May buy the Prius Prime Premium This Saturday.. Questions

Double check to see if the incentives are "$2000 rebate OR 0% financing". Usually, it is one or the other. If so, then it is probably best to go with the rebate and see what kind of non-Toyota financing you can get.

 

I can tell you as a new owner of a Prius in general, the nav system is... not fantastic. Entering a POI is a pain if you don't have the exact address to enter manually and the voice recognition is uuussseeellleesssssss.

On the plus side, the 4 passenger setup is no deal at all for us, even with a carseat living in one spot. The reduced cargo space is noticeable but not a life changer.

The only buyer beware advice I can give is make sure they give you that package for the free Chargepoint credit which will make life easier in the short term.

 

4 seats, no rear wiper, 3" higher rear deck are the negatives, entune/gps seem to be a wash. the positives are fantastic though.
the big screen gets some praise and some panning.

 

Most dealers are giving dealer discounts on the Prime in addition to the Toyota incentives, so my guess is that you would be getting 0% financing and a $2,000 dealer discount in lieu of the Toyota rebate. Which is probably a good deal if it's important to you to stretch the payments out for 6 years. However there's never a free lunch right? In this case you are getting a $2,000 discount with 0% instead of potentially a $4,000 discount if paying cash or standard financing through a credit union. Even with a standard loan you can greatly reduce the overall amount of interest you pay over the life of the loan by making a lot of extra payments especially early in the loan and work towards paying the loan off much earlier than 6 years. With 0% interest however you can't do that because making early payments would have no impact on interest since there is no interest, or looking at it another way you would basically have pre-paid the interest by forgoing the $2,000 rebate.

Then again getting a straight up $2,000 discount on top of the Toyota rebate might take some effort but it should be possible. If nothing else you could at least ask the dealer that you are talking to what type of discount would you get if you decided to take the Toyota rebate instead of 0% financing

 

We really like our Prime. Close to 20,000 miles now. Almost ready for our second oil change.

There is no spare tire. Accept that, or buy a Corolla compact spare and find a way to lash it down so it won't become an unguided missile if you crash. The car comes with a jack, and a compressor and jar of sealant, and 2 years of tow service to a dealership. I put a sealant into the tires, Ride-On Auto Formula. No punctures so far...that I've noticed, and I look for a nail when I change the snow tires.

 

So 10k oil changes are mandated regardless of EV% usage?

Sounds not very hi tech. Other higher EV range PHEV's don't do it this maintenance intensive way. What a potential waste of good oil...
Have you ever calculated Total Cost of Ownership compared to the other PHEV's on the market?

 

There are several ways Toyota could have determined when an oil change is needed. There are algorithms that examine engine temperature and load and other factors. Or just engine hours. Or so many hundred gallons of gasoline. Instead, we got just the simple minded 10,000 mile oil drain interval. That said, it is a good idea for a knowledgeable person to give the car a good look-over at least every 5,000 miles, and that is part of the maintenance requirements.