Was it worth it for Prius Prime owners?

Absolutely yes. Came from a 2015 Prius with average 55mpg, have a 50 mile 1 way commute, from !1200ft down to 100ft, ~ 42 miles freeway. Had my Prime for 10 days now, charging overnight at home and at work (thanks to the $100 cargepoint card) I have ~ 875 miles, tanks is ~ 1/3 and mileage is at 125mpg, veryimpressed with that, had anticipated maybe 80mpg ... and the drive overall is so much nicer ...

 

Flowers.

 

Current owner of a 2012 PiP with a dissenting opinion.

I'm not impressed by the Prime and won't be getting one. Chief among my concerns is the 4 seat configuration. That's a deal breaker. I'm also very disappointed in the continued use of Entune and not offering Apple Car Play and Android Auto.

I'm glad the battery is larger. The raised trunk floor doesn't bother me. It's still a pretty large cargo area. I like the styling departure from the Gen 4. The deletion of the rear wiper is welcome as I've never used it in any car I've owned. I also like having the option of using 8A for charging.

My two concerns can be addressed if Toyota feels the market wants it. Otherwise, in 2019, I'll be not looking at the C-HR hybrid that Toyota has decided not to release in the US.

 

In a word: Yes.

 

If youve got 5 people in the family then I guess you're stuck. Me, when I had that situation, I had the land barge van for our family of 5, but for work, I used the sports car or eventually the 2012 PIP.
The sports car only cost $2400 used and I sold it 14 years, and 260,000 miles later (original drivetrain, 69 Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce) for $6000 to first in line!
The 2012 PIP was a great appliance, not requiring any attention other than 10k oil changes, and tire rotations for 103k miles. But!! The Prime Advanced is another animal entirely; the electric range in moderate climate while driving at a conservative pace alone changes my game plan. I got me one of them thar 'lectric cars that dun run on gaserline, Jethro! And it's plum smoooth, and quiet, I can hear da crickets (but still not the "buzz" sound my 2012 made!). Got them HOV stickers so I can pass all them Beemers, Porches (sic), and other lone-occupant peasant mobiles.
The quality of the finish both interior and exterior is much better than my 2012. The doors close securely, "thunk".
The gauges (speedo, fuel), unlike my 2012, are on the money! And all the safety etc. toys! It lives up to it's name: Prime Toyota. If you like tech and you like driving comfortably, "man you gonna love this puppy!"


Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

It's sorta weird buying gasoline every 1,400 miles or so. I'll just have to get use to it.
And with the tax rebate, less expensive than the gen 4 !
I only plug in when I bring the car home, and put it away, easy enough.
My town has it's own electric, the rates are good, and it haven't noticed any burden on the electric bill.
You can always argue that buying a new car is not worth it, no matter the car. - so there that.
Rides smooth and quiet, fun (as much fun as you can have driving to work and back)
I don't care about phone apps interacting with my car. I use a external garmin gps with always up to date maps.
I use the garmin gps for navigation, use the cars gps for positional. Use the phone for waze.
In Hv mode, I can get 65 mpg on my commute. In prius equivalency, that means that the whole battery pack thing
is a half a gallon of gas, no big deal, it just adds up at tiny bit over time.
I think that it's worth it.

 

In my opinion if I were young and single I most probably buy prime premium, due to 5000 price difference. One of input decision why I purchased prime advanced was because many dealers were quoting prime premium same as advanced. My input decision was/is not correct, same dealer is offering prime premium 4100 less than the advance. My final decion input was have car intact when my wife drives and have car assist in parallel park with children in the car.

 

I miss the rear wiper, the storage space that was built into my 2009 gen 2, the lack of spare tire (already had one flat that cost me a day's work) and the smaller trunk space. But, five months in, loving the car and the driving experience. And now that the warm weather is here, mileage and performance have increased dramatically. Would definitely purchase again and recommend to others.

 

I've had my car for just short of 2 weeks. It has over 1150 miles on it after a trip to Yosemite with it. My commute to work is about 41 miles round trip and I'm able to charge at work for now. Because of the hill going back it'll cost me just a tad less than a cup of gas to make it home.
Anyway, I'm loving it, the trip to Yosemite was a dream with the Dynamic cruise control. I actually used it in the hills of the Park and it worked pretty darn good. Since I couldn't charge at the hotel, I didn't really care because it became a 5000ft drop to get back to Fresno for two days and the darn car charged itself on the way down! Very Impressive. Seats are much better than my 2014 Prius ever was, it handles much better and it's much quieter. The Nav system was actually pretty good, though for longer trips nothing will beat my Garmin. I still haven't found a good place to put my iPhone in the car, but I've jerry rigged a mount for it. I hate putting it in a vent mount.
Even after the long highway trip and mountain driving, I'm still averaging over 70MPG on it's short life.
I'm not too sold on not having a spare tire, so that gives me pause.
I like the idea of the rebate I'm getting and the HOV sticker will come in handy and save me money over using the Fastrack around here.

But I'd buy this car again in a heart beat.

 

We absolutely loved the continuous next-exit feed. It came in very handy for on-the-fly planning, like when/where to stop for food/gas/rest, on our recent 1,700 mile trip. What makes Garmin better?

btw, response of the dynamic cruise upon direct impact of a bug to the camera was quite impressive. It sounded a warning, presented a message, and automatically disengaged. Stopping for a moment to wipe the mess away, we were quickly back to cruising. I hadn't realized it used more than just radar, like the old generation. Having a camera too adds to the safety.

 

Free updates for life...

 

Garmin nuvi 3490LMT is extremely easy to program vocally: Find address "1234 Main St. Pomona California " at normal speed or faster and that's it. It doesn't interfere with phone, climate controls, or radio access on my Advanced. It very easily stores and retrieves POIs, using voice commands. I perch my Garmin on the left lower side of my windshield, where it is in line of sight. The factory GPS is located so you have to look down. I could go on for hours, but you get the idea.

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Put it in a shirt pocket, arm carrier, or carried so it 'sees the sky' and walk a trail. Kinda hard to do that with the Prius.

Bob Wilson

 

There's an option for NAV to show via HUD. So, no looking down either. It provides an arrow and distance countdown. That's handy.

When & How navigation is used influences preference. I have used the save destination feature in Entune. It works nice if you're planning ahead.

 

Uncle Bob, it depends on how big your pocket is?! Paul Bunyan? Of course he can't ride in a Prime, poor dog!
I forgot, that same Garmin nuvi 3490LMT has Lifetime free updates and Traffic, and when I rented a car in France, worked there with the optional European Map chip I bought, etc, etc, etc!

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The Prime has exceeded my expectations. The first week it felt like it was too good to be true to be driving without gasoline.
I have a big aversion to buying new cars. I usually buy cars that are a few years old with 20K miles and cost half of a new one. When I bought a Camry new off the lot in 2002 I had major buyers remorse for awhile. Not so with the Prime it was the right choice. I have found no need for a rear wiper or sunroof. I had a sunroof on my Camry and never used it.

 

Used it; but it's not very good: no street name, incomplete info, you still have to glance down for most of info, altitude, miles, remaining, speed, alternate routes, etc. Also, I still don't know how to vocally cancel route with Toyota GPS.
Garmin: Voice Command, Stop Route.
Simple, sweet!

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Loving my Prime. My first 720 miles, I am averaging 86.2 MPG. My commute to work is 45 miles one way. So, I use gas for over 1/2 the trip. I have been able to park at work near an outlet to charge it. My costs for pure EV is about 4 cents per mile. I was using a 4WD Tundra to commute with before the Prime. I would have used about 60 gallons of gas for the same miles! I have used way less than 10 gallons on the Prime. Yes, I kept my Tundra. Always can use a truck and I need the 4WD in the winter. Insurance was only about $80 a month extra. So, basically, my Prime will pay for itself in gas savings over my Tundra! It would take about 10 yrs to save that much gas, but still....

 

We have a Camry Hybrid with a sunroof and love it. So I hear where your are coming from. I think I read the weight limit is 760 lbs. for the vehicle. If you add the additional weight of a sunroof, you would lessen the weight the care can carry. A sunroof takes away some of the integrity/stability of the frame/car. You then have to use metal to increase that that was lost. The the weight of the glass, motor, etc makes it less desirable to have a sunroof. Essentially it would decrease the MPG. Let's be serious, most of us bought them for the mileage and cost to drive them. Do I wish they had a sunroof? YES. Am i willing to give it up for the increased MPG? Yes!! My previous commuter was a 4WD Tundra averaging 11.9 MPG using E-85 fuel.

 

Figured out, "Cancel Route" works with Prime GPS. The rest of my criticisms remain.

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