2018 Plug-in Driving Mode?

[TGL]

10 hours ago, Devon Aygo said:

Plus it is longer at 4645 mm for the Plugin over 4540 mm for the Conventional, also the tailgate ( carbon fibre ), front & rear bumpers plus a load of technical variation under the skin.

I'm still confused by this thread as all the items mentioned by the OP suggest a Conventional Prius not a Plugin:

1. MY2018 Changes, having spoken to TGB they confirm there are no changes to the Plugin only the Conventional Prius

2. Congestion charge, Plugin and MY17 Prius will retain exemption only the MY18 Conventional Prius looses it

3. Chrome pack Toyota do not / have not offered a Chrome pack for Current Plugin only the Conventional model

I can't comment on the first point, and I will go back to TFL to double-check that my new plug-in is exempt (I agree it should be).  I have a feeling their system is still reading my old standard Prius Gen 3 data (but my CC record has been updated with my new Plug-in detail with the old non-exempt Prius removed).

As for the Chrome pack, I have a feeling the dealer simply didn't know that the Chrome pack didn't exist for the plug-in. All three Toyota dealers I spoke to all were open and admitted they had sold very few plug-ins, and their lack of general knowledge seemed to confirm this. I sense the plug-in is simply not that popular.  For my journeys and everything else factored-in, I will need to keep my plug-in for 8 years before I get a reasonable return on the investment. I kept my last Prius for that amount of time, and will probably do the same with my new one. Anyway, I digress from the point.

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, TGL said:

...I sense the plug-in is simply not that popular.  For my journeys and everything else factored-in, I will need to keep my plug-in for 8 years before I get a reasonable return on the investment. I kept my last Prius for that amount of time, and will probably do the same with my new one...

They would have sold a lot more if it had a spare wheel.  I would definitely have had the original one when it was launched, even at the price and with the short EV range, as with my many short journeys, I'd have charged it each night on off-peak electricity, and topped up during the day.  Most days of the month I'd have used almost no petrol at all.

At the time, many other Prius owners and potential owners on this and other boards said they would have bought one but for the spare wheel.  Some owners did buy a space saver, but it's a nuisance without the space to store it properly (although on the original PiP you could store it vertically wedged into the cable storage trough, but it was terribly in the way).

Yes, I know the bigger Battery takes up space, but if a small six man business could modify a 2007 Prius (which my old company had) and give it almost 40 miles EV AND leave room for the space saver under the boot floor, with all Toyota's resources they should have been able to make a 10-12 miles model do that in their sleep!

The latest PiP would have been even more suitable for me with it's extra features and greater range, but it added two more things that are no-nos for me: only four seats and no rear wiper (again, although the Prius rear wiper is not brilliantly positioned, I wouldn't be without it, even though the car has sensors and camera.  I loved my original 2002 Gen 1 Prius (4 door saloon [sedan]) dearly, but two things it lacked I really, really hated - no rear wiper and no heated door mirrors.  But it did have something I loved - a full size, matching alloy spare wheel under a decent sized boot [trunk].

[TGL]

3 minutes ago, PeteB said:

They would have sold a lot more if it had a spare wheel.  I would definitely have had the original one when it was launched, even at the price and with the short EV range, as with my many short journeys, I'd have charged it each night on off-peak electricity, and topped up during the day.  Most days of the month I'd have used almost no petrol at all.

At the time, many other Prius owners and potential owners on this and other boards said they would have bought one but for the spare wheel.  Some owners did buy a space saver, but it's a nuisance without the space to store it properly (although on the original PiP you could store it vertically wedged into the cable storage trough, but it was terribly in the way).

Yes, I know the bigger battery takes up space, but if a small six man business could modify a 2007 Prius (which my old company had) and give it almost 40 miles EV AND leave room for the space saver under the boot floor, with all Toyota's resources they should have been able to make a 10-12 miles model do that in their sleep!

The latest PiP would have been even more suitable for me with it's extra features and greater range, but it added two more things that are no-nos for me: only four seats and no rear wiper (again, although the Prius rear wiper is not brilliantly positioned, I wouldn't be without it, even though the car has sensors and camera.  I loved my original 2002 Gen 1 Prius (4 door saloon [sedan]) dearly, but two things it lacked I really, really hated - no rear wiper and no heated door mirrors.  But it did have something I loved - a full size, matching allow spare wheel under a decent sized boot [trunk].

I must confess I almost broke the control stick for the windscreen wipers in my new plug-in.  Coming from a gen-3 Prius I naturally assumed the new plug-in had a rear wiper blade, and soon realised a rear blade did not exist! That will teach me for assuming :-) 

I must admit I have wondered why the new plug-in Battery needs so much space. It could be something to do with car balance and road handling. Having the Battery further forward taking up the middle seat in the new plug-in maybe for that reason.  I agree with you on the EV performance versus physical Battery space/location, because a year ago I almost paid £5K for a third-party battery upgrade to my gen 3 prius to get the range you describe. In the end I figured I would buy a new car. In that third-party configuration, the extra battery cells would sit in the hidden boot tray. Maybe others more "in the know" can enlighten us.

[PeteB]

1 hour ago, TGL said:

...All three Toyota dealers I spoke to all were open and admitted they had sold very few plug-ins, and their lack of general knowledge seemed to confirm this...

That used to be true of the Prius before the other Toyota Hybrids came along.  Until the Gen 2 Prius was launched for the 2004 model year only 60 Toyota dealers were authorised to sell or maintain Hybrids, and many of the other dealers had no idea they even existed!

About 2 years after the Gen 2 came out, a Gen 1 (we used to call it the "Classic" Prius) owner on another board told of a visit to his nearest dealer to buy some Wiper Blades.  When the parts man asked about his car he insisted there was no Prius in 2001 so either the owner had got the year wrong or the wrong model.  The owner asked to see the parts manager, to which the guy replied he was the parts manager!

Apparently the owner (his words) then almost dragged him outside and pushed his face near the boot lid so he could see the Prius Badge!

In fairness, some dealers are quite clued up.  My dealer was one of the original 60, and I bought both my Gen 1s, a Gen 3 and my current Gen 4 Prius from them.  The service manager is still the same one, and the same engineer has done most of the work on all my cars.  Both are very knowledgeable about the Hybrid range, including the PiP.

 

[QuantumFireball]

2 hours ago, PeteB said:

They would have sold a lot more if it had a spare wheel.

There are loads of cars with no spare wheels these days, e.g. most BMWs. Honda Civics 11 years ago had no spare wheel. I doubt this is a significant factor TBH. I'm sure there are millions of drivers out there who don't know how or wouldn't even consider changing a flat tyre on the side of the road.

2 hours ago, PeteB said:

Yes, I know the bigger battery takes up space, but if a small six man business could modify a 2007 Prius (which my old company had) and give it almost 40 miles EV AND leave room for the space saver under the boot floor, with all Toyota's resources they should have been able to make a 10-12 miles model do that in their sleep!

Toyota have stringent safety requirements and type approval processes that they have to go through in various different markets in order to sell a mass-produced car globally. There are also various considerations for actually mass-producing such components, integrating these into their assembly processes, etc. This is stuff that costs hundreds of millions to achieve, not something six lads in a shed could do.

[ecps]

On 21/11/2017 at 10:14 PM, Devon Aygo said:

Even more confused Toyota don't offer a chrome pack on the Plugin only the conventional model. can you PM me your registration or vin number ?

I may be able to shed some light on the confusion that has arisen over the new Prius plug-in model year. I think that it is down to the fact that some dealers are selling the previous model and describing it as a "2017 model". I guess they are trying to shift pre-registered old stock.

Have a look at https://www.inchcapetoyota.co.uk/cars/toyota-range/prius-plugin/ and you will see that the picture on the top of the page is of the new model but everything else refers to the previous model - even down to making an outdated brochure available for download. I had a look at the brochure and one of the options is for a Style Pack which consists of side chrome trim, lower rear chrome trim and chrome front fog light surround.

Presumably they tell customers that the new model is a '2018' model to differentiate it from the previous '2017' one.

TGL - did you get your PiP from Inchcape? My guess would be that you did.

Move over Hercule Poirot!

[TGL]

8 minutes ago, ecps said:

I may be able to shed some light on the confusion that has arisen over the new Prius plug-in model year. I think that it is down to the fact that some dealers are selling the previous model and describing it as a "2017 model". I guess they are trying to shift pre-registered old stock.

Have a look at https://www.inchcapetoyota.co.uk/cars/toyota-range/prius-plugin/ and you will see that the picture on the top of the page is of the new model but everything else refers to the previous model - even down to making an outdated brochure available for download. I had a look at the brochure and one of the options is for a Style Pack which consists of side chrome trim, lower rear chrome trim and chrome front fog light surround.

Presumably they tell customers that the new model is a '2018' model to differentiate it from the previous '2017' one.

TGL - did you get your PiP from Inchcape? My guess would be that you did.

Move over Hercule Poirot!

I did indeed buy from Inchcape, but now I'm confused. I have the newer of the two body stylings. I've seen with my own eyes a 2017 plug-in like the one at the top of the page of the link you send to me, but my one has slightly different styling. Unless you are telling me there are two body shapes to the 2017 range, then I'm now not sure what to think. Hmmmm.....Oh well.... 

[ecps]

If you have a 'bent' back window it is the newest model and that, despite what dealers may say, is the model available in the UK from (I think) about April 2017