So, Are we Still in Love?

Between the Prime and the Sequoia, which do you daily drive and how often does the Sequoia get driven now?

 

We own 3 Toyota’s currently:
2008 Toyota Sequoia Limited - 12 mpg
2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid Limited - 40mpg
2017 Toyota Prius Prime Advanced - tons of mpg

The Sequoia we use when we have all four kids and are all going somewhere together. It’s a great SUV, wonderful in the winter snow and tows anything & everything. Obviously, the 5.7L V8 eats gas so using it as a daily driver isn’t a great option. It still gets driven plenty though.

Wife drives the Avalon, also incredible mileage for a big “old man’s” car. Another great buy, it’s essentially a Lexus with a Toyota tag.

The Prime is my car. I drive a ton so it’s great saving lots of money on gas

 

DUST

I live in the desert and drive lots of dirt roads.

 

How often is treatment applied to the glass?

The repellant from local carwash works well.

 

I use Rain-X at least once a month.

This was the view out the back during yesterday's extremely wet snow. 40mph, rear-defroster had been on for several minutes.

 

We have much more friendly snow here. I don't experience that, except on rare heavy storms where everything is covered within minutes.

 

You have colder snow. When it snows here and it's cold (say, 20°F or colder), it all blows off at 30mph. When it's warm like yesterday (it was actually 36°F while it was snowing), the snow is extremely heavy, wet, and sticky. It will stick to vertical surfaces exposed to winds in excess of 40mph. Yesterday, when I got home I opened my trunk and the snow stayed stuck to the rear window despite the fact that it was nearly vertical in my garage. I had to remove it with a squeegee.

 

I just passed my one year anniversary last month. Due to my daily commute, I've logged about 31,000 miles already. Unfortunatelly, I can only charge at home so my commute is mostly in hybrid mode.

Likes
Smooth & quiet ride, especially on the highway. I still miss the power of my Camry Hybrid though
$4500 2017 tax credit
Heated steering wheel
Summertime gas mileage - Once averaged over 92 mpg on my 62 mile commute home because I somehow managed to have almost 20 miles of EV left
Adaptive cruise control (when it works - more on that later)
Audio sound quality, especially the bass

Dislikes
Large number of voice commands required to do simple things, particularly for navigation. I've actually pulled over to manually input a destination rather than fight with Sneeri. "Call mom" often pops up a list of contacts and none of them are even close to the word 'mom'. Since when does 'Bob' sound like 'mom'?
The seats are very uncomfortable on long rides. The side bolsters are too stiff and too tight to my (admittedly) larger backside
The sun visors are useless for side sun. This is especially aggravating because my daily commute is South (morning) and North (afternoon), so I almost always have sun coming into my driver side window. In the summer, it makes for a most uncomfortable ride.
Winter EV range. I barely get 25 miles of EV range during the winter months. I've tried all the tricks to no avail.
No CD player. Yes, I have CDs. Yes, I like to play them in my car. Yes, I realize that there are alternatives, which brings me to...
No album art when playing mp3 files. My other 4 Toyota vehicles displayed this artwork.
The radar and optical sensors often stop working when driving in snow. The constant warning noises/screens are very annoying and can't be shut off. Adaptive cruise won't work when this happens.
Back up beeper. I hated it so much, I bought a tool to disable it.
No ability to reset the maintenance light for 10,000 miles. The oil is good for it, so allow me to set it.
Wheel covers have to be removed to add air with almost all filling nozzles.
No rear wiper. I had this on my 2004 & 2012 Priuses. I miss it.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things but that's it for now.

 

Off is available. It's on the screen with the collection of sensor settings. I used it last night following the ice storm here.

 

Are you saying there is no way to change the interval, or no way to reset it?
The user's manual tells you how to reset it from the MID.

 

A warning screen comes on that says that the collision avoidance system and blind spot monitoring systems are no longer working. No matter what button I press, the warnings won't "shut off".

 

Are the sensors clean?

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

They start off clean but when you drive in a snowstorm, they get covered in snowy road grime. Usually after about 30 miles into my commute, the alarms go off. It happened 3 times this winter. Yes, I could have pulled over to the side of the highway, walked around my car and cleaned all of the salty snow off of all of my sensors but... no, that's not happening. I am not pulling over on a highway in a snowstorm to clean off sensors. I'd rather drive with warnings than get killed.

The default for the oil change interval is 5,000. If there's a way to change that to 10,000, I haven't found it.

 

Since the 5,000 indicates tire-rotation internal, you likely won't find a change option.

 

I've been driving cars for a looooong time and I've never desired or needed a maintenance light to come on for tire rotation.

 

Toyota dealers desire it to have a chance to upsell you on services, their profit center.

 

Did you mean to say "the default for the maintenence warning is 5000"? That's because there is a maintenance interval every 5000 miles, in the US schedule, basically there's a tire rotation spec'd. every 5000 miles (or 6 months).

FWIW, Canadian Prius don't have the warning.

 

To me, the Prius Prime is the first car gives me an easy way to reset the Maintenance Warning message.

 

My last two Priuses only required me to start the car while holding down the trip reset button. That was pretty damn easy!

 

Being a lady, I don't know if your clothes have "an attachment point" where you could secure your fob, as I do with my pants. I always have the carabiner my wife got me, to attach the fob to a belt loop.
Of course failing that, you're going to have to wait til they devise a secure way to incorporate the fob unlocking system into Android phones. That way you could open the car by putting your phone near the car, and tapping a code.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
AChoiredTaste.com

I just can't resist being a smart donkey; MOVE!!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
AChoiredTaste.com

Your dislikes:
Get a Garmin DriveLuxe 50 which is voice commanded, works very well with traffic info from your phone via Bluetooth, and I got mine for $249.95, complete. Abandon the useless factory GPS.
When using the car's voice commands to make a call, make sure your windows are shut and you don't have a fan blowing loudly. About once a month, it goes on the blink; insert sexist joke here!
Remove the wheel covers; the alloys underneath look better, especially if you get the Factory "hub plugs". Then checking air pressure is a cinch.
For snow problems: MOVE!!
My dealer turned off my backup beeper (for free), so it just beeps one time.
At the 5000 mile intervals when I get nagged to do a service, I just reset the alarm so that it will notify me again at 10,000 miles.
If the weather is nice, you won't need a rear wiper! To that end, follow advice up above! Sensors not working in snow, refer to advice above!
I sell my own and love CDs; I was stuck transferring my music to a USB "stick", which I really don't like; maybe somebody sells a compatible CD changer; I'm too cheap! Congrats on your new Prime!!



Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
AChoiredTaste.com