2011 vs 2012 Dilemma

Haven't heard anything about that.

 

Where did they put this insulation? I'd like to add some to my 2010, but I don't want to cover the whole floor pan just to figure out the best spots to deaden.

 

It's a tough choice, esp. for those on a budget. I've been helping a friend for the past two days who has the '11 Prius at the top of her potential cars. She'll probably pull the trigger on Friday. She's on a tight budget and even the Two is a bit outside the budget. The pricing at Toyota Sunnyvale seems reasonable when coupled w/the $1K incentive on '11s.

As much as she'd like BT phone support, she'd have to pay more for the Three. For BT A2DP support or USB, it means she'd have to go to Three w/nav, at minimum, which is way outside what she'd want to pay.

The other car she was considering was a '12 Mazda3 i Touring (w/Skyactiv engine) which is cheaper and comes w/BT phone and A2DP support.

For '12, the Two includes BT phone and A2DP support along w/USB. Yay! But, the price of the Two has gone up, she'd have to wait and it seems unlikely there will be incentives on the '12s, at least not for awhile. There'd be no reason to unless Prius sales or gas prices tank.

So, despite the $480 MSRP increase on the Two, the "increase" will likely be at least $1480 due to lack of '12 incentive.

 

Yep, $24,000 + 760 del + 200 (carpet mats) = $24,960 sticker for '12 Two

Maybe they'll discount $500, maybe $1k. Still at $1k off, $23,960 versus the everyday price of '11 Two at $21,660. So, I think at least $2k diff. for a while...

'12 gets the new RR engine mount, insulation, touchscreen, USB, BT, facelift. Still, the '11 is a really nice car. This is all splitting hairs.

 

She ended up finding a place that had a Three for a reasonable price and got Piercey beat it.

She was really worn out got so she got the bare minimum of info from the salesman and me on how to operate the car. Salesman didn't tell her about hill start assist (just so she knows what's up if the skid light comes on if she's hard on the brake while stopped), the long beep if you try to lock the car w/the key inside, the beeps if you close the door w/o SKS inside, the mechanical, how to start w/dead fob battery, making sure you give the key to the new driver if you give them the car, the TPMS light, nor pointing out fluids.

Hope she watches the DVD. I have no idea what's on it since the 2nd gen didn't come w/one. The manual is a lot more modern looking than my 06 manual but is intimidating in thickness. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem like the type that wants to RTFM. I was reading the manual during dead time to learn about hill start assist and some other stuff.

Toyota ought to include a separate quick reference guide w/just really basic stuff. I didn't notice one. Nissan's been doing this for years.

The salesman didn't know about the dealer customizations via Techstream (e.g. changing reverse beep to single beep, not unlocking all the doors when you go to Park, etc.) I had to show him the section in the manual. He walked me to over to a service advisor who promised to do the customizations once, for free.

I can see how sometimes people who respond to CR or JD Power surveys might complain about stuff because the salesman didn't tell them or they zoned out. I'm sure that's why we see a lot of newbie questions where my thought is "they didn't tell you that?"

Not unexpectedly, the F&I person was very high pressure w/scare tactics on telling her to get maintenance package, extended warranty (too expensive) and gap insurance.

Seemed like Piercey was really busy.

I still need to fill her in on checking the oil, how to operate the MID (I don't know it well either) and a few other things.

 

There is a quick start guide, Probably in one of the glove compartments, or at least there should be. The DVD is helpful for a Prius newbie, hope she enjoys the car (for most the buying experience sucks, but the car doesn't).

 

I'll have to check. I didn't look thru everything carefully. Was just trying to read stuff I didn't know or know well since I have a Gen 2 and have only test driven Gen 3s a few times.

Too bad I don't get a commission... She was originally thinking non-hybrid Civic but since '12 Civic got bad reviews, I steered her toward Mazda 3, Elantra and Prius even though Prius was supposedly out of her budget.

What helped her choose Prius was lower insurance cost than the Mazda3, she somehow felt the 3 was a bit weak (even though Prius is heavier and weaker), Toyota's included 2 years of roadside assistance, and horrific mostly stop and go commute of 40+ mins to go 8.4 miles (crap mileage in a non-hybrid).

 

MID is pretty easy - hit DISP button on steeing wheel to cycle through the FE bar graph (btw, hold DISP button in this mode to go between 1 min and 5 min intervals, quite cool), sliding horiz. bar showing charge to power zones (forgot what it's called), hybrid system usage diagram ....

TRIP button shows ODO, tripsA, B, miles til need gas and off. Hold to reset tripmeters if you wish.

So, she purchased at Piercey? All F&I agents push hard to sell ad ons. They get kinda miffed when you don't buy anything.
Even if you do buy something, can cancel it within 60 days, no penalty.

 

That's good. She should enjoy Prius much more. I know I do. I was getting much more annoyed sitting at stop lights with the Accord engine gurgling away. I already bought my last new conventional car in January, and sold it off. No more conventionals again, I'm out. If something happened, Prius got totalled, couldn't replace it and had to buy a conventional, it would be quite old to begin with.

I've had a bucket load of short trips. I'm almost 400 miles into this tank, and it's still holding 49.4 MPG on gage.. the avg. MPH is only 20, so lots of city, short trips to the store. I should come out with about 47 or 48 at the pump. Pretty good considering 5x F weather and loads of 2 mile trips.

 

Yeah, I know how to access all of it but don't know every single detail. I've played w/the settings before during at Toyota roadshows.

I figured out odo switching on the fly while I was waiting. Took me awhile to find the mph vs. km/h button.

She ended up only getting gap insurance. I didn't expect her to actually buy today from them so I had no time to prep her, telling her to say no and why. My background on gap insurance was foggy. It was tough for me to convey to her how some of the stuff Piercey F&I were feeding were just psychological scare tactics.

I don't think she's ever bought a new car but I've bought 3 myself, but never at Piercey. I think I've been gotten hard sell by F&I at least once...

I'm impressed that Gen 3 ICE seems to warm up very fast vs. Gen 2. I tried to show her ICE firing up due to requested cabin heat (temp to fan on) but failed. ICE wouldn't turn on despite the car hardly having been driven at all and being parked for awhile.

 

Thanks for the info .
That sounds promising !
Happy new year !

 

When it's 50F out and just staring out from cold, the ICE definitely runs more often in this colder Winter weather, even without heater use.

In warmer temps, 3rd gen EVs much better than 2nd. Say you've stopped at store, car is warm. When you leave the lot, the car will EV all through the lot. ICE won't fire until you need some power. I remember the 2nd gen would always fire up after starting to leave parking lot, etc...

imagine how the plug-in might be .... sweet

All that said, 3rd gen is an impressive car. I'm quite pleased with it (knock on wood for no start up knocking)

 

Is this the same issue of cold start engine rattling that many 2010/11 owners have been experiencing?

 

See this thread


http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...n-engine-knocking-startup-t-sb-0012-10-a.html