Plug-in Cross country Trip

This is a brief report on our experiences with our Pkug-In on a cross country trip (Hamburg NY - San Diego CA - San Jose CA - Hamburg NY
Fuel Economy
52 Mpg Hamburg NY to San Jose, 48 Mpg San Jose CA to Hamburg NY .Since this was travel over a long distance the plug-in had no effect basically we were a plain old Prius. Compared to our last cross country trip in a 2004 Prius, we got better than 10 Mpg better performance with the 2012. The mileage was dependent on the rout taken and the outside temp. The trip west was through the Rockys on I70 with a side trip through Rocky Mt Park. I believe this all helped the miles in that there were days up and down long steep slopes. The temps were moderate; never above 90. We did come across head winds through Utah and Nevada.
The return trip was on I80 to I90 and straight through. I think the mileage was affected by the high temps in Nevada and Utah that approached 100+. The run to Wyoming contained steep climbs. I expected better mileage from Wyoming on. From my experience I have had a long gentle down slope combined with a tail wind but this was the first time I have had a head wind all the way.
Undocumented Enhancements to GPS/Entune
Entune and the GPS were disappointing.
The GPS data base is out of date I had at least three cases where roads were not mapped properly. My Smartphone Google maps had the correct data.
The most interesting Entune feature was the disagreement between the “lady in the box” with the routing. We were going from Rocky Mt Park to Dillion CO. I am very familiar with this part of the country and I disagreed with the routing in the GPS. The GPS had us going back SE on 40 to I70 and then west on to Dillon. I deviated from that rout and continued West on 40 to South on state route 9 on to Dillon. Well the GPS adjusted appropriately and changed the routing to agree with me, but the lady in the box kept insisting that I turn around and continue on the original routing. I think this was caused by the interface with Entune. When I set up the original routing my smartphone was connected to the network, but when I deviated there was no services available so I couldn't connect with the Cloud.
Connection through Entune was mostly a non-connect. My smartphone provided better info. weather, map guidance, music, hotels, gas ... were much better here. Why Toyota is in the software business when I can get all the stuff easier on my smartphone. I would prefer that Toyota would just provide a program that will mirror my smartphone's display and control on their screen. I would even pay something for that app. Toyota being good on cars doesn't relate at all with software apps.
Charging Stations are Expensive
I have had little experience with those public charging stations but I encountered two in San Jose. Both these stations charged $4.49/hr. I think it's cheaper to get gas..Here's how I figure. An hour and a half to charge the Plug-In let's be liberal in estimating 15 miles on the charge and the Prius getting 55Mpg without the charge. It will cost $4.50 + $2.25 to charge the battery so it will cost $6.75 for 15 miles so that's equivalent to 55/15 * 6.75 = $24.75/gal. A heavy price to starve an Arab. By the way I never saw the stations in use.
I did carry the 120V charger and used it in San Jose. Since we stayed at a private home, we used their power outlet. I was reluctant to just plug in when I found a free outlet.
Remaining Range
We referred to the range in the car display. I noticed that the range changed quite a lot as we got to the end of our gas. It really dropped fast at the end. I can verify the 0 is not exactly 0 , I stretched the miles another 10 . I never emptied the tank; fortunately. I never filled the tank with much more tan 8.5 gals. So I recommend that the best way to figure the remaining range is to calculate based on the indicated Mpg times 8 gals.