I bought myself a base-model Magnetic Gray (w/ gray cloth interior) tonight. It had just come in and had 2.8 miles on the odometer when I got there, and 5.2 by the time I had bought it (from short sprints around the dealership, such as for prep and whatnot) showing a tank average of 15.7 mpg. After my 102-mile drive home at speeds 70-85 mph but almost always at 80 mph, the tank mileage was 36.2 mpg. I was impressed, given the car is brand new and the tires are at "ordinary" pressure (probably 32 PSI but I didn't check). Oh, the route was very hilly too, from San Bernardino down to San Diego on Interstate [2]15. Temperature was 64 degrees, at night.

I'll post real impressions and stuff later, probably tomorrow. But I'm happy. My HCH had around 12360 miles when I traded it in.

Only downpoint is I let myself be ripped off. They gave me just $18500 for my car, which is low, but more importantly they added worthless $1300 chrome wheels to the TCH. Actually they initially offered $17k for the car and charged $2300 for the wheels, but that's basically just bait-and-switch; I still paid too much either way. Oh well. I was too impatient to wait 5 weeks for a car I put a deposit on at another dealer to come in, so whatever. Anyway I can't recommend Toyota of San Bernardino for that reason.

At least I'm happy with the car!

 

Congrats, let us know what you think.

 

Congrats with the new car! Hope you have fun with it for many years!

 

Yeah maybe this one I'll keep a nonzero number of years.

 

By the way, according to my math, my real mileage, over the 102 miles I drove, is 38.9. If the car was at 15.7 mpg over 5.2 miles, 0.33 gallons had been consumed. By the time I finished my highway drive at the 107-mile mark, 2.95 gallons had been consumed. So I had used 2.62 gallons to go 102 miles, which is 38.9 mpg. Of course this assumes the gauge is accurate and isn't overestimating, but it might be. We'll see in 400 miles when I refill.

 

You should have demanded they replace the wheels with regular ones.

 

Congratulations! It must be nice to finally have the waiting period over.

California dealers seem to be among the worst at add-ons and price premiums right now.

 

so, how is it?

 

I was gonna wait for my first tank (only at 322 miles now, tank just under half full according to gauge, though it says cruising range is 222) but here are my thoughts very briefly, since you asked.

My tank average is 35.5 over 322 miles, driven exactly like the HCH. That means mostly around-town driving, driving in traffic, etc., but with a good amount of highway driving, which is done typically at 80 mph or thereabouts. I was hoping to get at least 35 mpg with it so mission accomplished! I'm pleased.

The car is very smooth, it's often difficult telling whether the engine is running without looking at the gauge. Electric-only mode is easy to use for cruising or in heavy traffic, though I very rarely accelerate using it because you have to be very slow not to run the engine. But once cruising speed is reached, it's very easy to drop back down to EV mode and stay in it, or to allow the engine to run but get 50-60 mpg. The car is very good at coasting (no aggressive forced regeneration) and it auto-stops even when the engine is cold, though it'll run the engine most of the time you're moving until the engine warms up, which is to be expected.

I have more thoughts, but not enough experience to comment on other stuff. After this tank is done, it'll be safe for me to floor it when I want to and then I can comment on that, and I'll be driving to LA this weekend so I can comment more on how it drives.

Basically I'm very pleased. It solves every problem I had with the HCH, though it introduces a few minor ones. For example it's very large, which makes parking a big pain for me. And the interior controls aren't adequately lit, a problem the Prius also has. Like, the side mirror adjustment buttons are unlit, the door lock/unlock buttons are unlit, the window buttons are unlit except for some reason the word "AUTO" on the driver's-side window button, etc. Conversely, the radio and climate unit is too brightly lit, and while that can be adjusted (literally between 0% and 100%), the dashboard is at the same brightness, so dimming the console also dims the dashboard gauges by the same amount. You can even turn everything off completely, which is kind of neat though not very useful.

 

thanks for the review and congrats on the new car! how's the acceleration and handling at high speeds compared to the hch?

also, does anyone know what improvements toyota made to the hsd in the camry compared to the prius? i understand that they made some improvements that aren't in the current model prius.