Initial review of Prius Prime Premium

So this is my 4th Prius. I still own my 2012 Prius Plug In Base. I've driven it a few days and getting to know it, so forgive me if I'm just doing something wrong on any of the criticisms seen here.

First the good stuff. The interior is comfortable and I'm enjoying the electric adjustable driver's seat. The car has been a very smooth ride so far and I love it's handling. Best of all is the gas mileage. I've changed it up a couple times now before going to work and my 25 mile commute (going to work) has been 199.9 mpg. Not too shabby! I'm also enjoying the phone charger with my Samsung Galaxy S8+ however I wish it were a fast charge. Not sure that's possible wireless.

The good parts of the NAV/Entertainment/control tablet system. Being able to have both navigation and the music information on at the same time has been great. That was sorely missed in my other Prii. I'm not sure I need all those options of different views of the hybrid system information, but ok. Kinda cool. I'm exicted about using the smart cruise control and auto high beams. Those will be nice features I think I will be using a lot.

So here is some of the bad. I remember when I bought my 2010 Prius with Navigation. I LOVED it! I loved the POI icons which showed which gas stations were ahead of me. I loved how if I wanted to search for a POI it would show in the search results if it were ahead of me or behind me. Then I bought the 2012 and knew I wanted the Navigation again. Paid extra.. but what is this? Smaller screen unless I pay an extra 4 or 5k? Humph! Well, I bought it anyway and suddenly I started realizing how inferior it was to the one in my 2010 model. No longer am I seeing my searched POI as behind or in front of me. Now it's just simply how many miles away it is. The POI icons barely worked. I think I've seen maybe 4 or 5 since I've owned the vehicle in 2012, even tho I know they are turned on. No longer am I seeing the gas station logos or Taco Bell. I think an occasional In and Out burger shows up on the 2012 PIP. So what is the deal with the new Navigation?. I thought for sure it would be better, but apparently it got worse again. Currently I haven't seen a single POI icon. Ok, so I can live with that I think. The next big beef is that the destination is not mentioned on what side. In the past I would get "your destination is on the right" or "left". That is very helpful and helps with safety since I'm not trying to glance on both sides of the street trying to find my address. Now it simply says "Your destination is ahead". Admittedly, in the past this had maybe a 95% success rate. It wasn't always right, but usually it was. PLEASE BRING THIS BACK IN AN UPDATE! Also I'm disappointed in the 3D view . There really isn't much difference than the straight overhead view. Maybe they should just get a license from Garmin or something. Navigation is getting worse. Also mentioned in other threads is the picture of the car on top of the screen taking up screen real estate. Outside Temperature would be better here

The storage in the hatch has already been mentioned on several threads so I won't get into it. I haven't needed it yet, but next time I pick up someone at the airport I may be saying a few cuss words. But I'll deal with it because I know I'm getting better gas mileage. That is a fair trade off.

The audio quality does not seem as nice as my 2012 Pip. The JBL system sounds nice on the Advanced, but my my 2012 PIP seems much better than my new 2017 Prius Prime Premium. Additionally, finding the EQ settings is difficult to get to. The only way I seem to be able to get there is through Pandora where it has a "sound" button where EQ and balance can be changed. This should be much easier to access.

So I'll leave this on a good note. I'm not unhappy I bought the Prius, but disappointed in the NAV system. I'm sure I'll have many good years counting the dollars I've saved in the gas tank. I just hope updates can be made to improve the NAV system and some of the navigation of settings on the tablet control center.

 

UPDATE: I did get the POI Icons to work on the new Prius Prime Premium. They had to be enabled by voice command. Those are now working better than the 2012 PIP.

I forgot to mention in the review how disappointed I was that the telescopic back hatch tonneau cover I had in my base PIP is no longer in the new Prius Prime Premium. It's been reduced to a flimsy fold out cover like a fold out sun screen you put on your dash. The nice one now only comes with the Advanced version. I think that's kind of cheesy.