Anyone Move Up to Prime From An Original PiP Yet?

Went from 2012 PIP then got a better offer for a 2015 PIP 0% interest 60 months. And when the Prime came out I had to have it , love the 37 mile EV range I'm getting now.

 

sadly I went to a place where they were giving out food and used my bag for the groceries, they switched out my bag for one of theirs, before I realized what happened it was too late, they couldn't find it

 

still got the Prius Plug In Hybrid clear plastic decal pasted on the rear window of my prime

 

Call me "George" (although I've been known to Wheeze if I try to run!). I purchased my 2012 PIP in September 2012, and my Prime Advanced in February 2017, and haven't looked back!! Expectations completely met including averaging well over 30 EV miles, with A/C, whereas the 2012 struggled to reach 9 EV miles, frequently firing up the ICE.
I've finally got a luxury car with the latest technology which is brilliantly reliable!!
Even the price was way better than the "equivalent" (certainly not equal) 2012 Advanced. What more could you want??


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I went from a regular hybrid (11 years old) to the Plug in prime and I'm super happy, getting to and from work on my 31 mile charge after a few weeks. Haven't filled gas tank yet! But now I have to aim for 37!! Getting 113 empg!

 

BFD,
Yes, I did.
I had a 2007 Prius Hybrid, then the 2012 PIP (110th one built), then I got my Prime Jan.2017.
Love it.
Best Feature is the EV Mode that does NOT allow the ICE to start, unless you run out of Battery.
No More Heavy pedal starting of the ICE.

Battery showing 28-32 miles after a charge.
When I drive from home in Victor to Rochester, I need to use some gas to get home.
Otherwise, 15 miles home to work, charge it at work, work to home, charge it at home.
Didn't buy gas from Jan to June.
Had to buy and use gas driving from Victor to Canton, NY 3 times in 4 weeks. Got 58 mpg. WOW

So glad I got the Prime.

 

We moved from 2014 PiP to Prime in Nov 2016. My wife was unable to be comfortable in PiP’s seats no matter what she tried in 2 ½ yrs of ownership over 60k miles. Prime is better in every way by large margin (e.g., Multi-color displays are not only pretty to look at but also functional. MPG and EV range can be far more above the EPA rating. The handling on mountainous and winding roads is actually pleasurable, etc.). Only thing I wish it were different in Prime, but it is not, is the lack of retention of historical data for the life of the car. Just like PiP, when you reset the data, you lose data associated with the odometer except the total mileage in its life (I would be happy if someone can tell me that I am incorrect on this).

 

you are incorrect about this.

 

You may want to keep an eye on how the Ca legislature may change free HOV this year. In general free HOV is over by 2019, but my guess is Prime and others will get extended, but older PiP may not.

 

The state could also extend only white decals and allow the green ones to expire. Which means only solo hydrogen, natural gas, and BEV in the HOV lanes.

I'm in no hurry though, the PiP is remarkably low maintenance and reliable. My original plan was to get rid of it at 150k miles which will be in a little over a year when the decal expires for a BEV. But after 5 year it still drives like .... no it doesn't drive like new.... But it's held up well for a 5 year old 130k mile vehicle. For example, power windows started moving slowly in our 98 Corolla and died within 5 years. The AC needed repairs in my our 06 Corolla within 5 years. The driver power door locks failed on our 02 Civic. The front visors split in half in our 06 Civic. Cruise control intermittently dies and ESC failed on our 09 Sonata. The fuel door didn't open on our 02 Subaru WRX. I mean seriously, I haven't even replaced the 12V or headlight bulbs in our PiP. Every one of our previous cars would've needed a replacements by now. The only two issues I had was dash rattle when new and the fob battery died in the first year. But the rattle hasn't gotten any worse since and is similar to to what I hear in every Prius anyway. And the fob battery since then has been fine for the next 4 years.

My only problem with the PiP is I want a used Model S for my mid life crisis coming up. But this PiP refuses to charge me for unexpected repairs forcing me to keep it due to practicality. Here's hoping green decals get canceled in 2019.

BTW: Tesla is brilliant. Early adopters, you only get the 220 mile battery in the Model 3. Those of you still waiting, you get a choice of the 310 mile battery. A little solace...

 

Model 3 Tesla still scares the living religion out of me: over 8 hours to fully charge the long-range (so-called, for 310 miles!! Who're you kidding!! My standard demands over 700 miles of range which my Prime easily does with EV refreshing) battery, and as a wise poster stated here, electric-only cars right now cost way too much to fuel in Socal. I don't have to go hunting around for those Superchargers; I charge in 2 hours on my L2 charger, at home, with no hassle. Ironically, because of the type of short, frequent, home-based trips I make, there's no possible way to justify the $60,000+ (equipped like my Prime) Tesla. Oh, and I ain't willing to wait in no line either!

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It doesn't take me 8 hours to charge a BEV. It doesn't take me 3 hours to charge my PiP. It takes me less than 5 seconds as I walk into my home. The charging duration only matters if I need to go somewhere immediately afterwards. If that's the case on a road trip, would rent a gasser.

In numbers, let's say it takes 5 minutes to fuel up. It probably averages more than that but let's use that as few can say they fuel up faster than this. Assume a 50 mpg vehicle and 10000 miles driven per year. That's 100 minutes spent fueling up a year. 5 seconds to plug in and 5 seconds to unplug x 365 days = 61 minutes. That's 39 minutes savings using worst case for plugging in.

I've done this calculation for my PiP as well versus a BEV. Charging time cancels out so its strictly how much time I take to fuel up. 25000 miles / 700 miles / tank × 10 minutes to fuel up = 357 minutes. Did I do my math right? 6 hours?

Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to 6 additional hours of life a year just by driving a Tesla. Wonder if DW will buy this argument?

Oh and to stay on topic, a Prime with double the PiP EV range will get me 900 miles tanks, thus saving me 80 fewer minutes fueling up over the Pip.

 

I think the concept or renting a car really depends on your usage pattern. If you are renting a car too frequently to get over limitations in your already expensive car, then perhaps you bought the wrong vehicle for your actual usage. We may 3 or 4 big visits to Home Depot a year, so renting one of their trucks for about $30 a pop makes sense, but for the longer trips we take where we are off on 1 to 2 week road trips about twice year, this becomes less practical because we would spend 3 to 4 car payments in rental fees. This is the big reason we went with the Prime over a Tesla type vehicle as 200 miles of range just wasn't going to cut it as our only vehicle. We did 1100 miles on the highway in just about 1.5 days with only 15 minute stops to fuel and freshen up every 2 to 3 hours. This wouldn't be possible with a 200 mile EV or even a 300 mile EV. Not to mention there were no chargers on the highway where we were driving so we would have had to detour pretty heavily to get to a charger for that to work.

Rental would likely have been something getting 30 MPG which would have signifcantly increase fuel costs as well.

As to the original topic, I didn't own a PIP before this. I did try one once and at the time, I was still very much anti-Prius. I was not anti-Hybrid though as I had owned a Hybrid Civic and was driving a Hybrid Camry at the time. I find that the ride dynamic, the seat comfort and the EV performance in the Prime to be so far different form the original PIP I tested as to not feel like it was even built from the same concept. Of course having been rather a bit larger back then, it could also be that a smaller me is comfortable in a smaller car than I used to be.