On August 30 we purchased a new Prius 4 at a good price (just under $25K before tax and license). Timing was good: End of month, $1500 Toyota rebate, they still had what I wanted in terms of version/color/options (none!) and the 2015 models came out about three days later. I wanted a version 4 for the power driver's seat, because I had to sell an earlier car (1996 Honda Civic) due to poor driving position and sciatica. I couldn't be more pleased with the Prius after its first 1000 miles. I've done one long highway trip (350 miles one way) at high speed, L.A. freeway driving, and local 3 mile and lower trips. Gas mileage is more than twice what I get with our other car -- a 2003 Honda CR-V which is still in excellent condition at 125K miles. Driving position, handing, road noise are also to my liking. I'm still amazed at the great gas mileage with stop and go in-town and freeway driving. And the fact that it's a hybrid has no effect on my driving style nor even feels apparent in how the car drives; I'm aware of it, of course, since that's one reason I chose it but it has noticeable impact -- so pluses and no minuses. Another nice thing is the no visible change for 2015. Earlier this year I thought about buying a Prius but was dissuaded by news that the 2015 would be Gen IV and decided to wait. When I discovered in late August that the Gen IV had been delayed I decided to go for the 2014 model. The timing could not have turned out better. Loving my new Prius 4. And I also much appreciate this forum and those posting to it. Information here helped me make the decision and has been valuable in later actions like choosing floor mats, mounting license plates (yet to arrive) and other small but important things to come. Thank you all! Phil p.s. -- 77 and I'm still a "Junior Member". That does amuse me
Like Phil, I am the proud owner of a 2014 Prius 4, Barcelona Red. On August 29th I traded in my 2007 Sea Glass Green Prius that had 151,000 miles on her and was still going strong. The only thing I ever had to replace on my former car, aside from the oil, cabin filters and tires, was the 12V battery. I have loved the Prius since the first day I drove one and am even more enamored with my new Prius that is sporting all the bells and whistles. I put 1600 miles on my new Prius the first week I owned her and she performed spectacularly. I must admit that my new Prius is smarter than I am in many respects and it will take a while for me to familiarize myself with all of her nuances. A couple of times I thought I was losing it because I got to my car after work only to find the inside air running. Had I left my car running all day long? That isn't beyond the realm of possibility as I had actually done that once before in my former Prius. Okay, now I am just telling on myself. Anyway, I mentioned it to my daughter and a couple of days later she called to ask me if I have an AC button on my FOB and sure enough I did. She discovered by way of google that I could actually start my AC to cool off my car as long as I am within 30 ft distance from the car, so perhaps the FOB in my purse got pushed on my walk to the car. Good to know....... however, this weekend I was washing my new car in the driveway, no FOB present, and I could see my Parking Permit swinging from the rearview mirror in my car. I opened the door to discover the air was blowing which prompted further research on my part. Come to find out, if the Prius has a solar panel, as mine does, and the car is parked in direct sunlight, the fan (not AC) will kick on throughout the day to circulate the ambient air in an effort to cool down the interior. Again, good to know, and better yet is knowing that I am not getting senile just yet. I don't see myself ever owning a car other than the Prius from this point forward. I am all about product loyalty so for me, Prius, iPhone and Coke.........it just doesn't get any better than that. NanaToni
Same color here, Nana. I decided against the sunroof because I never used the ones in three previous cars, so hard to justify the added cost. But some of the accompanying features would be nice to have so I'm sure you will enjoy that package. My first Prius, though I've been thinking Prius for a while -- just no need for a second car until my wife totaled her motor scooter a while back. Phil
I too have had my Prius IV w/sunroof for about a month and so far, so good. I'm slowly reading the manual and it's amazing what information is in there. It should be a slow read since there are a lot of cross references, but it does contain all the info you need. In my case the dealership didn't do anything to "train" me to use the car. I didn't expect it, and figured it would be better if I taught myself... and learn from this site. Hoping to get many thousands of happy miles from this car.
I love my 2013 Prius 4. Like you , I bought late in 2013 and was thrilled that the 2014 were going to keep the same body style. Now I am thrilled again that the 2015 is going to have the same body style! An extra year of driving the car without worrying about the new body style! Oh by the way, this is my 2nd Prius. My first one was a 2006 Level 8 (leather and nav) with 135,000 miles on it. I traded it in Nov. 2011 for a 4 Runner which I retraced last year for my 2013 Prius.
I bought a trim five liftback, and while I love the LED headlights on it, I hate the 17 inch wheels since it lowers the mpg a little. I guess I'll just learn to live with it haha. Paid a little over $28k before tax/title/license. Not the lowest, but I still consider it good since MSRP for the five is $31k and priuses are notoriously hard to haggle down normally. Other than that though, I really like the liftback. Nothing wrong with my c, I just wanted to snag that $1000 cash back + 0% financing for 60 months they had going. If I had known they were going to do it this month too though, I probably would've waited till now to get it. Oh well, can't complain.
Silver Bullit, to the best of my knowledge, I never did, but of course now you have me second guessing myself , so I am compelled to go home and rummage through the maintenance folder to verify that information and if I did, I will post a retraction. Seriously though, I am more than elated with the minimal repair cost that my former Prius incurred and that is only topped by the 2 years of free standard maintenance that I will receive on my new Prius.
I literally bought my car on my way out of town for vacation so I didn't give the dealership the opportunity to explain all of the bells and whistles to me, but even if I had, there would have been too much information to disseminate. I plan on taking your approach and reading through all of the manuals so that I can receive the most bang for buck with regard to my new Prius. It seems that I discover something new and exciting every week that affirms my new car purchase and makes me so glad I took the plunge. The 60 month, 0% financing didn't hurt either. Last week the dealership where I purchased my car held an open house for new car owners where they went over many of the details with regard to warranty and maintenance and the like and that proved to be very enlightening. I appreciate that they took the time to make that forum available to me. I wish you well with your new car Oskar and know that you are going to love your Prius!
I give your dealership credit for holding an open house for new owners. I think that should be part of outreach for all dealers selling the Prius. Perhaps it's something Toyota might consider as a promotional tool. And with cars becoming more and more sophisticated and incorporating more high-end technology, drivers are going to need some guidance. As it stands now it seems as if we're pretty much left on our own. And while we should take responsibility for reading the manual, there's nothing wrong with a little bit of hand-holding from a dealership. It can buy a lot of good-will and great PR.
Bought my 2014 Prius Four August 29.......traded in a 2011 Honda Insight that was a joy to own. Although early, this Prius shames the Insight. Bigger, nicer, smarter.......including extented 7 yr/100,000 mile warranty, 5 yr/60,000 free maintamence got out the door at $28,000.......car alone sticker end T $29,500 +.
My first post here, though I have been reading the forum for about 6 months. I to am very pleased with the Prius. I previously owned a Gen 1 Honda Insight. As much as I loved the fuel economy, overall, it was noisy, rough riding, and somewhat impractical. I also had to replace the battery twice, though once was under warranty. In the end, the transmission failure at 104K miles spelled the end (and I might respond to whoever posted about the transmission... I will not own another Honda with CVT because the Honda dealers don't really want to work on the transmission... They just want to sell you a $4400 rebuilt, but that is another story for another time). I was in fact not intending to buy another hybrid after my negative experience with the Honda, and I swore that I would not buy another Honda hybrid with CVT. But then I came to this forum and started reading on and on about how long the batteries lasted. I also researched the transmission, and I an convinced that the Toyota hybrid transmission is so beautifully simple that it should last a very long time. And the more I read on the forum, the more I decided to try the Prius. I test drove the C, but did not like the interior (though I easily knocked off 58 MPG on the test drive though the sales person did not even know how to reset the trip odometer...) Coming from the Insight, the C seemed big and spacious, but again, I simply did not like the interior, and on a whim, I decided to try the regular Prius. IT was sooooo much nicer than the C and it drove and rode so much better than the Insight that I decided to go ahead and get one. Selling price with rebate was about $22500 plus tax and title. I have had the car now for about 4.5 months, and have been really thrilled with it. Ride is very nice (though again, anything would have been better than the Gen I Insight). Car is reasonably quite at highway speeds. It is roomy and comfortable, and I like the instruments and the functionality (though I wish the instantaneous display were a bit bigger). I am averaging about 56 MPG overall (calculated) but frequently do segments where 60-65 is displayed. On a an 80 mile round trip to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola today, on mostly flat to small rolling hills, I did about 62 MPG (indicated). This is actually not much worse than I could have gotten from my Gen 1 Insight, and it was far more comfortable. The Hybrid drive is very refined and I find the transitions between electric and internal combustion to be remarkably good. The more I researched this car, the more impressed I was with the hybrid technology. The electromechanical nature of the transmission is absolutely brilliant. I was astonished when I saw a video of the internals. It is mechanically the simplest transmission I have ever seen, and while I thought the CVT in the Honda would be trouble free and reliable, in practice, no one will work on it, and it is expensive to replace, and I don't think I will ever have a problem with the Prius transmission based on the research I did here. My complaints are minimal. While I rarely put my foot in it, under hard acceleration, the engine gets buzzy. The blind spot on the passenger side is very bad, as is rearward visibility in general. Both cup holders are oddly placed. The hubcaps.... Really? Put hub caps over an alloy wheel? What were they thinking... Honestly, these are trivial. Overall, I am delighted with the car. I had almost written off hybrids, but this forum really gave me the opinion that the Prius was a far better hybrid than I had thought, and after 4.5 months and about 5500 miles, I am already looking to the day when the Gen IV cars come out. Prius really surprised me. Far better than I had expected, and my research on Prius Chat was instrumental in changing my mind and giving hybrids a second chance.. And I am really happy I did. Thanks to the forum members for all of their time to share their knowledge and experience, which was instrumental in my purchase decision.
I hope they mentioned the biggest negative: with proper maintenance the cars run for decades, making it hard to justify a new toy.
I too thought the visibility was going to be bad. However, we just completed a 37-day road trip that covered 7,341.5 miles with some night driving and I didn't encounter one instance where visibility out the back or blind spot caused any problem whatsoever. While the rear window is small, I could easily see all I needed to see through the rearview mirror and I religiously use my side mirrors. For me, the size was simply a matter of getting used to a smaller view that I've been used to. The cargo space was filled to the base of the rear window, so I couldn't see out the bottom window and relied on my backup camera. I also thought the cup holder positions were strange, but they didn't cause us any problems either and both were in use throughout the trip. I rode with my brother in his Sonata Blue and had problems with the cup holders in it. The front one is too close to the shifter and when both are being used, it's cumbersome to pick up a cup in either. Given the option, I prefer the Prius design over the Sonata. The hubcaps supposedly add about 1 mpg, so I've left them on for now. So far I've only seen 1 Blizzard Pearl with them off and I didn't like the look, too much black. I've thought about dipping them white, but I don't know how hard they would be to keep clean. I might try a white ring around the outside and maybe white lug nuts, but I might just wait until I need new tires and then get new rims altogether. By then though I might be trading up to a 2017 after I see the redesigned 2016. FWIW, I only averaged 45.9 mpg for the trip, but I thought that was excellent given the terrain, crosswinds and the fact that I just "drove" the car, not doing anything differently from how I've driven our van on past trips. Even so, I saved over $500 on fuel for the trip. We even did a 3.5 hour non-stop stretch with no discomfort at all.
