Trying Not to Lust After the Prime

Excellent! I think you’ll find the Advanced’s extra features; I at least have.

 

To be more specific, for me at least:
— The ultrasonic sensors have saved me a few times already (although, so far, the accidents would have been pretty minor — again, so far!),
— The HUD not only helps me focus on the road (especially since all of the rest of the displays are mounted centrally (why exactly, Toyota?)), but it also provides an additional display to work with (you can see more at a glance),
— After having the garage-door-opener mirror on our 2009, I definitely couldn’t go back to not having it,
— I have to confess that I became rather addicted to the heated steering wheel this past winter, and
— The comedy channels on Sirius are sometimes pretty amusing.

I can’t recall: Does the Premium trim have the power driver’s seat? Well, either way, I like it, not only for convenience, but also for greater-detail of position control.

 

Good luck

 

Ours is also exactly that: Blizzard Pearl Advanced. My wife and I concluded that Blizzard Pearl is the best color, although I at least like Hypersonic Red too.

I wish they had a somewhat-dark-blue like on the regular Prius, but even then, we’d both still find Blizzard Pearl better.

Classic Silver’s not bad, in my view.

 

1) work out if you're happy with the 2017 entertainment and any other changes. Bigger isn't necessarily better - the first BIG screen I saw left me cold, it looked out of place in a car, but destined for a spoiled teenager's bedroom;
2) the other thing to consider is cost - and that depends on how long you're likely to keep the car. The 2017 should be cheaper = money saved;
3) But if you trade in 2 or 3 years, will still be a 2017 model = greater depreciation. But, if you're the sort of person who keeps cars for 10 years, that aspect will be negligible, and in 2027 it won't matter whether you've got a 2017 or 2018;
4) In fact, by 2027, there's a possibility that a 2017 or 2018 car could be very unattractive - my suspicions are that by then, EVs will dominate with old-fashioned ICE, Hybrid and PHEVs not much in demand. And a fair chance that anything less than Level 4, maybe even Level 5 Autonomous Cars could be restricted in where they're allowed to drive - I might be ahead of myself timewise, but that time is certainly coming;
5) If you're not sure - wait till tomorrow.

 

You might be thinking about the liftback, the 2018 liftback gets the big screen in the higher trims. Prime Advance and Premium had the big screen in 2017, only the Plus doesn't. I am not aware of any entertainment changes in Prime but maybe someone does. In theory there could be software version differences, but I would think the 2017 could be updated.

 

I was just going by your comment "... something about the 11.6" head unit on the 2017 vs. the 2018?" - just something for you to check. We don't have PRIME here, so I can't check.

 

Yes, I’m expecting to be able to keep our 2017 for a long time, for maximum economy (such slow rate of wear on the engine). Possibly the last car I need to buy: 57 now, 20 years later...

However, if we do indeed have really-working Level-4 in 10 years, I might not want to keep it much past that...

 

My Dad did that - he bought a '92 Camry when he was about 63. When he got to 75, I tried to convince him a new car would be a good idea - money wasn't a problem, but he couldn't see the point of my desire for him to have ABS, EBD, ESC, Airbags etc. Roll on another 10 years when he wasn't allowed to drive any more, but I was doing all the driving for them - mostly in his '92 Camry (because it was cheaper for me to drive their car than mine ). It was like driving something out of the ark - it drove well, but the absent Cruise Control, the brakes weren't as progressive as newer cars etc. I persevered till the registration ran out and we sold it to the scrap-yard.

I turned 65 this week - and I'm not planning on having my 2016 PRIUS when I'm 85yo.

Only this week I read an article about the Elderly and Autonomous Vehicles - with greater attempts to stop older people driving (at least here in Australia), it's something which I'm hoping is in my driveway by the time it happens to me. My observations with some older friends/relatives who were stopped from driving was that they stopped leaving home - and basically stagnated, which was no help to them - it seemed that they deteriorated quickly from that point, both physically and mentally.

This is the first page of a GOOGLE search for "Autonomous Cars and the elderly"