[dougfromdenver]

I own a 2017, which is the same as the 2018 Prime plug-in with the advanced package.

My son was very much opposed to our buying this "video game" overloaded with be 'confusing array of features that would constantly distract us." We bought it and now understand most of the features that are essential to our particular driving habits.

it was a slow process for us to understand those key aspects of the many features. There are several aspects of this car that I don't understand even after driving the vehicle for a long time. And the Toyota dealership near my home doesn't sell many of these vehicles and is almost totally ignorant of even the basic stuff that I know from living with the vehicle. Studying the owner's manual is probably the answer to my ignorance. But I have never really taken the time to do much more than learn what I had to learn for the time being.

So far as fuel economy is concerned, the vehicle registers close to 80 miles per gallon when my wife is driving it. I have a heavy foot, and so my fuel economy drops down into the 70s.

The 25 mile range running strictly on the electric motor is actually extended much further when you drive the vehicle in a way that generates electricity back into it. my wife is better at achieving more MPGs then me. However, with short trips to local stores, or even a trip to downtown Denver, 25 miles of electric is more than enough for me to remain in the EV mode.

We bought the vehicle for my wife, who's an attorney. I drove it back from the East Coast because the rebate on the 2017 were extremely generous. As the year progressed, the rebates actually increased.

I'm a professional car shopper. I normally don't buy new cars because I know how to find extremely low mileage high quality used cars, and do this for customers around the country. In Colorado, the rebates are the most generous in the country. Add the federal tax credit and Colorado State's tax credit, and the vehicle was worth substantially more than our net cost. I love it whenever a car I find for our family or clients is worth more than what we paid for it. And in the case of buying this brand new 2017 Prius Prime, the net savings we received from tax credits and the Toyota rebate gave us far more Equity than I would ever experience when shopping for used car.one thing I consistently when shopping for a low mileage, high quality used vehicles for clients and our family. the $1,800 rebate, plus $7,500 tax credit from the federal government, and then adding Colorado's $5,000 tax credit made buying this vehicle with no brainer.
IF YOU WANT TO READ ON, PLEASE DO. BUT IF YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED IN KNOWING ABOUT MY PURCHASE OF A USED 2015 LEAF, THIS IS A GOOD PLACE TO STOP.

Prior to purchasing the Prius Prime plug-in, we purchased a used 2015 Nissan Leaf. At that time, the state of Colorado gave us $6,000 in tax credits if if the used EV was never registered in Colorado. I learned that this program would disappear on January 1st of 2016. So I did what I do for clients, and searched for a certified Nissan Leaf that was outside of the state of Colorado. I found my Leaf in Oregon, payed around $10,400. I then paid $800 more to have it transported to Denver. So the total cost was a little over $11,000 to start with, but then we received our hefty Colorado State tax credit. In that context, the net cost for this be certified Nissan was around $6,000.

All this occurred after we had paid for the installation of solar panels on our home. If we owned a EV, we were able to save 30% more with a Rebate from our electric company.

The rebate aside, generating our own electricity, our new solar panels would eliminate most of our monthly gasoline bills.

We bought the Prius Prime plug-in for my wife after several instances when she needed to travel more than 100 miles. It freaked her out on one occasion, when your trip ended at home with all of the flashing lights telling her that she's about to lose all power.

We have a very low mileage first generation Honda Insight, with a manual transmission, that was my vehicle to drive. However when my wife question whether she could maintain enough charge for her to return home on several occasions, the idea of driving home and then getting the Insight became too much of a time consuming chore.

Another reason we bought the Toyota Prius Prime is because my wife had a small fender-bender one morning driving my granddaughter to school. Thankfully we had changed our insurance company to one that offered accident forgiveness only months before her accident.

The safety features on the Prius Prime are amazing. But had she been driving any vehicle that automatically stops if you're about to hit any object. The Prius Prime provided this and a great deal more. We upgraded to the top of the line model because of the additional safety features. We knew that getting into another accident would cost us at least $5,000 over 3 years because of higher monthly insurance payments..

For us, we ended up receiving a federal tax credit plus a $5,000 Colorado state tax credit, and with the array of safety features, we reduced the likelihood of having another accident, and a major increase in our insurance rates.

I like to drive fast, or at least not be as conservative as my wife. So when I was driving it back home from Connecticut, my miles per gallon we're a disappointing 46 MPGs. But that's because I simply wanted to get home as quickly as I could, and my opportunities for charging the vehicle were very limited. In fact most of the Toyota dealers between the east coast in Colorado had never seen or sold a Prius Prime plug in. Since Toyota dealers did not have charging stations, all of the Nissan dealers I visited where are most gracious in letting me charge up my Prius Prime while I ordered dinner.