Still No Sightings in the Wild

I saw one, I saw one! Finally, my first Prime in the wild. It was at MSP airport, a Titanium, like mine. Dirty, like mine. I parked nose to nose and left a business card from our local EV group under the wiper. Even had MN plates.

Life is good.

 

I'm so happy for you!

 

I live in Spring Hill FL outside of Tampa and have owned my Prime since March and have not seen one on the road. Flew up to NJ to get mine and then visited my sister in VA. And took the auto train back.

 

Welcome to PC!!

I just heard from the dealer closest to me that they have sold two Primes so far. I see a white one every few weeks.

 

I've seen five Primes in New England, first one spotted was near Asheville, NC though.

 

12 months in.. I see another blue one frequently. Not sure if its the same one, or several different ones, because I see it in different parts of the city.

I'm sure others are around, but they are clearly inferior, not being blue, so I apparently don't deign to notice them any more than I would notice any other Prius in traffic.

 

For 3 months I was the only one in my area - not anymore! Saw one in a town about 15 miles away and we definitely eye-balled each other when we passed. More recently I saw another one, different color. I work just outside of Washington, DC and I have seen a handful out there. Heck, I see more Tesla's than Prime's!

 

What dealer did you get your Prime from? I can only find one for sale in the area and it is way far south in South Dallas. None of the other dealers even have any interest in talking to me about possibly purchasing a Prime (Please see my post in the Gen 4 Prius area about my debate between a regular Prius 4 Touring vs a Prime Advanced)

 

One of the first ironies of hybrid ownership was how we have been focused on driving and not 'waving' at each other on the road. Ioniq (Gen-1), Prius, and Honda Civic hybrids, catching their eye, a friendly smile or any acknowledgement, all but impossible.

Even today, the local EV owner's group has no regular dinners or get togethers except for the annual 'Drive EV Week'. I understand other areas have been more successful but I live in Dixie.

Bob Wilson

 

I don't have a Prime, although I wish I could justify it.

I've got a Blizzard White Gen 4 Prius that replaced the trusty Super White Gen 2 Prius I totaled in a rollover accident 2 years ago in May. I feel bad for my first Prius. It was 12 years old, and didn't even have 80,000 miles on it, while I walked out the windshield relatively unharmed.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Go talk to Brian Dial at Toyota of Rockwall. He will order one for you. He was very good at keeping me up to date on each stage that my car was at while it was on order.

 

Thank you.

I need to find one in stock to test drive first. I just don't know if the extra weight of the Prime will bother me vs. a Four Touring. I am coming from a new-gen Civic which I really like.

I am also concerned about resale - if it's this tough to buy, it has to affect resale as demand seems to be ver low in this area for it.

 

The suspension is tuned for the weight of the car. They don't just throw the battery in there without accounting for it. But, I agree on the test drive. I'd want the same.

 

They have a car rental place inside Toyota of Rockwall. We rented the Prime for a week first.

 

I don't understand how a person can buy or lease a car without test driving it first.

Like most plug ins, the resale is likely going to be low. There is the relatively quick advances going on in batteries, and the force of incentives driving people to new plug ins. The flip side is that those incentives should mean you will get your new Prime for a good price. Some have gotten it for less than an equivalent Prius when those are all accounted for.

 

I wonder if I should admit to having done exactly that three times this century. And don't have any regrets for having done so. All "buyer's remorse" ran its course between ordering and delivery, and was fully settled by the time ignition keys were in hand.

I did rent a Gen2 Prius for a two week vacation before buying a Gen3. Then later upgraded to a newer Gen3 of a higher trim level.

Our current Forester is a replacement for a previous century Subaru that reached the end of its economic life. And I did sit in the back while the spouse test drove it, immediately before signing the papers. But as the primary decision maker / researcher / payer, I had already settled my choice, and at that point just needed her final confirmation.

I'm still considering swapping to a Prime, and the issues holding me back would not be addressed by a test drive.

 

An old boss did buy an used Durango off Ebay. But considering the cost, hassle of the process, and the time for which you will have it for, I couldn't buy a car myself without sitting in at least some representative of the model.

You did rent the previous model for week, which might have been more informative than a 15 minute test drive.
While the driver's position could have changed some between manual and power seats, upgrading to a higher trim of the same car isn't going to have some drastic changes between the two. Larger wheels are the only thing I can think of that will result in a noticable difference.

Was your wife going to be the primary driver of the Subaru? I was in a similar position when replacing the wife's Sable; we went car shopping together, but felt no need to actually drive any of the cars myself. Turns out that it was important that I went to just sit in the cars. She liked a Sportage, but I found the front seat headrests torture.

 

EXACTLY one of biggest concerns about purchasing a Prime vs. a Four Touring. If you look at the Nissan Leaf as an example, they recently released a new 2018 with a range improvement to 150 miles and have already announced that the 2019 model will have a 230 mile range!

My other concern is if most dealers don't stock sell it, how competent are they going to be if I bring it in for maintenance/repair?

 

Buying a $30k Leaf, and have it drop to $10k in three years would suck, but only if you actually paid $30k for it. Most likely paid $20k or less with the the various incentives. Same goes for the Prime; you might be better off coming up to the North East to actually buy a Prime, since there are better deals here. Then the true depreciation won't be as big to you.

Unless your local dealers don't sell the Prius or other hybrid too, I would not worry over them servicing a Prime.

 

I wouldn't even consider a used car without test drive and very serious lookover and inspection. But new ones somewhat similar to what I've already driven just don't concern me that much anymore. Test drives seem mostly to benefit the salescritter, giving them more opportunity to scope out the buyer to figure out what form of leverage will work best.

Other people's comments on the many review and discussion sites seem to have covered the issues quite well. So far.

Yes, it was. And then backed up by PriusChat.

Nope, she still has a prior car as her daily driver. (I've tried to talk her into something new, of the airbag generation, but so far without success.) While the Subaru is 'our' car, I'm clearly its primary driver. Though when her old one dies, she'll get the Subaru.