Picked up a Guardian Grey LE today

Got a little lucky and found an incoming LE coming to my dealer a few weeks ago and put a deposit on it at MSRP. Was $30,400 out the door and I am pretty impressed so far. I have a pretty bad car trading habit and have had quite a few cars and the 23' Prius seems to fit the current need of a daily driver to supplement a 23' TRD Pro Tundra as the workhorse and my wife's TRD Pro 4runner as well as a few motorcycles for me.

Have been daily driving a GR Corolla for the last 6 months so kinda funny to find the Prius an entertaining way to get from point A to B but here we are. It rides quite comfy, so much so that you think it would be a boat in the twisty stuff but it is pretty dang playful in corners the small wheel and responsive steering is a nice surprise. Gonna try to have fun with this "hypermiling" thing for a while but for full disclosure I have also shared daily driving a RAV4 Prime for 2 years with the wife so I know I can enjoy the efficiency thing as my entertainment while driving to work.

The power is "enough" and CVT/hybrid is fun to play around with during normal driving in an attempt to have fun while still doing legal speeds. Uses full EV mode quite a bit more than our hybrid Tundra which is no surprise, but kinda disappointed it doesn't have the same gauge that lets you know when your throttle input is about to turn on the gas engine.

I have only a few days of driving so will report back with likes/dislikes as I go, but so far really impressed. Having driven things like a NSX, 911 GT3, ZL1, Supra, C8 vette, Civic Type R and GR Corolla to work recently it will be nice to blend in and seem "responsible" and stuff.

First mod was taking BEV chrome badge off the back.

 

Interesting. What is the theory? Do you suspect its quicker 0-30 than most 7 sec 0-60 cars? My RAV4 prime sure felt that way in EV mode as it was pretty quick 0-40 but really struggled over 50 mph in EV mode. Just a guess as I just have 60 miles of driving home with the Prius so far and was following the wife so no hooligan launches.

I have been on sports cars and ADV motorcycle forums all my life and not sure what to expect on the "Prius" forum so kinda funny my first response is to take her out and get some acceleration numbers! Love it!

I don't have a V-box, Racebox or Dragy or the like since I have never really been into straight line acceleration and spent all my time and money on road course racing and track days. Is there an app for iPhone that breaks down 0-20, 0-30, etc?

 

First 100 miles on the complimentary tank of gas are going quite well. Damn this thing is quite an engineering feat for all that it has for $30k. The ride quality is probably my first surprise, especially given that it actually handles ok. I have some pretty aggressive bumps in the middle of a left hand curve on my way to work that I have to leave my lane to avoid in some cars. This thing hits them every bit as good if not better than the TRD Pro Tundra and 4runner without getting unsettled. My GR Corolla would require a coffee clean up if I hit them like I did today in the Prius and it was a non event.

Beginning to think the fuel gauge is stuck on "F".....

 

Took the wife around our neighborhood looking at new houses and used it as an excuse to get a crazy high MPG pic for some friends. Have a 600 mi round trip work excursion next week so at 65.5 cents/mi reimbursement I might have enough left over to make most of the first car payment! Having fun driving slow....who knew.

 

Just hit 1k miles and just did a 600 mile trip from SC to TN and back so I will share some additional points of view from someone coming from a long string of sports cars.
1. MPG is just incredible. I am amazed that I can get 60+ mpg on short trips driving like normal, and over 70 mpg with a little effort.
2. The ride is just amazing. 17" wheels and big sidewall tires might help some, but I am really happy with the combination of great compliance over bumps but decently good handling feel in corners.
3. These tires just suck. I understand the trade off with a hybrid, but really would love to see what a decent set of regular all seasons like Michelin Cross Climate 2's (put those on my RAV4 Prime and it transformed the car) or even some summer tires. I linked a video below of one of my fav youtube car reviewers who actually are quite smitten with the 23' Prius and tires are also the first thing they want to do.
4. The power is completely adequate. Really pretty decent electrical motivation so the ICE doesn't really get pushed unless you are really merging or stoplight racing.
5. Lane assist (safety sense 3.0) is much improved vs 2.0 and 2.5 but still barely useful to me. Still wanders in the lane a bit and beeps for intervention in what seems like 10 seconds. Maybe I just don't know what it is for, but trying to keep my hands on the wheel it seems I am just steering against it's own idea of where to go is tiring and when I let it go and do its thing it still wanders around a bit and then almost immediately wants me to steer again.
6. The car is actually fun to drive. eCVT is seamless, handling is decent even though steering is light and without much feel, but the car just loves to be on a twisty road and feels quite fun up until the tires start squealing. Brakes feel good and regen braking is really quite strong. I exited the highway and rode the "brakes" down from highway speeds into a rest stop fairly aggressively and out of curiosity felt the brake rotors when I got out and they were stone cold. I have not used the mechanical brakes enough to even bed the pads in so far.
7. I gave up on the idea of getting good gas mileage (got 64 mpg on the way up to TN) and on the way home just hauled a$$ trying to beat the hurricane back to SC and even driving like it was a sports car I still got 55 mpg. That is 75-80 mph on the interstates (and through the hills of the Smokey Mountains) and lots of full throttle acceleration. That is crazy to me.
8. I didn't beat the hurricane and its easy to say the tires also suck in the rain, but it was quite flooded. I'll just say the tires have no redeeming qualities past ride and eco efficiency but that is what I expected.....

Link to Everyday driver review of Prius.....funny to me how much they like it and makes me feel a little less crazy for swithchign from a GR Corolla to this little eco sportster

 

I got the Brickstone Crapcopia's .......I give them a hard time but I totally expected it and prepared to swap out to something different at some point. I'd have much rather had the Michelin's but oh well.

Looks like no options in 195/60-17 so likely going to 205/55-17 which are about 1% smaller diameter or 225/55-17 which is about 2% taller. The 205 makes more sense from a size persepective but there are some good all around tires in the 225 size you can't get in 205 like the Conti Extreme contact DWS 06 plus and Michelin Pilot Sport all season 4's.

 

Damn....just realized that I missed the selection of 215/55-17 tires that are nearly identical in overall diameter to the stock 195/60-17 with only 0.4% difference being 26.3" tall vs stock 26.2" which is basically nothing. Speed would actually be 60.2 when speedometer read 60 which just helps correct some of the factory offset. My GPS reads about 1 mph difference in actual vs speedometer at highway speeds now with factory speed saying I am going a little faster than acutal (which is 100% normal for most cars)

In the 215 size, along with the the Mich Cross Climate 2's they have performance A/S like the Pilot Sport A/S and Conti DWS along with a Bridgestone Potenza RE980 A/S ultra high perf all season that looks decent at Tire Rack. I have bought waaaaay too many tires in the last 2 years but might have to try something here when South Carolina's "winter" is over.

The other thing I failed to mention from my 600 mi trip is I although the LE cloth seats are super comfy for shorter trips, they lack lumbar adjustment and I found that I was wishing for some lumbar support on the trip. I do have a propensity to use more lumbar adjustment than my wife so maybe its just me. I used a small inflatable camping pillow to add just a touch of support when my back got sore.

The ultimate praise is that only a very few times on the trip would I have rather been in my old GR Corolla or my current TRD Pro Tundra or TRD Pro 4runner, so that is pretty impressive to me.