Plug in prius now has 5 seats

[johalareewi]

Local dealer has a new plugin arrived and it has 5 seats not 4.  Will be having a look later.

 

[altocumulus]

Of more importance, what's the boot capacity? We need that extra space on the back seat for overflow luggage 😄

[johalareewi]

Went to dealer as arranged  it but they had sent it out for a few days so couldn't see it.:( Salesman said the boot space with the 5 seats is the same as with 4 seats.  There are a few other cosmetic changes too apparently.  If you go the the plugin prius gallery on the toyota uk website, there is a picture of the new back seats.

 

[johalareewi]

On 7/12/2019 at 3:25 PM, altocumulus said:

Of more importance, what's the boot capacity? We need that extra space on the back seat for overflow luggage 😄

Looking at the pictures online, you can now lay stuff  across the back seat without the lump in the middle getting in the way.

Picture 2 in the gallery

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius-plugin/

 

[Phil T]

Very Black inside now, amazing how much the little bit of white lifted the ambience, but heated seat switches you can see and reach! Are the rear seats really that far raked back. What does the radio do or not, with the change?

[HSDish]

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius-plugin/?utm_source=ToyotaOwnersClub&utm_medium=ForumLinks

 

That linked page says

”An increased EV range up to 39 miles” (I think thats about 63 km)

As I understand , previous Prius PHEV gen 2  2017-19 has an EV range up to 31 miles (about 50km I think)

And Prius PHEV gen 1  2012-16 got an EV range up to 13 miles (about 21km)

 

So… does this new (or facelifted) Prius PHEV got a stronger Battery than the previous Prius PHEV  or has I misunderstood/got this wrong

 

Is there any more known news beside 5 seat and moved (thanks) seat heather buttons ?

[Ten Ninety]

The advertised EV range for the PHV was 39 miles before. I believe the piece of text you are quoting is old, and is a comparison to the 2012 PHV.

[altocumulus]

15 hours ago, HSDish said:

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius-plugin/?utm_source=ToyotaOwnersClub&utm_medium=ForumLinks

 

That linked page says

”An increased EV range up to 39 miles” (I think thats about 63 km)

As I understand , previous Prius PHEV gen 2  2017-19 has an EV range up to 31 miles (about 50km I think)

And Prius PHEV gen 1  2012-16 got an EV range up to 13 miles (about 21km)

 

So… does this new (or facelifted) Prius PHEV got a stronger battery than the previous Prius PHEV  or has I misunderstood/got this wrong

 

Is there any more known news beside 5 seat and moved (thanks) seat heather buttons ?

Up to 39 miles is the claim for the 2017/18 PHV. My maximum charge, so far, has been 36.5 miles. I like to think I am an economical driver, but the best I manage is around 28 miles from that - but road conditions hereabouts are a mite hilly :D.

Meanwhile my HV capability continues to rise, (possibly the last few weeks driving in that mode has loosened the engine) and my latest record on a home to Aberdeen trip is 93.9 mpg.

[QuantumFireball]

I think the 31 miles might be on the WLTP test, not sure - it could even be the old NEDC test. Not sure where the 39 miles is from.

US EPA test claims 25 miles, which is much more realistic, if not a bit pessimistic, but totally achievable in the real world.

[Ten Ninety]

I think 31 miles might well be WLTP. That's about right for reasonable warm-weather driving. Winter is obviously a completely different story.

The best I've managed in real range remains 36 miles. I am currently getting a reliable 34-35 every day. However, the range indicator is insisting every morning that I'll be able to go nearly 42 miles which is utter nonsense. 

Just for reference, I did some experimentation with manually resetting the on-board miles per kWh figure (which for no good reason won't reset with all the other economy figures) and found that a real range of 35 miles equates to driving at an indicated 6 miles per kWh. Something is clearly shonky there, as the usable capacity of the PHV is 7kWh which means I should actually be going those 42 miles. Clearly the miles per kWh figure is as inflated as the on-board mpg readout!

[FROSTYBALLS]

Also see https://blog.toyota.co.uk/whats-different-about-the-new-toyota-prius-plug-in

[Ten Ninety]

15 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

Also see https://blog.toyota.co.uk/whats-different-about-the-new-toyota-prius-plug-in

In typical Toyota fashion, that article says 17" wheels are available and shows a picture of them. However, they are not available on the UK configurator.

[HectorG]

On 7/12/2019 at 1:03 PM, johalareewi said:

Local dealer has a new plugin arrived and it has 5 seats not 4.  Will be having a look later.

 

Can you tell me which dealer has the 5-seater. I’m in Dorset and was test driving a 4-seater in Exeter on Friday. 

I don’t imagine I could bring myself to buy a new plug-in, but I’d like to see one ‘in the flesh’. But after nearly 3 years in a RAV4 Hybrid I’m seriously considering a BEV or PHEV. I was mightily impressed with the Prius PHV in terms of comfort, quietness (except the dreaded tyre noise - Eco tyres?), steering, handling and sheer smoothness when in EV mode.

I had ruled out the 4 seater because of wife’s concern at lack of flexibility, especially as our only other vehicle is a 4 seater camper van, and the small load space with the rear seats up. However, I had come to the conclusion that it ticks all of the other boxes as far as I am concerned, to the extent that we could live with 4 seats and a small boot. Unfortunately, I was then informed by my local dealer that the 5-seater was due anytime and I started to worry about the effect on the residuals of the 4-seater.

I've been looking at the Toyota UK used stock for a few weeks. It’s surprising how long some of the cars have been stuck on dealer’s forecourts - one or two for 6 to 9 months! Despite this prices are only just starting to soften. I’m wondering if it would be better to hang on for a few months in the hope that a good 4-seater will look like a bargain. I can live with the white plastic trim, the badly positioned seat heaters switches and current infotainment system.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the likely longer term impact on 4-seater values once the new 5-seater is generally available?

[johalareewi]

Snows at Millbrook Southampton have a 5 seater (unless they have sold it).

[HectorG]

2 hours ago, johalareewi said:

Snows at Millbrook Southampton have a 5 seater (unless they have sold it).

Thanks. I was at Snows Exeter on Friday and they didn’t mention having one in the group. What colour is it?

[Ten Ninety]

15 hours ago, HectorG said:

I've been looking at the Toyota UK used stock for a few weeks. It’s surprising how long some of the cars have been stuck on dealer’s forecourts - one or two for 6 to 9 months! Despite this prices are only just starting to soften. I’m wondering if it would be better to hang on for a few months in the hope that a good 4-seater will look like a bargain. I can live with the white plastic trim, the badly positioned seat heaters switches and current infotainment system.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the likely longer term impact on 4-seater values once the new 5-seater is generally available?

If you're concerned about residuals, it might be best to avoid the PHV completely and stick with the Gen4 ordinaire. PHV values might end up riding the wave of interest in electric cars and hold up well. However, they sell new in pitiful numbers and seem more likely to remain misunderstood by most buyers who remain fearful of any car that has a plug, which will keep values depressed. 

I can't imagine having five seats will have any great impact on sales. It may make a difference for some, but I'd imagine that if you needed five seats, you'd almost certainly need more luggage space than the comically tiny boot will offer. Therefore I don't think it will impact on values of the 4-seater much.

As regards holding out for a 'bargain' in a few months, that logic might not work because logic doesn't seem to apply to used PHV prices. It may be different now, but a year ago I found prices - like many low-volume cars - to be incredibly random. It wasn't unusual to see differences of up to £4k between dealers for cars with the same plate, colour and mileage. More bizarrely, having monitored Auto Trader for a good 6 months, I found that advertised prices for some cars would often go up over time! The amount of time a car had been for sale also seemed to have zero impact on the dealer's willingness to 'do a deal'. I tried a few of these and they were happy to let me walk away without even bothering to negotiate, despite me pointing out that other cars were advertised for considerably less. To be honest, trying to buy a PHV was the most frustrating and depressing experience I've ever had buying a car, as all the familiar 'rules' for buying used cars just didn't seem to apply. I got there in the end, but only after hundreds of miles travelled and many weeks of trying. I hope you have better luck, and a more enjoyable time!

 

[HectorG]

5 hours ago, Ten Ninety said:

If you're concerned about residuals, it might be best to avoid the PHV completely and stick with the Gen4 ordinaire. PHV values might end up riding the wave of interest in electric cars and hold up well. However, they sell new in pitiful numbers and seem more likely to remain misunderstood by most buyers who remain fearful of any car that has a plug, which will keep values depressed. 

I can't imagine having five seats will have any great impact on sales. It may make a difference for some, but I'd imagine that if you needed five seats, you'd almost certainly need more luggage space than the comically tiny boot will offer. Therefore I don't think it will impact on values of the 4-seater much.

As regards holding out for a 'bargain' in a few months, that logic might not work because logic doesn't seem to apply to used PHV prices. It may be different now, but a year ago I found prices - like many low-volume cars - to be incredibly random. It wasn't unusual to see differences of up to £4k between dealers for cars with the same plate, colour and mileage. More bizarrely, having monitored Auto Trader for a good 6 months, I found that advertised prices for some cars would often go up over time! The amount of time a car had been for sale also seemed to have zero impact on the dealer's willingness to 'do a deal'. I tried a few of these and they were happy to let me walk away without even bothering to negotiate, despite me pointing out that other cars were advertised for considerably less. To be honest, trying to buy a PHV was the most frustrating and depressing experience I've ever had buying a car, as all the familiar 'rules' for buying used cars just didn't seem to apply. I got there in the end, but only after hundreds of miles travelled and many weeks of trying. I hope you have better luck, and a more enjoyable time!

 

Many thanks for that - looks like it’ll be a lot harder than I imagined to get a satisfactory deal.

Regarding depreciation, I recently worked out what I’d lost in the last 25 years on some great cars as well as some not so good - pretty horrifying - so there’s not much point in starting to worry too much about it now as it’s an unfortunate fact of life.

I’ve seen four PHV’s in the last four weeks, all at main Toyota dealers. The experience was mixed: one car badly prepared and a chipped bonnet and for some reason not Toyota Approved (forgot to ask why as I wasn’t taking it further as overpriced); another car very cheap, but a dubious provenance (bought in through the trade) and missing first service by two months which I considered possibly compromising the remaining warranty after speaking to Toyota HQ; the third car most local to me and a well looked after demonstrator, but very pricey. Also in grey which I would like to avoid - I have a grey RAV4, but maybe I should be more flexible on colour if I’m going to achieve a good outcome; and the fourth car was a nice Pearl White example, but too new to be up for sale yet.

I visited my nearest dealer today for a touch-in pencil and saw that the grey PHV mentioned above had just dropped by £600 today, having previously been reduced by about £2400 since it appeared for sale. Also, I noticed a couple on the main Toyota website have dropped by £2,000 this week! We live in hope. Maybe I should just decide which colour I like, what maximum age and biggest mileage I could live with and go for it. BTW, any colour I should avoid? Prices don’t seem to indicate any meaningful difference, although perhaps reds are slightly higher at the moment and white interiors don't seem as desirable?

As I said in my previous post the PHV ticks all the boxes for me at the moment, but it is very difficult in the fast moving world of electric and part electric cars to know where we’ll be in even the next 2 to 3 years. This partly explains why I don’t want to ‘overspend’.

Incidentally Jay, what was it about the PHV that meant you were prepared to go through all that hassle to get one? I take your point about it being a low volume car - I’ve only ever seen one on the road. I suppose the rarity inclines dealers to keep the prices up and, yes, I’ve also seen dealers put their used PHV prices up after a long spell on the forecourt. Maybe it’s a kind of reverse logic to fool people into thinking there is a huge demand for them, or to give them more wiggle room when negotiating.

Apologies for ramble.

[johalareewi]

I believe the one at Snows is white.  Snows at Millbrook Southampton are keen on the plug in prius and nearly always have one.

Used plug in prices go up and down.  I picked up my pip mk1 when there was a sudden glut of used pips and the prices dropped about 3k.  Once the glut had gone the prices went back up.

Pip mk2 might do the same.  They have only been around since march 2017.  There could be a few more used ones once they have been around for 3 years.

 

[Ten Ninety]

18 hours ago, HectorG said:

BTW, any colour I should avoid?

Spirited Aqua! 🤢😁

Colour's a personal thing of course, and there are plenty on here who love it. However, a couple of the less obnoxious dealers I spoke to suggested it was a difficult colour to shift and had caused them problems trying to move on their early demos which had been ordered in that colour as the 'signature' PHV shade. They reckoned grey would be the easiest colour to sell, despite being the one colour that completely fails to show off the car's shape. I can't say I trust that view, given that they'd hardly sold any of the damn things anyway, and one of them was trying to sell a grey car to me at the time!

I wanted pearl white with a white interior, but none came up for sale at all in that spec. Pearl white's a magnificent colour for the shape of the car. The white interior feels amazing to be in, but I don't think many were specced with it from new and I imagine it would put quite a few people off.

18 hours ago, HectorG said:

Incidentally Jay, what was it about the PHV that meant you were prepared to go through all that hassle to get one?

I'm used to going through hassle, especially travelling long distances, as I've always been one of those saddos who spends ages researching a car purchase and decides on a very precise model and spec that is invariably not a 'mainstream' choice and thus proves to be virtually impossible to find on the second-hand market. Ironically, the PHV was the most 'available' car I've wanted for some time. Sadly, the unwillingness of multiple dealers to 'negotiate' on the cost-to-change once they found we weren't interested in finance, prolonged the experience rather more than I was expecting, as did the shocking condition of some of the cars which you've already experienced yourself.

As for the PHV's desirable attributes, I've loved hybrids for years. The idea of having one that could get me to work on electric power only and still deliver outstanding economy on the journey home even when not charged from a socket, proved irresistible. And, of course, that carbon fibre tailgate... 💕

 

[HectorG]

52 minutes ago, Ten Ninety said:

 

I wanted pearl white with a white interior, but none came up for sale at all in that spec. Pearl white's a magnificent colour for the shape of the car. The white interior feels amazing to be in, but I don't think many were specced with it from new and I imagine it would put quite a few people off.

 

Like you I had come to the conclusion that it’s white or grey and I totally agree that grey completely fails to show off the futuristic shape to maximum advantage. I test drove a Pearl White demonstrator last week which was very nice, but it’s only 3 months old and probably won’t be available for sale for 3 to 9 months. We saw a Hypersonic Red Prius 4 yesterday with white  cloth interior, dash and what my wife described as a ‘lavatorial’ centre tray. Needless to say, she said “no”. BTW, what did you go for in the end?

[HectorG]

1 hour ago, Ten Ninety said:

 

I'm used to going through hassle, especially travelling long distances, as I've always been one of those saddos who spends ages researching a car purchase and decides on a very precise model and spec that is invariably not a 'mainstream' choice and thus proves to be virtually impossible to find on the second-hand market. 

 

It’s good to see other saddos on the forum! When I decided to look for a nearly new RAV4 Hybrid I wanted a grey leather interior and sunroof. I eventually found one (but in Decuma Grey which I had to compromise on) and had to travel 300 miles to get it. Negotiating a deal on my Subaru over the phone wasn’t easy.

My son also has my saddo gene - he flew from here in Dorset to Edinburgh to view a Subaru Legacy Spec B as there were virtually none for sale in the U.K. Fortunately he bought it. I’ve also often been a little perverse over the years and insisted on buying non-mainstream cars like the Citroen DS23 Safari and CX (both supremely comfortable) and Saab 900 Turbo 16v S (appalling ride quality). So I suppose the PHV appeals in the same unconventional way. But it’s got nearly everything right, except perhaps the ridiculous boot. We can live with that as we do most of our long journeys in a camper van.

incidentally, on the subject of poor dealers, I drove 60 miles to a main dealer for a test drive in PHV and they hadn’t bothered to charge the Battery! I did some research on Car Gurus and discovered they’d had the cat for over six months and probably thought I was another time waster.

[johalareewi]

Many dealers don't charge their plugins.  Even when they have a proper EV charge point.  Snows at Millbrook have theirs on charge when it is in so it is always fully charged.  They also top my mk1 pip up when its in for a service. :)

[HectorG]

4 hours ago, johalareewi said:

Many dealers don't charge their plugins.  Even when they have a proper EV charge point.  Snows at Millbrook have theirs on charge when it is in so it is always fully charged.  They also top my mk1 pip up when its in for a service. 🙂

My last demo was at Snows Exeter. The car was fully charged and I was able to go out unaccompanied which I have found is often a problem with Toyota dealers. Also, the car was clean and they provided a gen 4 Prius for me to try as well. Maybe it helps that I have my Rav4 hybrid serviced there.

[Ten Ninety]

On 8/8/2019 at 7:24 PM, HectorG said:

Like you I had come to the conclusion that it’s white or grey and I totally agree that grey completely fails to show off the futuristic shape to maximum advantage. I test drove a Pearl White demonstrator last week which was very nice, but it’s only 3 months old and probably won’t be available for sale for 3 to 9 months. We saw a Hypersonic Red Prius 4 yesterday with white  cloth interior, dash and what my wife described as a ‘lavatorial’ centre tray. Needless to say, she said “no”. BTW, what did you go for in the end?

I ended up with red in the end, mainly because it was a decent car at a reasonable price and I'd pretty much lost the will to carry on looking. I don't like red cars, having been scarred many years ago by a Renault 5 which turned pink. However, Hypersonic Red is a bit more candy-apple custom with the pearl effect and is quite pleasant in the sunshine. To be honest, as I never wash my cars and spend well over half the year driving in pitch darkness, colour was never going to be that important. I had to draw the line at Spirited Aqua though!

Regarding distance travelled to make a purchase, 300 miles is good going. I'd routinely do over 200 back in my turbo-nutter days, but I think Norwich to St Helens was my longest. Or possibly Yeovil. Mad distances just for a car, really, although driving back then was a lot more fun that it is now. I went from Suffolk to Stockport for my Lexus a while back, and that wasn't an enjoyable drive, although at least the dealer was prepared to negotiate a decent 'deal' despite being in possession of the only GS300 Premier in the country at the time. The PHV experience has pretty much decided that I won't ever do long distances for a car again, nor will I attempt to actually 'buy' a car with 'money'. By the time I'm due another motor, I'm pretty sure I'll have reached the age where I'll give in and do what I always swore I'd never do, which is buy brand new and go for a PCP. I just don't have the energy to fight the system any more.

[toshtosh]

We got our PHV from RRG in Bradford.

A quick check on their used site shows they have at least 2 low mileage PHVs in their group, both red, but amazingly they do not advertise them as PHVs. I only identified them by the lights at the front.

Prices seem good.

https://www.rrg-group.com/toyota/used-cars/prius/

Cheers

Tony B