Prius Prime Plus in my hands

Yes. Tesla offered $18,300 trade-in so I took it. See the ‘For Sale’ forum.

Bob Wilson

 

I can't answer for my Prime because it is still parked at the dealer. But let me share my Prius lessons learned.

Toe and camber are more tire wear metrics than handling UNLESS they are way off. Then the car will have both bad handling and rapid tire wear. Both front and rear alignment is important. The best I can achieve with just toe and camber is neutral stability requiring constant attention (and fatigue) when driving.

For stability, the angular momentum of the front tires is critical. This is the gyroscopic effects of rotating tires. It is night and day. You do this by increasing the diameter of the front tires which happily increases their mass. This makes them better gyroscopes so the car doesn't wander as much. Better still, larger diameter front tires reduces the number of rotations per mile which reduces rolling drag (i.e., poor man's overdrive.) Finally, it can bring the speedometer into accurately reporting the velocity matching GPS and stopwatch the mile markers.

Changing tires is a little tricky. Tire companies are not very bright about doing this:

1. Use the tire specs from Tire Rack to find candidate tires. You start with the "rev/mile" for the current or recommended tire and then select the next larger diameter, slightly lower "rev/mile" tire in that brand.
2. Make the tire revs/mile equal to the speedometer error.
3. Buy one of the new tires and take your full-size spare to a tire company and have them mount and balance it.
4. Swap the tire on a rear wheel and test drive over speed bumps to make sure there is no interference.
5. Swap the tire on a front wheel and test drive over speed bumps and steering extremes to make sure there is no interference
6. Order the second tire and have it mounted on the rim previously removed for testing.
7. Put the second tire on the other front wheel.
8. Have the front alignment checked and adjusted.

Stability testing is as much art as science. On a straight, known road at a cruise control set speed, steer with you finger tips and note how frequently you have to keep the car in the lane. Change the tires and repeat the test. Better stability means the car needs fewer corrections.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm not interested in the "Full Self-Driving Capability" because it jacks up the price significantly. However, I will be able to upgrade in the future.

Basic 'Autopilot' is enough and the lane keeping specs sound better than TSS-P:

• dynamic cruise control - mandatory for our cars, radar on Prime
• automatic emergency braking - mandatory for our cars, radar on Prime
• lane keeping or assist - not on the BMW, the TSS-P is a beep alert and light tug

Bob Wilson

 

1. Less depreciation on the Prime and it lacks a fast DC charger, high power internal AC charger, poor cold weather control laws that can turn on engine.
2. The 25 mi EV range versus 72 mi of the BMW.
3. Rear wheel drive, 168 hp weighing 2900 lbs gives closer to Tesla handling.

Bob Wilson