Disappointing Prius plug-in

[notaguru]

My niece and her husband drove the new Prius, and reported as follows:

Max speed on battery - 62mph
Max range on battery - 11 (eleven) miles

The car she was interested in - $42,000+tax

She was told that it's a 1.5 hour charge with a 240V source.

She has driven my Volt and felt that it was a lot like her old BMW 3-series. The Prius (my opinion as well) is more like a Corolla.

I checked online, and those numbers appear to be correct.

[maczr1]

The max speed 62 mph is not the whole story any time you step on the gas you use gas in other words the electric motor assists the gas engine .
Tom

[Henry_FL]

Pip is nothing more than a regular Hybrid with a somewhat larger battery that can also be wall charged in addition to by regen

[saghost]

The only part of that which surprises me is the price - I thought they had two models, Basic and Advanced - with no real options beyond that (color choices, too.) The basic was ~$33k? and the Advanced $40k. So I'm not sure how it was $42k unless the dealer was marking it up?

I'm also curious how much of their test drive they managed to keep electric. As someone else mentioned, the car will turn the gas on when you ask for much power - I think the threshold is around 30kW somewhere...

[DonC]

The Prius makes sense. It's not a car I'd want but it gets good mileage and it's very reliable. The Prius V makes sense if you need more room. The Prius C makes sense if you don't have any money. The PIP makes no sense -- it's too expensive for the marginal improvement over the basic Prius. Basically the Volt is hands down the best plug in. Everything else sucks air.

[Dan & Nan]

Friends don't let friends drive PiP. Ok, that's not totally correct. If they're driving tons of miles per day and don't want to spend Tesla $$$ then maybe

I always like to mention that, during a magazine test drive, the PiP started it's gas engine because the ramp to leave a parking garage was too steep And, as mentioned if you accelerate too hard or drive too fast it starts it too and the battery range is 6-12 (sometimes 15) miles. I expected way more out of Toyota and Honda.

[scottf200]

Other "details" aside from manual in this thread:
Plug-in-Prius-PiP-manual
http://gm-volt.com/forum/showthread....ius-PiP-manual

[Steverino]

The PiP is an odd duck. With a plug and slightly larger battery it seems it is being painted as an EV, but it's not. It's a Prius with a larger battery that under some rare conditions (driving at a snail's pace on flat ground) can drive a few miles on electricity. I suppose if you drive in school parking lots all the time it would be OK. But that's not where most drive.

[kj7]

Seems to me it is all about the california market ... i.e. hov permits and nothing about being a true electric

[sgtpokey]

Seems to me it is all about the california market ... i.e. hov permits and nothing about being a true electric

exactly, the diamond lane access is the only thing really going for it... and from a "value" standpoint the Volt gives you much better value in addition to HOV access. I had not realized the sticker price for the PIP was so high, if i recall correctly they also get smaller tax credits and california rebates as well so the Volt could possibly be cheaper when comaring similar feature specs...