Thinking about buying an "Advanced Plug in Prius"

"Worth it", as in, you would save money overall? Almost certainly not, but you can answer that question yourself more surely by doing some simple modeling in a spreadsheet. The answers you get from that exercise would let you decide whether it's worth the satisfaction you would get from the reduction in your carbon footprint, etc.

 

Some folks buy cars based on no more reasoning than they have for buying socks. Hey - to each his/her own. The high tech PiP would be my 1st choice - & we can definitely afford it - but not 'til one of our existing rides gets up there in age or miles or unreliability.

SGH-I717R ? 2

 

Save money no. Buy less gas and have some EV driving fun Yes!

 

Owning a Prius is not and has never been a money saving exercise. this is especially true with the Plug-in. The initial cost is simply too high and will never be made up in gas savings.
The primary goal of the Prius is low emissions, in hybrid mode the ICE will come on to warm the emissions system to keep those emissions low. High gas mileage is a result of the design of the cars body, materials used and the unbelievable engineering of the hybrid system. This car was designed from the ground up to be a hybrid, it's not a gas car with a hybrid system installed.
If lower cost of car ownership is the goal you will be better off buying one of the sub $20,000 cars that get in the mid 30 mpg range.
As far as plugging the car into a circuit that has something else drawing on it, that sounds problematic. I believe the issue is, somebody help me here, is that the Plug-in draws a steady 12 amps during the entire charge cycle. On a 15 amp circuit if anything else draws power from that circuit it will probably trip the circuit.

Calvin

 

my buddy bought base, i bought the advanced ... he put leather, 1500 ... alarm at dealer 600 ... and additional warr 1500 ... i bought none of those ... i first thought the radar cruise was kooky, but now i love that feature ... the 7 in nav makes him burn and he wants to upgrade to my headlights ... i just wanted to drive in the carpool lane solo ... this is easily worth 10 geez a year (to me) ... but all the cool stuff on the adv makes it worth it!!!! plus, it doesn't seem like there are that many adv, so supply demand in the adv favor when i go to re-sell
go big!

 

My electric night time rates (I have time of day rates) is 4.7 cents per kilowatt-hour. This translates to a cost of $.11 per 2 1/2 hours of charging from an empty battery.

The electric Nite rate is equivalent to $.48 per gallon of gasoline at $3.50 per gallon. That's pretty cheap fuel in anybody's excel sheet. The window sticker on my car indicated "You save $7,600 in fuel costs over 5 years compared to the average new vehicle." It also shows "95 MPGe" I'm getting about 86 mpg and I'm not particularly trying hard.

Question: would you ask these questions if you were buying any other car like a Cadillac, Mercedes or any higher priced car? When I saw this car it was a no brainer for me. Slam dunk. Best car I have ever owned.

 

OK everybody, stop with the "yada, yada, they don't ask this about <insert expensive cars here>, yada, yada." I think the OP's asking whether given his circumstances he'll get a good level of PiPacity or just a Prius with a plug.

My answer would be mostly a Prius with a plug.

- It seems like you won't be able to plug in which is the point of the car. But, you can check with the apartment management and if you really wanted it you could ask to pay a fair share for installation and use of a plug.

- You'll be walking to work in good weather, and when winter comes you'll want heat and the engine will start, lessening the "EV experience".

- You'd reduce consumption on the longer trips as the car blends the charge in, but not that much compared to a liftback.

- The hills might force the engine on anyway: you'd need a test drive to find out.

I'd say keep your 2008 or replace it with a regular Gen 3. You might find your way to a plug-in in the future but right now you're not in a position to take advantage of a plug-in. Enjoy the exercise at your new apartment and be content to know that you'll be reducing gasoline consumption the best way of all.

 

By "liftback", do you mean a standard Prius? I had the impression that in straight HV mode, the PlugIn got better mileage than the standard Prius, likely due to the larger battery being able to store more regenerated energy in situations where the smaller battery in the standard Prius would be full and it would have to "burn off" momentum with engine or friction braking.

 

Yes, it's rated to get slightly better mileage because of the better battery performance, but it's heavier so it loses some of the advantage.

There is opportunity to gain more energy on long descents, but I wouldn't expect that to make that much difference, especially given that most of their miles are on road trips.

 

NotAboutThemoney's comment was obviously directed toward me. I stand by my comment. My policy is to not degrade anyone else's comment. Everyone has a right to their opinion.

I wanted to emphasize just how people make decisions about cars. It was a relevant comment. The decision tree for people is a complex one when it comes to the purchase of an automobile because of it's cost. It really should be based on a host of factors. Facts, opinions and feelings. I shared mine. Nothing more. This is the first time and last time I will comment on this aspect. But others should feel free to share their own.

 

If you choose to wait until Spring of 2013, I can get you a good deal on my 2012 Advanced PiP, I put in a reservation for a Tesla Model S, and that's when it's supposed to arrive. The Advanced PiP is a great car, but it's no Model S. Time for me to go all in

 

Actually, it was directed generally. It's a peeve of mine that people try to dismiss questions of value. In this case the OP is asking whether he'd get good value from the car and I don't think "Would you ask this question if you were buying a luxury car you don't own, haven't said you've ever owned and aren't planning on buying?" is at all relevant.

He'd be going from a loaded Gen 2 Prius to a loaded Gen 3 Prius plug-in. I think the plug-in aspect is key, but those of you with loaded Priuses might want to comment on the value of the other Gen 3 advanced tech features that he'd be getting.

 

I would assume that all the garages have a plug and a light like the one you are using. If this is true they won't all be on a single 15amp circuit. Your garage might share a circuit with one or two other garages but probalby not too many. The lights and the plugs will almost certainly be on a different breaker so unless someone in another garage plugs something in while you are charging you will probably be OK. It's hard to tell unless you can see what is on each breaker.

Noel

 

If you want to find out, you could take over and plug in something like a portable electric heater (around 1500 Watts, not dissimilar to PIP). If it blows the breaker, you'll know the plug won't work for a PIP.

 

IMHO, the Advanced PiP is a better car than the base PiP. I do mostly city / suburban driving although I also do some multi-state driving once a year or so. I've owned Gen I, Gen II and now the PiP Advanced. If you can swing the $$$ price, I advise to get the PiP Advanced - it's just a pretty good car to live with all around. I advise to invest in decent lightweight snow chains because of your regional climate: they served me very well on the Gen I and the Gen II.

However, if your Gen II remains in good shape, you might seriously consider keeping it another two+ years and get the Son-of-PiP when that comes out, and wear out the Gen II in the meanwhile.

I upgraded from the Gen I because the local dealership made me a deal I couldn't refuse - but I live in the (then) most Prius-happy country in the US, and the dealer knew he could resell it instantly, while I liked the technological evolution from the fairly spartan original Gen I. I would still be in my Gen II had it not been struck by lightning while parked in Summer of 2011 and totaled as a result. In retrospect, the Advanced PiP is easily the best car of the three.

Hope this is helpful. Good luck!

 

Take the car for a test drive to your garage, plug it in, and see if it charges for 20 minutes. It's very easy to set your car to charge only in the middle of the night, when no other electrical items are in use. It's also better for the car to charge it right before you drive. My charger is set to finish charging at 6 AM

 

The actual draw of the 120V EVSE is around 10 to 12 amps. They say to use a dedicated 15 amp circuit because of the 20% derating factor.