Prius Prime XSE Premium vs Prius Limited AWD - For the same money, which would you buy?

Do you swap to winter tires?

 

Not to beat a horse completely to death(the poor thing has been turned to mush on a couple other threads already), but winter tire options are very limited in the stock 19" gen5 tire sizes. Options open up if you change wheel sizes. Michelin makes the X-Ice Snow in the stock 195/50R19(I've had them for about two weeks and am liking them so far). They also make it in the stock 17" size of 195/60R17. The Pirelli Ice Zero Asimmetrico is also available to Canadians in the stock 17" size. All other options require a non-stock tire size(as of Jan 2024). I think Bridgestone makes a Blizzak in 195/50R19 for the Japan market, but it's not available in North America and it's only their mild winter LM005 model, not the excellent WS90.

You probably have already read those other threads, but I thought I'd do a quick sum up just in case since winter performance is important to your decision.

 

No reason to not go with 17" snow tires, if your stocks are 19", AFAIK.

 

https://www.motortrend.com/features/toyota-prius-prime-vs-toyota-prius-specs-value-comparison-review/

This article provides some insight on which one to get. Btw, do you really need AWD where you live? For the same price after your rebate, I would get the Prius Prime XSE Premium. You get a lot more for your money and it's more powerful and also more economical if combined with the EV miles.

Is that how much it costs (CA$5000) to get a Level 2 charger in Canada?

Btw, do you still have your 2012 Prius Plug-in Technology? I have the same model but it’s called Advanced.

Since I got the Prius Prime XSE Premium 8 months ago, I used it for longer trips and mostly EV miles and I haven’t gone to the gas station since then.

So I was able to drive the 2012 Plug-in only for very short trips on EV and so far I might be able to reach 1000 miles on the same tank of gas.

 

If the Prime’s hybrid battery ever fails, it’ll brick practically total the car, it's so costly to replace?

 

With your use, the Level 1 is enough. It is actually enough for most people. The only time a Prius Prime needs Level 2 is for cases where the owner wants to drive more on EV than than the car's range.

Still a power-split system like the hybrid, so yes.

 

^ I've rephrased the question in my previous post.

 

big if with ev batteries, you might as well buy lottery tickets

 

205/65R16 is an even better option, even closer to original 19” diameter. The extra 10mm of width is not even noticeable. Works great for me so far.

 

Sounds like you have a reasonable need to AWD, but I would also consider how many days of the year would this be a factor? I think you said you work from home, so if you really only need AWD when conditions are bad, do you have the flexibility to adjust your schedule on a handful of days per year? Because passing on PHEV means you give up a benefit you would use every time you drive, vs the convenience for a handful of days per year. I am in the GTA as well (granted, not on a mountain…), and it seems we get less and less snowfall each year.

Regarding availability, both forms of Prius seem to be more available these days, and going with higher trims seems to be more available, as it seems more people are leaning toward the base models. If you call around you may get lucky… I stumbled onto my yellow Prime XSE Premium through a referral from @Nntw with Welland Toyota (thanks again!) on a vehicle that had no buyer, then I paid this forward referring another friend to my local dealer (Milton Toyota), who took delivery 4 days (!) after learning about it (red Prime XSE Premium). So I suggest calling around in whatever distance you are willing to travel, you may be surprised.

 

But does Toyota have a known history with hybrid and PHEV batteries dying? The Prime battery will cost a lot more to replace than the hybrid, but how likely is either going to be needing that in 10 years and 70k miles?

 

Maybe depends on the rim, but there was one, early report: clearance was so tight that hidden weights were brushing the caliper, had to be shifted.

 

Is your location on Earth in the salt belt? I hate that stuff, both for vehicles and our poor dog's paws.

 

Yeah, I was in a similar situation with my 2014 Plug-In. The car was in good shape overall with mileage on the high end of average IMO (220K KM over 9 years), and was generally running well, but had a pesky trouble code which would come up periodically, usually after it rained that I had been putting up with for 18 months, but still ran like “normal”, as it seemed to be related to O2 or emissions (as usual). I knew I was well past battery warranty, and while I know there have been very few (any?) failures with the PiP batteries, being a pioneer with a PiP battery failure would be just my luck (given my Gen 2 had a failed battery (273K KM) AND a failed ICE at close to 400K shortly after rebuilding the battery a second time @ 390K KM, so the failed engine was when I let it go)… so I thought I would not wait so long this time.

I have considered putting off the move due to personal events going on in my life, but decided not to let the opportunity pass as I didn’t know how long I would wait for the next one to come along, given it was the colour and package I wanted. Ask the kids say these days… YOLO.

Good luck in your search!

 

I could see that being a potential issue if using stick-on weights as is common with alloy rims, however using steel rims for snow tires usually makes more sense for snow anyway, where the standard procedure is to to use hammer-on weights on outside rim anyway, so this is not an issue.