the incentive every 3 years.

 

Could it be that the O/P lost interest in his own thread?

 

what? never happened before.

 

Uh oh we are over the 40 reply limit when OP does not respond, but I don't think that applies here we did get some OP feedback. In this case, I have no stoppage rule.

 

You didn't buy an EV, you bought a hybrid that gets around 250 MPG most days of your year!

 

You might as well wait.
1. You're married to the car now.
You have been for 3 weeks.
If you get a divorce, it's going to cost you money and you're going to wind up with another car......that you also might not want to be married to after a whirlwind romance.
A car can be bought and sold many times, but your Pip is never going to be single again.
It's going to be your Pip, or a previously used Pip....and unlike some other Priuses, yours has the decals that says that you can be an HOV scofflaw.
So....to stay with the analogy, your Pip is young and good looking.
It won't be on the market for long, but if you think you're going to get 28K for it, you may want to think again.....and IIRC, there are caveats in the tax kickbacks that might complicate the sale-resale.

If I woke up in your shoes, I think I'd be a little less OCD about the whole EV thing.
I drive my G3 like I've just stolen it from a drug dealer.....and I still get over 45MPG.
If you're in a Pip, you shouldn't have to sweat like a wilderbeast, and drive like Grandpa to get in the high 40's or low 50's.

Slow down.
No not with the driving, but with the getting to know your new car.
Read the manual.
If that doesn't relax you and put you to sleep, then nothing will.
Read in this forum.


OK.....so let's pretend that you just HAVE to get out of this relationship.
You live in California.
Probably in the lower left-hand quadrant, or maybe in the bay area.
You guys don't even walk to the mailbox, so you're going to have to have another car.
Don't compound buyer's remorse with another snap-shot car purchase!!!

You have time to do some deep soul searching and figure out what you want to be driving a year from now.

It might just wind up being something like the car that's already in your driveway.

Life is like that sometimes.....

 

Not sure B mode helps. It doesn't with regular Prius, only warranted on extremely long down grades. Maybe plug-in owners can chime in?

 

If it was a round trip it could not be 'mostly downhill'. I think you should have the car checked by dealer, something seems wrong.
If you can, post a picture of your EV ratio screen summarizing your 3-4 weeks drive.

B position in EV mode helps, it is purely regeneration (i.e. same as pressing the brake harder). In HV mode it is same as regular Prius.

 

I've never found the need for using B.

If you're going downhill then you had to have some uphill driving. That can really suck up the electricity fast. With some uphill I can see 6 projected miles not lasting.

I hate when people say this but it sounds like it's user error. By that I mean it'll take time to learn how to squeeze out extra EV miles. I can get as much as 12 out of my advanced when I really try but when I drive closer to normal I barely can get 8.

 

Yeah, I might have thrown in a red herring: B mode behaves differently in the plug-in I think. With regular Prius, you can just leave in D, and that's optimum for 99% of scenarios.

 

Uphill will hurt your range more than downhill helps it.

 

that d

that doesn't sound right to me, but it is hard to know what you're doing through the computer. if i started with 6 ev miles left and drove 3.5 miles mostly downhill at 30-40 mph and not too many stops, i would probably finish with 3 mile or so left. any way you can test another to compare?

 

I too think the car is expensive for what you get. I personally wouldn't have purchased a PiP without either tax incentives, or else a good dealer (new or used) discount. I got the latter, for a used car with 29000 km (18000 miles) on it, at $29000 CAD (which is about $22750 US at current exchange rates). (List price is $48500 CAD or about $38000 US.) This is for a fully tricked out 2012 Advanced with Tech Package (or the Canadian equivalent at least, which is nearly identical).

I drive 16+ km (10 miles) each way to and from work, and luckily my workplace allows me to charge at work (if there is a spot open), so my last tank of gas lasted me 1850 km (1150 miles).

In the summer, the battery usually lasts the entire distance, but I do have to drive like grandma, because it's too easy to get the car into the red zone if I am more liberal with the accelerator pedal. In the spring though, I found the colder temperatures often left me short. I'd get closer to 14 km, which wasn't quite enough. Also, in the summer months on the hottest days if I keep the AC on full blast, I may not make that 16-17 km, but close enough.

The other thing is I wouldn't have bought new in 2015 since the new version should be coming out next year. But since I bought used for a decent price, and I was in dire need of a car, I bought in 2015.