We decided to go with a PIP and just purchased a 1 owner used 2014 Prius Plug-in base with just under 88,000 miles for $10,500 locally and the icing on the cake is that it qulaifies for the CAV decals as it has never been issued any in the past. Also, we will get the $1,000 SCE rebate so bottom line purchase price is just under $10,300 with taxes & fees........I think we did good on the price!! Only a couple of issues with it: 1. Driver's side mirror does not work......I tried swapping the mirror control switch and that did not work. So, do I need to replace the complete mirror? 2. It has Firestone FR710 P195/65 R15 89T M+S tires that were installed about 7 months ago and from what i see those are not recommended for a PIP.........it seems to drive fine. Should I change them or leave them be? 3. Previous owner changed the oil & filter every 5k miles and it is coming up to that now.........should I wait until the 10k miles recomended or continue to change every 5k miles? 4. The Ev was never used as they could not charge it where they lived so they never charged it in the 5 years.......what should I check to make sure the battery is good? 5. Anything else I should do? Thank you in advance.
2. It has Firestone FR710 P195/65 R15 89T M+S tires that were installed about 7 months ago and from what i see those are not recommended for a PIP.........it seems to drive fine. Should I change them or leave them be? Does it drive funny? Brake weird? How are these tires off from the suggested tires? The stock tires are "LRR", Low Rolling Resistance tires. If yours are not, they might give you a little lower milage than LRR tires, but if it still drives good I wouldn't get worked up about it. 4. The Ev was never used as they could not charge it where they lived so they never charged it in the 5 years.......what should I check to make sure the battery is good? If you have the power cord, plug it in for three hours and see if it takes a charge (it will say so on the dash) If you don't have the cord, are there any public charging stations around where you could plug in with their cord?
congrats! keep the tires until you get a good feel for them, and mpg's. do not know about the mirror, you need to see where power is or isn't 10k is fine, 5 might be better. its a debate, especially if you drive ev a lot, but at least once a year log into the toyota owners website for service history and recalls. follow the maintenance schedule, oil, filters, brakes and etc. consider changing the tranny fluid and cleaning the egr circuit. test the 12v, check the oil level, check the tires pressure, try the manual keys in the lock, learn where the jump point is, and the emergency hatch release. consider a spare tire. all the best!
Thank you for the replies, I appreciate it. I charged the car and it took just under 3 hours for a full charge and estimate 13.1 EV miles, I drove it locally up to 45 mph with the AC on and the the charge only lasted 7.2 miles..........is that an issue?
hard to say, there's no standard. the estimate is based on past driving, but gets reset to factory default if the 12v is disconnected. try back roads, gentle acceleration to around 30 mph without too many stops and see what you get. i get around 14 without a/c. a/c battery usage depends on temp and humidity. its easy to lose a couple miles when its hot out.
Are you sure the're 195 width? I'm only seeing 185 width. If they are 195, and working ok, I would just keep going with them.
Not too worried about the EV mpg but just like to know if the EV Battery is good, since it wasn't charged since originally purchased. Is there any kind of free test to find out or is paying to get it checked the only way to find out? If not I guess we'll just take it as it goes...Thanx
I can’t remember if the PiP has a kWh/mile readout. If so, can you post it? 6 miles “lost” is a lot but speed (45mph) and tire choice can play a role. If the car was never charged, then the PiP probably stored the original estimated all electric range (AER) which would’ve been done on the original Bridgestone Ecopia tires.
pump the tires up to 42f/40r no, there is no test for the battery, paid or unpaid. the car will let you know if the battery goes bad, but toyota warns that degradation is not unusual. no one here has ever had the battery changed except for a few early failures under warranty. a new battery would poly be $5-10,000.
It might take a few full charges before the range estimation to give anything useful. It will also take time for you to adjust to driving it efficiently. I've seen big differences with EV range if I'm heavy on the throttle. I can't imagine non-LRR tyres will make a massive difference, probably somewhere in the region of 1-2% efficiency loss. The traction battery is always in use when driving, it just uses a smaller portion of the available capacity when driving in normal hybrid mode. You can bring it into a Toyota dealer to get the traction battery tested. It's not free
That's about the same as mine. The estimate may not have allowed for the A/C. There are people here who make kind of a game out of seeing how many miles they can get out of one charge. They have all manner of techniques and will share them with you if you ask. Me, I just drive and don't worry about it. I still get to drive around in my cool electric car...
Not sure how you drive, but a heavy foot on either the "gas" or the brakes will make a giant difference in EV range. You could easily cut it in half. And running at 45 mph will gobble it up in a hurry, too.
