Jerry's Evolving Thoughts on "new-to-me" Prime Premium

This really has nothing to do with the new car, but the PiP I traded in is all cleaned up and ready to sell. Without getting into specific numbers, I'll just say he's not making a ton of money on this deal.
Lutz FL - 2013 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Navigation Camera Remote AC Heated Seats 89k Miles - Car for Sale - Tampa Hybrids Inc.

 

Cool. We still don't have TOU here. Did they raise the rates during other hours? I charge mostly before 6AM, but often have to charge in the daytime or early evening.

 

I'm not trying to talk you into anything, but some people do fly one way here and drive back.

 

Rear visibility:
Normally, I have the rear headrests down, but my mother-in-law is visiting, so I just leave them both up for convenience. It's a bit of a shame how much of the rear view they block.

I've heard lots of complaints about the rear window divider. I've decided that with the dip in the middle, it's not as bad as in the regular hatchbacks. Still annoying, but not as annoying. And it still tends to block out the headlights back there except for the pickup trucks that are sporting a pair of 747 landing lights. Fold the headrests and it's actually pretty good viewing back there.

Oh! And I do like this interior!

 

You thought right. Same with the PiP. I rejected Toyota's reality and substituted my own. I have the same full sized spare now that I had strapped down in the PiP. I just need to finally spring for a donut to gain some much more needed space back there. Having the spare strapped down back there face down provides a perfect place to carry the coiled up EVSE cable.

Edit to add: Right now, the best fitting place for my for-real 12V compressor is in the storage space inside the rear arm rest. Perfect fit, but I'd like to find a better place and free that back up for passengers ... or for us.

 

I drove a while in HV tonight since I was going to be about 2 miles short of making it home on battery. I stayed in HV for about 10 miles. I am impressed that when I made the switch at 55 mph, I heard and felt no change. Also, once it was warmed up, it shut off the engine on level ground with the cruise control set at 60 mph and it stayed that way for at least a minute.

 

This morning I got a hint of what this car could do if traffic engineers could time lights properly and if it was always spring break. Very little traffic at 6:00 this morning and no stops on the 8 mile 50+mph portion of my 9.5 mile commute. Also none of the typical stop and creep on the part with the 50 mph speed limit.


Average Miles/kWh were the best ever or nearly so. I think I got a 6.1 one day. That 6.2 showing now will almost certainly go down this evening.


Miles driven and remaining EV miles add up to 36.8. The guess-o-meter predicted 35.1 when I started.

 

Another pleasant improvement from the PiP is the air conditioner efficiency. The PiP A/C would knock almost 10% off the range. This is maybe a couple percent. I need to look more closely once it starts to heat up here. We haven't had hot weather yet, but I still have to run the A/C almost every day. My wife seems to be OK with me leaving it in Eco mode and driver preference. She likes things a little warmer than I do. Anyway, there's much much less impact on EV range!!! It makes me almost eager for our typical "Armpit of North America" weather to return so I can compare them better. But I'll try to be patient.

 

Thanks for catching my brain fart. I fixed it.

 

This car is still getting compliments! Several people last night said it looked good. Then this morning, I had it in the front parking area for a while. One of our volunteers came in and said, "You know, that car really looks good." Yup. He stressed the word "really." And I can't find it in myself to disagree with him. Especially when it's in the sun.