Prime Premium versus Advanced

<sarcasm mode on>If you are worried about all the electronics why are you even considering ANY model Prius?<sarcasm mode off>
I'm 70 years old and chose the Advanced even with it's $4300 higher MSRP. I figure "you only go 'round once" why not do it well.
I am concerned about the possible high cost of repairs so I'm getting a Toyota Platinum VSA "just in case" I keep the car beyond the standard warranty.
Have you test driven a Prime? Even looking over your shoulder the visibility is poor. BSM is a must for me.
I'm coming off a 2009 Venza. I wish the Prius had an AWD option but it doesn't. I've really come to love the HomeLink mirror.
I'm also wishing the Prime had auto tilt down mirrors so maybe Parking Assist will mitigate that omission.
I am most concerned about the lack of a real spare tire (compact or other) though that's not model specific.
Since I plan to keep the car a while (God willing) I'm going with the protection package, rear and shifter applique and all weather mats (no carpet liners). I chose the black interior as I really don't like the white cup holders. Even with the console applique you still see white.
You left out the wireless phone charger. I was skeptical about wireless charging at home until I got a phone that supports it and now I'm hooked. All my previous phones eventually got flakey charging ports so wireless charging will reduce wear on those ports.
I avoid parallel parking I hope Parking Assist helps.
FWIW I didn't want my options dealer installed so I placed a custom order from Japan and hope the folks who do "Port" installed options do a good job.
Good luck with your choice.
J

 

The blind spot monitor is quite valuable. I live in an area that is inundated with very large vehicles (pickups and suv's) (actually that's pretty much everywhere nowadays). When backing out of a spot, there's often zero visibility to the left and right no matter how much you try to crane your neck. The rear-cross-traffic alert lets you know if a vehicle is coming that you can't possibly see. It's alerted me more than once to something that I would not have been able to see. Did it save an accident? Don't know. I usually back out very, very slowly in those situations and hope that the other driver is paying attention, but that's a losing game in the long run.

Take a look at the pictures on the Toyota web site.. the fog lights are clearly visible and an alteration from the standard body. Near as I can tell, they're the only outwardly visible differentiation (albeit slight) between the plus/prime and the advanced.

If you want you're garage door opener built into your car, the only choice is advanced. a number of threads on this one

I love the HUD... go take a ride to the dealership and see for yourself.

I really like the rain sensing wipers. For the most part you just leave them on auto and they speed up and slow down as the water on the windshield accumulates. It's not perfect, but for the most part's better than intermittent wipers. Regarding the reliability... it's probably no different then intermittent wipers. The wiper mechanism is identical (make this claim without having looked at it, but I don't see any reason for Toyota to have a different mechanism and the added cost). The difference is in the trigger. In the intermittent case it comes from a timer, in the sensing case it comes from the cameras. If the camera's go out you have a lot of other things that go out as well.

Intelligence clearance sonar adds 12 sonar sensors around the perimeter of the car. When you're pulling into/out of a parking space they detect if you're going to hit something, give you a warning, and slow/stop the car to avoid damage. the system will also park and un-park you car for you automatically if you wish.

 

You may refer to those threads.

Prime premium vs advanced | PriusChat
Premium vs Advanced | PriusChat
Prius Prime Premium vs Advanced accent lights? | PriusChat​

It all comes down to your personal preference and value. For me none of extra bells and whistles Advanced model offer are worth the extra money, but for many others they are. It's your money and your choice. Good luck for picking a new Prime.

 

Features I am glad I have:
1) blind spot monitoring. Especially useful when you vision is limited by parked cars or other obstructions like plants. can also prove useful for highway driving when changing lanes.
2) HUD, although I wish the hybrid monitor indicated when the engine is on or off.
3) safety link. I actually used this once when I needed to get the car pulled out of a ditch.
4) remote climate is nice to have.
5) heated steering wheel. one of the main factors that sold me on the advanced.
6) the electochromic mirror seems to work well.
7) not a must have, but the accent lights do look nice.

Features I am not impressed by
1) auto dimming headlights. Either don't dim soon enough, or dim in situations they don't need to.
2) auto wipers. work ok in summer, but not so well in colder weather when the windshield fogs up.
3) auto parking features. only time I used them was to try them out. never use them in practice.
4) fog lights are useless.

 

I bought the premium. Wish I'd gotten the advanced. The little extras are worth it in my opinion.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Got a plus. Yeah blind spot and cross traffic are nice; but not worth the extra 2-6K above the base model. I personally prefer the cloth seats (more breathable IMO) and the dumb infotainment system is not on the base model.

 

The worth can't be evaluated in dollars. Do you want the features? Maybe some strongly, maybe some not so much. It is all up to how you feel.

We wanted the features on the Advance, so we bought one. Some aren't the best of breed. The fog lights are worthless--even the best have the job of lighting the shoulder, not "cutting" through fog--and these are far from the best. The cargo cover is worthless to us, maybe you like it. The cell phone apps are worthless to us, others use them a lot. The big screen isn't my favorite--sun reflection--and who needs the map all the time?

All that said, we really like the driving assist features. The safety features are important to us, and we use the heads-up display instead of the dashboard display all the time. I'm glad we bought the Advance.

 

Safety Connect is the emergency response system, comparable to GM's OnStar. In case of an accident, the system uses the built-in cell phone to automatically call for help. It provide GPS location info and exactly what happened to the dispatcher. You can also manually call the dispatcher with the SOS button, for other situations, like needing a tow. Presumably, one could also use it where one would otherwise call 911, since the operator will have the car location to pass on to the 911 dispatcher. The 911 function in a cell phone is supposed to provide the GPS location information to the 911 operator, but not all 911 centers are set up to receive that information ("budget constraints"). The Safety Connect cell phone is also used to support the Prime Applications such as vehicle locator and remote charge management and remote climate control.

Concerning cross-traffic alert, the big advantage with this is that it can see things from the point of view of the rear of the car that simply are out of the line of sight of the driver.

 

I bought the plus because the huge touchscreen on the other models made using climate controls annoying. Also I don't like to look at screens when driving. To me, the plus still has too much tech . I don't use most of it let alone wanting more in the higher models.

 

All good points, but I am glad you got mostly what you wished for. For the point 2, any charger you connect will automatically stop charging when the battery is fully charged. I am not sure why you would want to stop charging remotely half full?

 

Sorry, Goggle is being obtuse this morning for me. Is there a URL for "SennaConnect"?

Thanks,
Bob Wilson

 

I think OP means SemaConnect - Smart Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Stations

 

I'm in the same choir as you are! Me too!