Planning to buy 2012 prius plug in this month, any advice?

LIPA rebate LIPA Plug-in Electric Vehicle Rebate Program
Make sure you get a good long test drive.
During long test drive I notice the seats NEEDS improvement, ordered lumbar support pillow few days after purchase.
If you do heavy travel to city area, I would grab Garmin/TomTom with traffic update feature, or use Waze app.
Sign up for clean pass for HOV lane access.

 

Doesn't the standard GPS in the pip route around traffic?

 

Get the 0%, $2000 off deal while it lasts. That plus the state and federal tax credits make it a sweet deal. There do seem to be some minor tech issues with the sound system/ iPhone connection, and the GPS is a low end unit, but that doesn't matter much to me. The audio system itself has a rich sound. For me, the 100 mpg around town and 50 highway plus the low CO2 emissions are the main reasons for the car. Every time the price of gas goes up, you just feel better about your Prius. I think the seats are comfortable enough, although not as good as those in my '06 Prius. The car also opens up the possibility of solar panels to power green miles. Pretty fun stuff.

 

NY doesn't have any tax credit that I am aware of.

Isn't traffic available only by using our smartphone's connection.
There is clear difference in routing between Toyota's Base PiP GPS and Garmin/TomTom's routes.
Garmin is probably best option for NYC area, as it will guide you towards none-traffic area even in block level.
Example: Linden Blvd in Brooklyn is 3 lane until king's highway intersection. It becomes one lane, and creates bottleneck. If you use Linden Blvd to go say Flatbush Ave you will be behind as much as 5 minutes compare to someone taking Church Ave. Even my TomTom with traffic update points me to use Linden Blvd, and most likely everyone else on Linden Blvd is using GPS route.
1010/880/NYC traffic-weather radio reports delay on Belt Pkwy westbound, why is Toyota's GPS sending me to Belt?
TomTom calculates the traffic and offers me new route, and advices to take Jackie Rabinson (didnt have Garmin so used TomTom.)
Toyota's base gps pointed me to take BQE at 5PM. If you listen to traffic radio BQE is frequent to heavy traffic at this time.
Edit: This is based on my experience. TomTom/Garmin are very comparable in terms of performance, there are interface difference. Seems to me that Garmin does give better option for local roads (like avoiding bottleneck road) while TomTom doesn't or at least my 1 year old TomTom doesn't.

 

I've put 10,000 miles on my Base Plug-in Prius, so I'm a pretty good authority. Here is the answer, from my perspective: The entertainment/GPS unit is excellent, but it definitely is not perfect. I had a $1,000 Kenwood unit in my last Prius, and this unit is across-the-board better. I don't think any of these entertainment systems are perfect, so if somebody says they found a flaw in theirs, take it with a grain of salt. Here's a run-down:

• Entertainment Quality: Here I give the unit a hands-down A+. I really like the entertainment options and the ease of using them. You can merge your AM/FM/XM preset stations any way you want, so if your favorite three stations are an AM sports station, an XM music station and an FM talk station, you can put them all together. The support for USB media is EXCELLENT. I have a 16 GB USB stick with my entire iTunes library plugged in at all times. The radio unit scans through it and creates a database, so it can sort hundreds of songs by Artist/Album/etc very fast. It's really, really good, and anybody who tells you otherwise is a dork. My only complaint is that sometimes when I start the car, it starts in USB or Bluetooth audio mode, even though I was last listening to FM radio or something else. But two taps of a button and I'm doing what I wanted. It's a minor annoyance, but I hope they fix it in a software upgrade.
• Audio quality: I give the audio quality a solid C. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's average. It's not super-crisp or super-loud. But, come on, you're buying a base-level vehicle. If you want premium sound quality, like anybody else, you have to replace the speakers and maybe add an amplifier, which is very straight forward for Best Buy or any audio shop. I'm being honest - you might be perfectly happy with the sound quality, but it's no Harman Kardon.
• Bluetooth: B. Maybe B+. Compared to all of the other automotive Bluetooth products I've owned in the last ten years, it's A+++++. But with my iPhone 4s, sometimes the pairing doesn't work or gets dropped. However, it's difficult to know if it's the phone or the Entune that causes it. I drive a lot - 10,000 miles since April - and the pairing fails about once a week. But otherwise it works well, and I can hold 30 minute conversations without problems and I don't get complaints from the people on the other end about poor sound quality. So it's a solid B/B+.
• GPS: D. If you have an iPhone or Android smartphone, get a free GPS app called Waze. This app will give you excellent turn-by-turn navigation through the Bluetooth connection to your car speakers. It also has unbeatable traffic routing, based on the real-time input from you and the tens of thousands of other Waze users in your area. GPS using your smartphone and Waze: A+
• Entune, the built-in Internet apps: F-. They are big-time terrible, just don't even waste your time downloading the Entune software for your phone.
• Backup camera: Works great. It doesn't have laser ranging or alignment lines, as I've seen on some, but it works very well and I like it. I wish the side mirrors auto-tilted down when in Reverse, but I survive.

The unit is very easy to use, but if the sun hits it at the wrong angle, you get glare and you can't see it. Overall, I am honestly happy with the unit and I recommend it. Toyota should have never tried to write Internet software for their cars, but the rest of the unit is solid. There is a nice armrest console between the front seats which holds the USB connector for the USB stick, and a cigarette lighter charger. If you have an iPhone, buy a cigarette lighter charger adapter, and make sure it is a 1 Amp "fast charger" and not the more common, cheap-as-dirt 1/2 Amp chargers. You want the 1 Amp fast charger for your phone. Belkin and others make them. Don't plug your phone into the USB connector for charging, because that only gives you 1/2 Amp. You want the whole Amp.

 

I plan to replace the front door speakers with a cheap pair of 6x9's from Walmart. Outside of that, the deck is pretty good. I am getting 55 to 59 per gallon. 150 mile round trip to work with one full charge overnight. Sometimes if the shop is empty I bring it in and hook it up to the 220 line before I go home. Mid 50's mpg going east to west. Low to mid 60's going west to east. Never thought I would be concerned about which way the wind is going.....

 

Love the car, hate the display. Haven't found any actual problems with the navigation itself, but the maps are unreadable due to the poor quality display, which is also carefully positioned to wash out in sunlight. I was so much happier with the display in the 2005 and I early-ordered the base PiP on the assumption that 7 years later it would be improved.

Silly me!

Richard

 

Hey Satch I am curious about WV PiP incentives, I know for Volt WV is among the best states.
If you have a chance gimme a post on the STICKY for Federal and State Incentives.

Federal and State Incentives for Plug-Ins, EV's | PriusChat

 

need a visor....made my own.

 

Have you checked this link?
Alternative Fuels Data Center: New York Incentives and Laws

 

Okay.. I live in Los Angeles. I've been a waze user for 2 years prior to having the PiP. I have the base model.
And I think the NAVI on the base model is far superior to waze or navigon on the iPhone.

Once you learn how to use the navi, it is quite terrific actually. It takes some time getting used to.
Waze is actually better for surface street jams. I don't think INRIX traffic is surface street level also.. Maybe someone can chime in on this? INRIX is the service that Toyota Entune and Apple's new IOS6 maps app utilize for traffic.

In the spirit of getting MPG's, one must avoid freeways in LA where the average freeway speed is 85 mph. I do about 20 miles of my commute on surface streets and 10 on freeway. Waze does not offer you a surface street alternative like the Entune navi does.