Prime drive coming - Portland, OR (Impressions inside)

i just got an email from Toyota about a viewing and driving opportunity for the Prime this weekend in the Portland, Oregon area.

I am very excited.

 

No. Not yet. I am guessing it will be $1500 to $2000 more than a similarly equipped lift back.

 

@Tideland Prius, I think you are right that the Prime driving event is put on by Toyota. It isn't located at a specific dealer, but rather near a shopping center instead. Here are the details:

Your registration is complete. We look forward to welcoming you at the Prius Prime New Possible Tour at:

Bridgeport Village
7455 Southwest Bridgeport Road, Suite 215
Tigard, Oregon 97224

You'll find us in the plaza area between the parking structure and the west entrance to the mall.
We're open as follows: 8/19, 8/20, 8/21, 11 a.m.-7 p.m

 

Got a chance to go to the Prime driving event today. They had several cars there: 2 blue, one silver, one gray, one red and one silver blond metallic. Sorry, @tidelandprius, but I didn't get very many pictures of the colors ( on the drive up to Portland the check engine light came on in my Tacoma and I was a bit freaked out).

The cars were very busy with a lot of people driving them. The event was centrally located in the mall and they had several tents set up with a bank of iPads in another area on which you registered your personal information. The staff would approach any adult walking by and offered them a discount coupon for a theater ticket (I think?)as an incentive to drive the car. The emphasis seemed to be on introducing the Prime to as many people as possible. The fact that I was pre registered because of the email correspondences I had received from Toyota and had been given a registration number didn't seem to be too important.


The cars on display there are the only Prime cars presently in this country and were therefore the same ones seen in Boston a while ago. I think they will be shown at more venues around the country. There were about ten representatives there from Toyota and the event seemed very professionally done.

The gentleman who rode with us was from Toyota and travels to various shows to represent the company. He seemed quite knowledgeable. He said that the car we were driving was a preproduction model. He of course didn't know what changes might be made when the final version is released. When I asked him about the number of seats and space lost to the battery he said that those wouldn't be changed. He said that the car would be available in the fall of 2017!! When I was incredulous and said I was anticipating a first quarter release, he said that the fall 2017 date was something he was told to say, but he too thought that it would be probably be available in the first part of 2017. It was an example of the company being cautious. I asked him if he had driven the car on the freeway and if so how it compared to the gen4 in terms of road noise. He said that it was very much quieter and that one of the reasons was that Toyota had put more sound insulation in the dashboard and that the sound insulating glass made a difference as well. He said that one reason for having only two rear seats was that the center headrest reduced the rear vision.

The drive was a short one around the mall. Not much of a chance to evaluate the car's performance. It was all less than 25 mph and not surprisingly the car was very quiet. I had it in ev mode. I floored the car and the pickup seemed adequate, but not adrenalin rush strong (this was certainly affected by the fact that there were three adults in the car). When the cars were waiting to be driven they were sitting in forced charge mode. The interiors were cool from the air conditioning and the running engines were not noticeable. The battery was 80% charged. We really werent aware they were running. My wife found the rear seats very comfortable and the space roomy, but she is petite. As has already be discussed a lot, if there were three rear seats fitting three adults would be a squeeze.

The desert blond metallic was subtle and a bit on the beige side. Kind of ordinary. The blue was a richer color than we had expected. The car looks less angular and aggressive in iperson than it seems in the photos We've seen. We were thinking that the car would look best in the darker colors, but we thought the styling was very sharp and the car wore all the colors well.

I wish the battery hadn't taken the room it had, because the hatch space behind the seat would be nicer if it were a bit larger. But all in all there was nothing that would discourage us from buying the car and plenty to really like about it. We can't wait.