Sadly My 2012 100% recycled PIP was totaled (T-boned to death)

There is a silver lining in this cloud! I bought a clean titled lease return 2013 with 36k miles for less than the insurance pay out for my 2012 salvage titled PIP that had 38k miles. The bad news is the replacement car has brand new snow tires on it & they were only inflated to 35 PSI so my mileage sucked big time on the drive home ( 490 miles used 11 gallons of gas). It would appear that the previous owners almost never plugged in as the display shows 7% EV use and both showed the same total miles as the odometer. The charging cord that came with it wouldn't charge, till I removed the stupid gasket from the plug. Now it charges just fine. I do believe that the oil was not 0-20 but much heavier as well. Just had the oil changed, filthy air filter and cabin air filter replaced. Also on the drive home I used my Galaxy tablet running torque and saw much higher ICE power used compared to what I'm used to. The tablet quit working about 1/2 way home even though it was plugged into the power outlet between the seat heater switches. It turned out that the 15 amp fuse for the cigarette lighters was blown. I replaced it with a 10 amp spare till I got a supply of the tiny fuses it's now the correct 15 amp fuse. I just finished fully charging the HV battery & it's now estimating 13.9 miles EV range. I've increased the tire pressure to the sidewall limit 44PSI. Unfortunately my grill blockers went with the wrecked car, I'll have to replace them. Had to cancel my old satellite radio sub subscription and activate this one but it's done. I'm anxious to see the mileage after the oil change and tire inflation. I may wait till spring before replacing the Cooper snow tires with Bridgestone Ecopias. I've never had snow tires before but plan to get a second set of rims for them when I get back on low rolling friction tires.

 

I have a much greater appreciation of the elegance of the PIP after driving the rental car substitute. a Corolla, for a month and 3/4. I'm so used to not dealing with ignition keys for example. Not to mention that 28 MPG sucks big time when I'm used to 50+. Initially they thought it was repairable but the collision shop kept finding hidden damage till I got a call at 7:49PM to tell me it was totaled. So I went to the Internet and found over 50 used PIPs for sale within 500 miles. I was pleasantly surprised by the numbers so I narrowed the search to less odometer miles than I had and only white or lite blue, I still had 15 choices. After checking actual stock by phone I had only 5 to choose from & 2 of them had been repaired & all that remained were "Blizzard Pearl". Oh well I couldn't get the same color but my family likes the new color better than the blue & I'm getting used to it. I also had to replace the battery in one of the key fobs ( two of them for $6.88 at Wallmart).

 

Bisco,
I sure was surprised to find so many good choices. Made the decision not to wait a while & "upgrade?" to a prime a lot easier. I'll install a block heater in the new, to me, PIP soon, it's getting to be cold enough to really like the quick warm up I used to have. My second block heater installation should be a lot quicker than the first, which took about 2 hours much of which was trying to find the right hole.

 

I got the grill block installed, it was a pain as there is a front plate holder that's gonna stay as the holes in the front bumper are just too ugly. I'm looking for a decorative front plate as Kentucky is a one plate state. I made a run to the nearest grocery store and needed the ICE, in the memory car I could make it all EV , but it was raining. The tires must go! So I'm shopping for Bridgestone Ecopia 422 plus and find there are 3, or maybe even more, different tires with the same label listed on tirerack.com. They include a 4 rib for $88.48 (44PSI,US), a 5 rib for $84.25 (51PSI, Mexico), A ?rib for 74.25 (44PSI, Japan). They also differ in load rating, section width and tread width. I'll probably go with the $84.25 tire it has the highest load rating (tied with the US tire), widest tread width, narrowest section (tied with the tire from Japan) and the highest sidewall pressure rating. I was quite happy with the EP20s on the memory car, great fuel economy but replacing with EP20s is more expensive ($94.25) and they have no tread life warranty at all, lower load limit, lower pressure limit and the narrowest tread width. Should I consider the Michelin Energy Saver AS, maybe, but it is $112.45 , has a narrow tread width and 44 PSI limit. I suspect that the EP422 @51 PSI will get better MPG than the energy saver @44PSI. Can I find the 5 rib lacally or will I have to get them from tire rack?