Picked up my Prius Prime Premium today... The dealer gave it to me with a full tank of gas (unusual in my experience), and charged up for 12 miles. My trip home is 17 miles... and right at 12 miles it did switch to HV mode, but due to the way I drive, it was mostly electric the remaining 5 miles. But a lot of fun driving full speed as an EV... One thing I expected though was to hear a pedestrian warning noise at low speeds and did not hear it.. I thought it was on this model...
it is, but you can control the sound level in settings. you won't hear it from inside the car, unless the window is down, and you are in an enclosed space.
The car I traded in was a 2007 Prius. I drove it 10 years and 196k miles. It was by far the best car I've ever owned and was never unreliable. But the AC broke last year... and I had it fixed, and it lasted one more year... and now it's really at end of life. so it was time for a new car. Whoever gets that car is getting a 10 year old car that still gets 45mpg, and if you drive it right over 50 mpg. The battery is showing no sign of giving out.. but when it does they can drop in an aftermarket battery and keep going because there is nothing mechanically wrong with the car... The only car I looked at was the Prime. Seriously... the only thing I was disappointed on with the 2007 was it had no Toyota plugin option... there was an aftermarket plugin option that cost 10k... I am driven by bottom line costs per mile, and the add on math didn't work out. Ok I spent a few minutes looking on the Tesla site because I have two friends at work on the waiting list for theirs, and basically ruled it out for 3 reasons... I need a car, not a promise for a car (there's a waiting list). and 2 I think a pure EV car just doesn't belong in North East winters. And 3. the charging infrastructure is just not there yet... so it would be a local use only car,and an expensive one. For instance,I live in Rochester, NY, we vacation in 1000 Islands NY 4 hours away... the nearest charging station to there is in Watertown NY 30 minutes away---... It's a 4 hour trip... I really want to get from point A to point B... I don't want to have to plan a trip to hit charging stations and sit around while the car charges. With the prime, I already have it on a spreadsheet. An L2 charger at home and with my weekly driving pattern I'll get great cost reduction per mile... For trips, If I happen on a free charging station when I'm going to eat lunch or shop anyways... it's a bonus... By the way... Looking at the prices for the ones that charge money says it costs more than gas to charge a prime that way. Ok there is a 4th reason I steered clear of Tesla... They promote that their air filtration system protects from Bio attacks... If they think that is nescessary I say they are nuts... I would never consider not buying a Prius. In 10 years I saved over 10 thousand dollars in fuel costs over a typical car because summer or winter MPG was always twice what I'd get in a regular car. When in the week where I gave up on the 2007, and had to drive my wife's Solara because it was too hot to drive without an AC, I realized that my foot naturally plays with the accelerator to get the best performance out of a Prius... and that doesn't play well with a non-prius... ... the thing wouldnt pulse and glide When Katrina hit and gas prices skyrocketed.. My friends were buying scam ideas about gas pills you could add to your tank to increase MPG, while I just thought... This gas is still inexpensive because my effective cost is half what shows on the pump.
