Long(est?) PiP drive from dealer to home

Although it may be old news for those of you who have been enjoying your PiP for weeks, I don’t think any of you had a drive quite like mine. So read on – you might find some items of interest to you.
Summary. Took delivery of my Winter Grey Metallic base from Putnam Toyota in Burlingame, CA on April 30 and drove 1335 miles to my home in Colorado. Bilofsky has already posted photos of us and our cars (http://priuschat.com/forums/toyota-prius-plug-in/108338-double-delivery.html). Here is another photo of my car, taken in Winnemucca, NV (you needed to know that!), where I stopped for lunch on May 1 (at McDonald since, after paying for the car, I can’t afford much else!!).

Total miles driven, including 4 miles of test drive: 1339
EV miles: 6
Gas added: 23.2 Gal (car says 22 G)
Calculated MPG: 57.7 (car says 59)
Delivery. I had ordered the car on December 13, 2011 through Andrey (Sales Manager at Putnam). It was a pleasure to deal with him; he kept me informed throughout and responded promptly to my questions. I recommend him highly if you want to buy a Toyota in the Bay area. Car arrived at Benicia around midnight on April 21 and at Putnam on April 25. I flew to SFO on April 30, was picked up by Jeff (Internet & Fleet Manager at Putnam) in Andrey’s personal PiP, took a short (~4 mile) test drive with Jeff, signed a lot of papers, emptied my bank account, and took possession of the car. Then Andrey sat with me in the car (with Jeff in the back seat) for about 30 minutes and adjusted and explained various settings, set up Entune account, entered destinations in navigation system, paired my Iphone, etc. Both Jeff and Andrey were very helpful in explaining functioning of various items in the car. I shook their hands, bid farewell and started my journey to home.
Drive home. I had been in touch with bilofsky, whose PiP was on the same ship as mine and who had picked up his PiP from Putnam the day before. We decided to meet in El Cerrito for late lunch/early dinner. Bilofsky and his wife treated me to an excellent dinner and very pleasant conversation. I decided to take a more scenic route (I-80E to I-15S to US-6E to I-70E) instead of I-80E almost all the way that nav suggested, slept Monday night in Reno (no trip to casinos since, as I said before, no money is left after paying for the car!) and slept Tuesday night in Salt Lake City.
For the first ~700 miles, I deliberately varied the speed from ~55 to 75 mph since the manual recommends not driving at constant speed for the first 600 miles. Rest of the way was about 60 to 70 mph, mostly 65-68 mph. I am very happy with my overall mileage (57.7 calculated) during the trip, especially since I had to climb two mountain ranges, Sierra-Nevada and the Rockies. I think that, during the descent, you don’t recover all the extra energy that you spend during the ascent. Moreover, I began the trip at elevation 29ft in Burlingame and ended at elevation 5445ft at home. The car was charged only at the beginning by the dealer. Although I did not take careful notes, I believe the 6 EV miles are from the test drive + 2 miles to US-101N, where I started to drive too fast for EV. During the last leg of the trip, I did get additional 18 EV miles from regen.
Charging and driving at and around home and work. I have driven only EV miles since I came back home from Burlingame and ICE has not come on during any of these drives. Here are my charging and driving data.
Charging system, Input, Start EV miles, Used EV miles, Left EV miles
120V outlet, ----, 13.4, 8.1, 4.5
GE L2, 2.182kWH, 13.3, 8.1, 6.7
120 outlet, 0.66kWh, 13.4, 11.0, 3.4
I am surprised at the kWh number from the last charge. The reading is from Kill A Watt meter, which I did not use with the first charge. Other meter readings were:
Amp varied from 12.52 to 12.57
Watt varied from 1402 to 1407
Volt 123.5
Electrical experts: Any comments on these data?
A (minor) annoyance. When IPhone 4 was connected via the usb port, it worked fine most of the time. However, occasionally the sound would come from the IPhone speaker instead of the car speakers. Bluetooth connection has worked well every time so far.
An observation. When I went to the car in garage this morning to check on some things, it started playing music from my iPhone, which was one floor up. I know that Bluetooth is supposed to have a maximum range of 30ft. The iPhone was about that distance away, adding both vertical and horizontal distances. Next time, I needed to go to garage; I moved the IPhone 2 floors up at a place which is definitely more than 30ft away from the car. When I turned on the car, it started playing music from my iPhone again. I have one more floor to test!
Overall impression. I like the car because:
1. It is a plug-in,
2. Its feel is more “solid” than my 06 Prius,
3. It seems quieter,
4. It is more efficient in the hybrid mode, and
5. Since I did not have nav, Bluetooth etc. in my 06, it’s more luxurious for me.
I hope I have not bored you with a rather long write up. I benefited a great deal from many of the posts in 2005-2006 when I was looking for info before I bought the Prius. I have again learned a lot about the PiP from frequent visits to the site during the last 5 months. I thought I will put in my 2-cents worth.
So, thanks to all PiPers!

 

drinnovation,

I am in Denver metro. I think now there are 2 PiPs in Colorado. Would you believe that the other one is owned by my next door neighbor? He got his from Arizona.

I did not play any games with EV/HV switching. I used the sophisticated technique of "just drive it". Car stayed in HV since it first switched from EV to HV about 2 miles from the dealership and then automatically switched to EV somewhere around Idaho Springs.