Henri's Bakersfield Trip Facts

Round trip to my sister's in Bakersfield was 281.4 Miles I got 75.1 miles to the gallon overall and was running AC 3/4 of the time, and I reached speeds right at 100 miles an hour. Going down the grade to Grapevine, is where I reached a speed of 100 miles an hour and I accumulated 6.5 miles of EV charge, by lightly tapping the brakes. Up until I got to the top of the grade, I had been running on Cruise Control set to 68MPH. The whole trip was run in Power mode. Coming home driving mostly without Cruise Control. Lots of traffic, especially coming home: it took about 3 1/2 hours to drive home !! 6 1/2 hours total round trip. No back ache; fantastic lumbar support. Used Bluetooth phone for some music, then 3/4 trip with Pandora; no problems at all: no buffering problems, clear sound, although did set volume on phone to high level, and then controlled volume with steering wheel controls.
I charged using 110V at my sister's for about 4.5 hours, and got 24.4 EV miles.

I did 7-8 miles at 85-95 catching up to another Prime on a flat stretch out of Grapevine; Prime driver was oblivious to my wildly flailing about alongside of him.
I saw a total of three Primes, all of them were Advanced, the 2 occupied Primes' owners didn't recognize me when I waved! One of the Primes, a white Advanced was parked at the restaurant we visited!!
Now it is possible that because of my dark tinted glass, they did not see me waving crazily. Next time I'm going to roll down my window!
You guys on the other hand, I must say, are definite enthusiasts of the Prime! Very cool!!


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It was a blast!!! Very tight, great control, and of course smooth and quiet. I really appreciated the quiet coming home in the big bad traffic jams that I ran into. Half way home on the return trip, I turned off the entertainment. You are enclosed in your quiet cocoon amidst the turmoil of the traffic, and it is very very comfortable!!

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The tires are terrible!! They're Toyo Eco-crap blah, blah, blah, certified POS model (for you innocents, the POS model designation is for Piece Of S..., har, har!) They slide around something awful on damp road, and are "boomy" noisy on all but the smoothest roads. I was blessed by recently paved sections of freeway that made me feel like I was in a spaceship!! The car does feel a good deal heavier than my old 2012 PIP,
But nevertheless feels quite agile when accelerating in heavy traffic and it's so quiet, you don't hear the noise but the car just accelerates quickly. Remember, I had it in Power mode the entire trip. Going up, I changed from EV to HV, as soon as I hit freeway. Coming back, still in Power mode, I went to EV Auto, and mostly did NOT use Cruise Control. . On my PIP, I almost never used that Cruise Control; this DRCC or whatever this Cruise is something else entirely. I did see why some of you fellows got really annoyed by the pop up screen that keeps saying cruise control and then shows the speed setting. That gets really annoying. I stopped using the Cruise today because I was getting tired and became concerned that I might rely on the Cruise too much, and become confused that it was off or on, in an emergency. I figured I'd better focus on the road with my established habits, and get myself home safely.


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That's what my Entune says my EV range is; of course this is with my aggregate average of around 35.5 EV miles on my car with 5142 miles on my odometer. BTW, the 5000 mile service was a 45 minute non-event at Toyota Place; they check stuff, rotate tires, and don't even change the oil and filter!! Wow how times have changed; I changed oil/& filter per factory at 500 miles on my new 1987 Alfa Romeo Milano Verde in 1987, plugs every 12K, etc. 7 qts of oil & filter every 3K miles. Nowadays, the car's lucky if you open up the hood once a year!!


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Mr. Kenny & Mr. Coast, I agree with your tire assessments and I had bought the Michelin tires for my 2012 PIP, with VERY good results: quiet, good handling, excellent fuel economy and Surprising durability. I would rotate those tires every 5000 miles and balance them for free at America's Tire.
When I sold the car at 103,000 miles, those tires had over 65,000 miles on them and the mechanic at America's Tire said those tires had at least another 30,000 miles left on them!! The Michelin's were Primacy MXV4 HR rated, and cost me $602.36 installed, balanced with new inflation sensor kits, including tax & recycle fee. Unfortunately this model is no longer available from Michelin, so you still have to do your homework to figure out which model is the best one for performance that you like. I will definitely buy another Michelin set for my new Prime, unfortunately I don't have the money to be able to throw away the existing garbage tires. My IT business is kind of slow right now.!! My biggest complaint with the Toyota Ecco tires is their booming noise when they're being driven on most roads. The poor traction occurred on a damp road going around a corner at a brisk speed, where the car started to fish-tail, and over-steered. I was surprised! I didn't lose control, but it felt like the car was not doing what it should be doing. My driving habits have not changed, and I never have had this problem with the Michelin Tires. I do these little "tests" with all my cars, including slamming on the brakes in a safe place; it's better to know the limits of your car BEFORE you get into a dangerous situation! The high speed test, on a clear, well lit road also shows you what she's got, what reserves the car has, how balanced is the car. It's a once in a lifetime (for that car!!) event!

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I believe it's all the tires' fault. I can hardly ever hear my engine, unless windows are down and I'm really gunning the car. Road traffic noise has been tremendously reduced compared to my 2012 PIP. Also, you have a lot of different noise characteristics depending on the road surface. The smooth, new asphalt surface on some of the freeways is noticeably quieter. If you're running on electric at that time, you can hear a pin drop inside the car!!. The Prime Advanced really offers an excellent Stealth Mode!
. I really wish we could get noise cancelling technology out of Toyota; now that would be truly revolutionary since it should obviate the need for so much heavy insulation.

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