Title says it all - I'm on my 3rd Prius have never had a plug in before. Came across a 2017 prime plus at my dealership while getting my wagon serviced and was thinking wonder if they would trade me straight up. The answer was yes. Trying to decide if I want to improve my gas mileage pretty significantly compared to the wagon or keep the space. Both cars about same mileage and features all 3 Prius I have owned have been great no issues the plug in gives me a little pause maybe because I'm not as familiar. Anyone walk me through any pros and cons I'm not thinking about?
What are the electric rates where you live? You'll be trading gasoline $$ for electric $$ and potentially many fewer trips to the gas station. How many miles are you talking about on the Prime?
the wagon is much more likely to blow up on you in the near future than the prime, and it could get very expensive. if you can live without the space, i would make the trade asap, one caveat being the prime exhaust heat exchanger leak/blown head gasket problem.
The prime is a solid car and a nice upgrade from older priuses. It lacks a few things that may be important to you: much smaller trunk space, the floor is raised because of the larger battery pack and that also means no under shelf storage or spare tire. And the fancy wavy back window is quite low making bulky items (and hatch mounted bike racks) hard to fit. The in cabin storage is also lacking with fewer cubbies only 1 glove box and the big center console is a thin tray with the cup holders and wireless charger if it has it but it's not very big. Only seats 4. The plastic cup holder thing in the back seat is permanent and can't be folded up for a 5th seat. I'm not sure if it effects folding the seat back down but it could make things hard if trying to fit bigger items. It has some big improvements to your current car: The 4th gens are quite sturdy and aren't as susceptible to head gasket failure, brake booster or EGR issues. Some have a coolant bypass issue that can cause loss of coolant but the repair is free or low cost if you catch it early. Gas mileage is much much better even if you never plug it in. My 3rd gen barely got 45mpg. My 2016 usually had 55+ even with lots of highway driving. Up to 60mpg on low speed days. The prime, depending on how much you drive and how much you plug it in can get even better. Long highway drives with just the first 20-25 on EV has been above 50mpg for me Many new safety features. The prime has dynamic cruise control and emergency braking. It doesn't come standard with BSM or automatic parking but they were on higher trims The seats are more comfortable and I think even the base trim has heated seats. It has a nifty HVAC pre condition that can run heat or AC just before you're scheduled to finish a charge before leaving for the day. And as long as it has about 30% charge it can run the HVAC with the AC button on the fob (or the app if you sign up for remote connect but be warned the app is hot garbage and really only good for starting remote heat/air when it is working)
Honestly not to concern with electric rates - I already have so many things plugged into my house don't think this will move the needle too much - I have 3 fridges and a deep freeze for example. I commute 60 miles round trip 3 days a week. I'll have to look into that - all 3 of my prius I've had have been great Awesome details that I was looking for thanks for this
