Three Week Review

I’ve had my Prius Prime for three weeks now.

As a background, I previously owned a 2nd generation Prius and loved it. 8 years. 210,000 miles (I put on about 26k a year). When it was time for a new car three years ago, I passed on a new Prius because I didn’t love the 3rd generation and bought a 2014 Hybrid Accord. It’s been my daily driver ever since but my son gets his license in January and we wanted to add a third car. We decided to pull the trigger a few months early based on the extra money off from Toyota on top of the Federal and State incentives.

I work about 35 miles from my office and travel most mornings. I usually put on about 50-60 miles in the morning and 35 miles home but have access to a free charger at my office. Accordingly, a Chevy Volt would have allowed me to go almost completely gas free but the backseat headroom was too small (my kids are 6 feet and growing) and I was concerned about putting more than 200,000 miles on a Chevy.

After three weeks and 1,500 miles (and less than a tank of gas) I’ve come to the following conclusions:

Overall I’m very happy with the car, which isn’t surprising considering the amount of research I did. I love riding in EV mode and have always loved the instant torque feel. Although the car is not nearly as powerful as the Accord Hybrid (which is surprisingly powerful- I usually drive it in eco mode) I find this car fun to drive, especially in EV mode and especially in Power mode.

However, this is definitely a tale of two experiences. Once the battery is depleted, so is the ride enjoyment. The car is much louder then I would like, especially when accelerating. Luckily, I am in EV mode about 80% of the time.

As far as the car itself, I am extremely happy. Styling is so subjective. I’m not a fan of the exterior of the current generation Prius but I love the way the Prime looks. I think all the changes were for the better and think the car is very sharp, especially in red.

I am also very comfortable in the seats. I’m 6 ft tall and 220 pounds. I think the lumbar support is fantastic and I’ve spent 2 or 3 hours at a time driving this car without feeling like I need a break or with any back issues. The sightlines are great and the car is designed to not feel cramped in the front seat. The back seats are also comfortable. The lack of a third seat works well for my family because it adds room to the other two seats (and a natural divider for my teenagers) and we have our other cars if we need to transport 5.

So far I’m getting about 28-30 miles on a charge. I’m sure that’s going to drop once the weather gets colder (I still haven’t turned on the climate control for any extended period of time). So my morning/afternoon trip consists of about half EV and half electric and my trip home is 5 miles on HV at high speeds and the rest is EV. I have driven 1500 miles and am averaging 175 MPG and still haven’t put gas in the car (I’m getting close- probably in the next day or two)!

I LOVE the display. I prefer digital to analog displays and am a stat geek. I’ve seen critical reviews that the Prime provides too much information and I just don’t understand that. The information is there- if you don’t want to use it, you don’t have to. I really enjoy watching my daily mpg and tracking all the info. I also think the car has a futuristic look. Again, I prefer this to the Volt, which looks like a regular car. I understand that others might have the exact opposite opinion.

As far as the touch screen/infotainment system, I knew it didn’t have Android Auto when I bought it so I can’t really complain about that. However, I was still surprised at how poorly designed it is. My 2014 Accord has a terrible infotainment system and it’s still better then Entune. My main complaint is that things that should only take one tap seem to take two or three. Even the voice commands take extra steps. If I say “Tune to CNN”, the response verifies “Did you say Tune to CNN?”. I say “Yes”. It should just tune to CNN. Instead it offers me two or three choices with CNN being the first and I have to tell it to choose option 1. This also happens when I tell it to call people. After it confirms “Did you say call Amy Leigh?” and I say “Yes”, it give me several choices with Amy Leigh being number 1. I can understand this happening if it didn’t understand me, but it just typed out what I said AND I confirmed it was correct!

There are some things I like more than I thought I would and some I like less. I didn’t really care about the heads up display before I bought the car but find that I love it and really appreciate not having to look away from the road if I don’t want to. I also like seeing my EV range in the windshield all the time. It’s a great feature and one that I’m glad I have. On the other hand, I find I’m not using the wireless charger nearly as much as I thought I would. It tends to heat up the phone a lot more than my home wireless charger or any wired chargers. I usually make it back to the office without needing a charge and have only used it for a bump charge three or four times. On long trips, I’ll just take a plug in charger.

By far my favorite feature is the adaptive cruise control. Being on the Long Island Expressway for hours each day is so much less stressful when I don’t have to keep hitting the gas and brake. It’s well done and works exactly as advertised.

As I mentioned, so far I'm very happy with the purchase. I'm looking forward to driving the car after 8 years and 200,000 miles!

 

I did! I purchased the car from Riverhead Toyota. They ultimately gave me the best deal without playing any games. Very easy transaction so I would recommend them. If you want to PM me, I'll give you the sellers name and all the relevant information.

 

Done!

 

No problem! I just didn't know if I should repeat all the information from the prices paid thread but here you go...

I bought the car from Dave Zak at Riverhead Toyota. Besides the fact that they were the most straightforward (I had some issue with Huntington Toyota but YMMV), they gave me the best deal and I also appreciated that they were the only Toyota dealer that participated in the local EV show.

My car color is Hypersonic Red so there is a color upcharge. The car included the all weather floor liner package and rear bumper applique. MSRP was $34,838. Got the car for $33,144 plus they threw in the shifter applique to cover the white plastic on the dash. Take off 3k Toyota rebate and 1100 NYS rebate and I was out the door for $32,060 after taxes, registration and all fees but obviously before federal rebate.

The Toyota rebate is back up to $3,500 so the final price should now be $500 less.

 

I had to make the same decision. Everybody has features they really want. For me, it was actually the heated steering wheel!

I know it's a big difference in price (and there are other threads just on this topic) but adding the upgraded audio, rain sensing wipers, Heads up display, and extra safety features really makes a difference!