New 2024 Prime XSE Premium - Hotdog's ramblings

So, some of you might have seen me complaining on the "recall" thread:
Safety Recall Rear Doors | PriusChat

I was one of the 'lucky' ones who put ~500 down on a car in February, the car *physically* arrived in Ohio in April, and... has been sitting since While other cars have been repaired 'at the dock', as of 2024-08-25, the 'ones at the dealer' showed no real signs of being fixed. After 130 days of waiting, my wife asked (the car is hers):

"So, do we need to look for another one?"

In my mind's eye, I never... 'thought' about that? I might not be the smartest man, but I honestly never pondered that. The one we had 'reserved' wasn't anything super special: It was literally a random "red Prime XSE Premium that just happened to be local". The dealer, to his credit, was incredibly kind throughout the whole ordeal of waiting, giving me updates which amounted to "we have no idea", and I did feel bad canceling my order with him.

As I watched the multiple forum threads, it was clear cars *WERE* coming over, from Japan, fixed. This pissed me off. I mean, I understand the LOGISTICS of it all, right? But still. I wanted a damn car.

So with that in mind, I hopped back on Toyota's site. Jacked the distance up to '500', and added one specific thingy: I wanted a solar roof. Why not? Why shouldn't we get a solar roof? I knew my wife would never use the sunroof (she doesn't like wind, and it'd literally never be opened). Her commute is ~35 miles a day, roundtrip, and she parks outside. the *idea* of a solar roof intrigued me. I demanded it. She didn't care. She just wanted a car. Ah, love.

Around Ohio, it was actually shockingly easy to find one: We had 4 within 400 miles. Called the closest one; it was sold. Second closest? "Sure, it's available" "Okay, I have money" "Good, we like money" "Let's do it!"

And with that, we are now the owners of:

2024-08-25 06_00_35-silver.jpg ‎- Photos by Hotdog453 posted Aug 25, 2024 at 6:01 AM

I mean, it's silver. And has a solar roof. You can all guess what it looks like...

Now, I broke my own rule, and did put a few hundred miles on it right off the bat. Not my finest, mechanical sympathy moment, and part of my brain is insanely angry at me, but hey: We needed a car.

We had rented a Prius from Turo prior, and had one for a week in San Diego from Turo as well, so we 'knew what it was like'. We like it, a lot. I would say the biggest thing we both noticed, coming from a Subaru (my car, a 2020 STI) and her car (a 2013 Mini), is just how much... 'more better' a modern Prius is than those cars. I know: It's not exactly shocking. But really, when reading reviews of cars, it's hard for context. It really depends WHAT you used to have. And for us, it's hilariously nice. We're not simpletons, hah, but like... I love my Subaru, right? But it's a loud, buzzy, plastic piece of crap on the road. This is... "nice". It has soft things. It's quiet. It's nice. It's a nicer car than a Subaru. Deep thoughts with Hotdog453 - Available now!

The one thing I do personally loathe is the rims: The 19/195 stuff I just find insanely enraging, and we've already fixed this: While the 'other' car was on order, I ordered two sets of the 17" "stock" rim, as well as tires, and those are sitting at the 'other' dealer. I debated pretty heavily about buying non-OEM rims, but it came down to:
1) It's my wife's car
2) She wants it to look normal
3) She was fine with the stock 17" rims
4) Aftermarket stuff looks... weird, on these cars. Sorry, not sorry, it's a Prius. I understand the love for Enkei and such, but it's like putting lipstick on a pig, IMHO. Each to their own

I ended up watching this far too many times: Prius vs GTI – Can tires help the Hybrid be a Hot Hatch? | Everyday Driver (youtube.com)

And ended up buying Michelin Pilot Sport 5 (lololz) in a 215/55/17, and for winter (since we've always run winter tires, but also since every car we've had, including her Mini, always had summer tires, making it a fairly self-fulfilling "you need to buy a shit ton of tires son" type prophecy...) Michelin X-Ice 215/55/17's as well.

Given it's still August, I plan/hope to get the Pilot Sport 5's installed this week; I'll update this thread with photos/thoughts on the tires. My tentative plan is to get them on this week, and then take a trip to "Triple Nickel": Motorcycle Guide - Map - Muskingum County - Zanesville, Ohio (visitzanesville.com) And then later this year, we will legitimately be down in North Carolina/TN again, and will run it through The Dragon: Exploring US 129: the Tail of the Dragon - Dreams Abroad

Do I expect amazing things? Nah. But I find it hilarious in general. I self amuse. That's very important in life.

My personal opinion of the 19s: They ride too rough. It's 'jarring', IMHO, in comparison to the 17s on the two Prius' we rented. Is it worth the MONEY to replace them with 17s? That's a personal opinion. You can all do the math on OEM rims and 'tires' for a brand new car, so realistically and 'logically', no, it's not worth the money. To me, it was just more of an annoyance/"I watched that damn YouTube video too much" sort of thing. Do not do what I do; my financial sense is warped.

Anyways, given it's my wife's car, and the fact it's... well, a Prius, there's only so many clever things we'll be doing. Tires/rims being the main one. For us, it's going to be the primary travel car; road trips, jaunts downtown in Columbus, trips in general. While I like my Subaru, she doesn't drive stick, and it's just... not great to drive long distances. It's mildly modified, running E85/tune, and gets about... 14MPG. It angers me to drive anywhere over '10 miles', as you can literally watch the gas gauge drop. Self-induced pain, I know.

I've already done the first oil change, at 450 miles. Did it need it? Probably not. Did I take great pleasure in changing the oil? I did. I am very easily amused. I am also *shocked* by how thin 0w16 oil is. I literally had never seen it before; all of my prior cars ran 0w-40, which compared to this stuff looked like damn SYRUP coming out, even warmed up. Jesus God almighty, it's like water. Pure water. I grew up on EvoX forums talking about oil, so I won't bore everyone with my ponderings on it all; I've gone down the rabbit holes of Mobil 1 vs OEM and the moly content, I have a damn spreadsheet of oil filter sizes/costs, but the main takeaway is: 0w16 is really thin. It scares me. The oil change was super easy, I tossed on a Fumoto valve for my later, far-too-often oil changes, and life goes on. Nothing better than working on a brand new car: Everything is so clean!

One thing I will re-iterate again, simply because I was truly shocked: The context of car reviews. I watched a TON of reviews on this thing, and all of them mention 'buzziness' or 'loudness'; while I won't disagree with the less-than-sexy tenor of the motor, so much of this is COMPARATIVE. For us, coming from a 2013 Mini and a 2020 STI? It's quiet, smooth, beautiful, and 'super nice', even with the 19s. I 100% recognize if we hopped in <a BMW> or something 'else' new and modern, then the comparison would be different, but I find some of the reviews almost... insulting, about how 'bad the engine sounds'. I mean, sure? But it's all relative, and it's just a weird comment at times...

Anyhoogle, Hotdog's rambling complete for today.

 

Thanks! Yeah, it does seem super solid. There's an overlap of 'things I can do that don't piss her off' too much, and she's used to the tire dance at least I am legitimately curious to know:

A) How much the Michelin summer tires, in 17s, will impact/change mileage, over the 'larger' 19s. It should 'increase' by being smaller/lighter, but might be 'offset' by the summer/less rolling resistance...
B) How much it will impact the ride quality

The former is directly measurable; the latter is more subjective.

 

Nice! I bought and used the F-133; standard. It worked fine. I think some of the extensions might be a 'bit' too long, but the standard one seems fine.

I've seen... a *few* around Columbus, but not many. We have a ton of Teslas and such, so I 100% know there's a lot of overlap of people who might have bought Priuses....

 

Pilot Sport 5, on the 'stock' 17" rim. Doesn't look too bad. A little 'fat', I suppose, but I don't think anyone 'normal' would ever be like 'this weirdo bought 215/55/17s Pilot Sport 5 for a Prius!' which is really the goal: I wanted it to look normal.

Pilot1 by Hotdog453 posted Aug 31, 2024 at 5:46 AM

Pilot2 by Hotdog453 posted Aug 31, 2024 at 5:46 AM

Pilot3 by Hotdog453 posted Aug 31, 2024 at 5:46 AM

Pilot4 by Hotdog453 posted Aug 31, 2024 at 5:46 AM

They feel 'more better' than the 19" OEM ones, that I'm now selling for free, in Ohio! For Sale - 2024 Prius XSE 19" Rims. "Free". Ohio | PriusChat

I would say there is 100% a 'noticeable difference' in just 'interior noise' on the freeway, which was my point of getting these. The biggest call out, of course, is just 'general handling', and my completely non scientific method of "take this specific off ramp really fast" test:

Stock OEMs: squealed at 35MPH
Pilot Sport 5, which is a hilarious overkill tire: Dead silent 'perfect' at 55MPH, and felt very planted.

THIS IS SCIENCE KIDS. THIS. IS. PRIUS PERFORMANCE.

<3

But nah, I'm happy. And the wife was like 'you spent how much?' and that's pretty much life.

I also picked up the set of 17s with the Michelin X-Ice installed. Those will be swapped out in November-ish time frame, probably.

I did learn from Toyota dealership that they don't need to mount the tires to program the Toyota TPM; they can just scan it and stuff. Which is 'neat'. In theory, I'll just be able to swap tires myself, go into the screen, and swap over to the 'new' set. Which is nice.

 

Continued rambling:

my wife is in Florida this weekend for a trip to her sisters, so I continued to abuse/test the car a bit.

I took it down to a local “twisty road” area: Motorcycle Guide - Map - Muskingum County - Zanesville, Ohio on Saturday.

the tires are, in a word, hilarious overkill. I’ve never driven an over tired car before: my other “fast” car, a 2020 STI on E85 is running 265 Pilot Sport 4s, and feels, IMHO, like a good match of performance and tire. Well balanced in terms of power and grip, to put it stupidly, and match up well together. While the stock 245s didn’t offer the grip needed at this power level, the 265s + better rubber matched up perfectly for this mix.

this, though? Sheer hilarity. The combo of Pilot Sport 5s and this drivetrain and power is a hilariously fun thing to drive in twisties. It’s so much tire for this car. It doesn’t squeal, it doesn’t scream, it just feels massively planted and stable. It’s really hard to describe, and while I wouldn’t recommend people drop 1k on these tires for a sheer hilarious run through curvy roads, I will say it’s quite enjoyable and “stable” feeling, even at speeds which are frankly horribly illegal and dangerous. It was fun, planted, and stable. And on the highway trip down there? Pedestrian and normal. Zero downside from a comfort perspective.

the car though has zero feedback. I’d heard the term “video game” in the past to describe cars, and that’s a good description. Zero feedback, just the tire noise (or lack thereof), and a serene sense of disconnection. Clearly the car was not designed for this sort of activity, but if you disconnect the “sense of disconnection”, it’s a formidable little machine. The power train delivers power in a perfect, predictable way; the punch from the electric motor really surges in the right way. It’s like a perfect, linear turbocharger or something; very enjoyable and consistent. I was able to take curves at well north of double their “posted” “warning sign” speed: IE, if the speed limit was 55, but the “curvy warning” was 35, the car took it at 70 without a hiccup.

is any of this logical or sensical? Absolutely not. Zero sense of logic. Do not do this. This is a pure waste of money, but one that amused me greatly for a good five hours. A+. Would do again. .

from an electrical range perspective, it still netted 39 miles electric at about 75mph until 0% on the new tires. MPG on this trip wasn’t even bothered to be tested.

 

Haha! I am super used to “older style” turbocharged cars, so a consistent delivery of power is so unique to me. It’s clearly not a performance car by any stretch, but the chassis is small and tight enough that it legitimately isn’t bad. Just “numb”.

and yeah, those roads down there are shockingly good. I used to go to the tail of the Dragon every year or so, but this legitimately is just as good. It’s just “less of them”.

 

I don't know if I'd call it LOOSE, but vague for sure. Like it 'does what I say', but it just has no direct response to 'what the heck it's doing'. I clearly FEEL THE CAR MOVING, but like zero sense of 'lol how it's feeling'. Admittedly, from a car perspective, my path has been...

1999 Nissan Maxima
2002 Subaru WRX
2015 Subaru WRX
2008 Corvette
2013 Mini Cooper S (Wife's car)
2020 Audi S4
2020 STI

So looking back at those, while none of them are SUPER AMAZING PERFORMANCE, all of them lean more into the 'performance' side of the equation, versus a PRIUS. So my experience is kinda warped, admittedly. Steering feel especially is a fairly modern thing, so I'm sure the Prius is much more akin to 'any modern, non performance car', but in a direct comparison to what I have driven/owned, it's sort of a weird comparison. Context matters!

I would say yeah, it's not... "Fast". But the power does come on very linear, and the 'big battery' gives it a shove that I have to imagine is a lot different than the OLDER Priuses. I know that was an oft-touted 'thing' in the reviews, but again, it's all relative I'm sure. I have never felt it was slow in terms of merging or day to day driving, in just 'getting up to speed' sort of thing. Which might be a decent step forward from some Priuses, maybe...

 

Wife drove the car to work for the first time today.

it got “to” work at 51% charge. When she left, she said it was at 52%, sitting in “partial shade”.

info screen showed 1.7 miles generated.

is the solar roof worth it? Probably not. But it’s neat

and that’s all that matters.

.

oh she likes the car too. Which I guess matters .

 

Thanks! Yeah, the whole delay in getting the car lead to this, more than anything. As we waited for months, dug into the whole 19" complaints, drove a few 19" cars, and then 17" non Primes as well, and: Yeah, there is 100% a difference.

I truly never expected nor hope for the Prime to be sporty, but the mix of the Pilot Sport + a 'naturally' tight frame makes for an interesting ride, for sure. There's no real 'feedback', but that's more or less to be expected.

We'll be putting the snow tires on her car here in a month or two, depending. If nothing else she now has summer tires, so we HAVE to swap, but there's a certain level of confidence it brings, even if we don't get a ton of snow.

We have a Rav4 Prime coming too, so the general idea is: If the snow is *THAT* bad, take that or the WRX we have (she doesn't drive stick), but I have zero fear that the 'Prime + Snow tires' will be at least as good as 'anything else on the road FWD', and I know most people don't have snow tires anyways.

We'll be at Tail of the Dragon (Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap – Motorcycle and sport car tourism serving Tail of the Dragon at Deals Gap, Cherohala Skyway, Moonshiner28, Devils Triangle, Diamondback, Blue Ridge Parkway, and more.) next week, so I'm looking forward to those roads too. She has zero interest, but hey, I'll enjoy it

 

So continued rambling!

Wife still likes the car. That's really, frankly, all that matters. It's quiet, it's nice, it's small enough for her, and she's happy. Win/win/win. Haven't gotten gas yet; gone 500 miles on a half a tank. Hilarious. We're not even trying, she just uses MAYBE 1/2 a gallon each day, MAYBE? Doubtful.

And, in other news, I picked up "the other" (I hesitate to say mine/hers, since that seems so awkward these days, given like... we're... married. I WANT her to drive the other car; go for it!), the Rav4 Prime XSE.

I will say: It's a hilarious mix of like modern and old stuff. It's especially jarring coming from the Prius: The center screen looks absolutely *HORRIBLE* compared to the Prius Prime XSE screen. Resolution is just bad bad. The interior and such is very similar, but some of the tech feels 100% aged. Functional, sure, but damn, they could have ported that over...

I was unable to get a 'Premium Package' one, so it is lacking the 360 view and such; kind of a bummer, but the Rav4 Primes are still kinda awkward to get. Oh well.

Like prior, I swapped out tires: Literally pulled it out of the showroom and pulled it into the service bay. Pilot Sport 4 SUV, and I bought TRD Rims + snow tires, Nokian Hakkapelitta. Good times.

Anyhoogle, I've gone from a Mini and a Subaru to two Primes... so... yeah. I have that going for me. I think they'll compliment eachother well. We've never had an SUV until now (well, a 2005 Forester, which... wasn't), and this mix feels 'logical'. Both are economical, both are 'reliable'.

Rav4-1 by Hotdog453 posted Sep 17, 2024 at 7:20 PM

Rav4-Lol-Tire by Hotdog453 posted Sep 17, 2024 at 7:21 PM

Rav4-2 by Hotdog453 posted Sep 17, 2024 at 7:21 PM