Jerry's Evolving Thoughts on "new-to-me" Prime Premium

I remember those days.

And then there was our adventure on the way from Lomé to Mango, Togo four years ago. Flat tire and one stud was spinning. So they cut it off. After that we went on down the road missing TWO studs on the right front. Until most of the belts broke on the engine and the driver had to hitch a ride on a motorcycle to the next town and bring back enough belts to at least run the engine. (A/C was a luxury since it was barely over 100F.)

 

I'm afraid a Prime or any Plug-in would die young there. The electricity is REALLY bad. As are most of the roads. You need one of the Landcruisers specifically built for Africa, like my friend, Adam, drives. Yeah. Actually, no hybrid would last long there now that I think about it.

 

Vacation preparations are beginning.

I posted this in a new thread, but will add it here. I finally found something that actually works to block the glare on the 11.6" display. Now, instead of a blinding light, that part of the screen just turns white.

Leaving in a few minutes to get the new tires put on and alignment done. Going with the Yokohama Avid Ascend GT all season. The price is just too good and it gets very good reviews. All my previous Prii had Avids, too.

And since the wife is bugged by sweat from the seats, I have seat covers on the way. Going with some inexpensive but well reviewed red & black universal ones because I just don't have enough money left now for custom ones. Bound to be better than a beach towel.

 

New tires installed. Service writer was a nice guy, but didn't know much about the Prime since I think this dealership has only sold about three of them. I told him that I have over 1,700 miles on this tank and it's still just a whisker under 3/4 full. His eyes almost popped out of his head and he suddenly had lots of questions about plugging in and what it actually cost me to drive. After I told him that it's about two cents a mile for the electricity I actually have to buy and that I've pulled about 175 or so kWh from my wall in those 1,700+ miles, I sensed that he was starting to want one.

 

Well, it wasn't a thorough test of the tires, but I did put 38 miles on them yesterday. 19 miles of it was on the route to & from work. They at least were not louder than the Toyos. Maybe slightly quieter. I took some corners fairly aggressively. The car was on a rail. It had stopped raining and the roads were pretty well dried, so no report about wet handling.

As for effect on mpg, that's hard to say because it was very windy. However, looking at the miles/kWh bar chart, it seemed like I was consistently slightly under 5 miles/kWh while I had been slightly over with the old tires. That might have been the weather, but I would not be surprised at a small hit till the tires limber up.

Edit to add. I almost forgot. I did have them out in the wet earlier in the day for about 4 miles. Serious puddles!! No hydroplaning, but it was all local street speeds of about 35 or so mph.

 

'Nuther tire update. The Yokohamas seem to be breaking in after a couple hundred miles. I was in the mid 4's for m/kWh for quite a while but it's creeping back up. Yesterday's eco diary had me at 5.1. Still not back to the level of the Toyos (mid-upper 5s), but it hasn't leveled off yet, either. And some of that difference is probably due tot the increased tread depth creating a larger diameter and very slightly reducing the odometer reading over the same distance. Oh! And they are also at least as quiet as the Toyo Nanos.

I did read an encouraging comparison test from TireRack dot com of these tires against the competition from Goodyear, Michelin, & Continental. Here's the summary:

 

Moving will do that to ya! It seems like there has been a sudden surge in upgrades to Prime lately. But if you need more room, the Prime sure would not help. But I have found that, so far, it hasn't hurt compared to the PiP like I was afraid it might.

 

Update on fuel use:
I just turned over 2,000 miles yesterday on this tank. Gauge is still reading over 5/8 full. I'll top it off a week from today before we head west on vacation and see how the numbers crunch.

Yesterday's m/kWh with the new tires reverted a little. Only got 4.8 or 4.9 m/kWh. Traffic was a factor, but not enough to account for the entire difference. Can't wait to get it out on a road trip to see how it compares to the PiP.

 

This afternoon, when I ran out of EV range, I had the presence of mind to reset the Trip A trip meter. Over the remaining 17 + a fraction miles home, it returned 75.7 mpg on country roads with 50-54 mph with several stops. I don't think the PiP could have come close to that.