Picked up my new Prius Prime last week. I'm just now getting around to posting about it and I'll just start with some first impressions. Most of this is notes from my first day. Keep in mind that I drove a 2008 Prius for the last 10 years. I got the Advanced model so I wouldn't miss anything. It feels well built. They have improved the front visibility. There seems to be less blind spot area. I can even see a little bit of the hood from the driver's seat. Coming home from the dealership, I couldn't help speeding. I had trouble mapping the pedal input to the speed. It might have something to do with the fact that the Prime is very smooth to drive. Very, very smooth. My first trip, later that day, was a quick trip to the bank. All EV. Somehow, I had set screen to Ego mode. Yes, I meant "Ego," not "Eco". I arrived at my destination and it told me I had a 98/100 score. I pulled into a parking space and the car beeped as I got close to a bush behind it. I stopped there and it was the perfect parking position. When I left, just as I was about to back out, the rear cross traffic sensor activated. A car went by. Phew! As I backed out, I got lots of beeps as there was not much room in the lot, and I had to go back an forth a few times. I used the beeps to avoid hitting anything. This is great. Later, my next trip was to pick up dinner. Again all EV. The car was still praising my driving. Now do you see why I call it the "Ego" screen? I spent some time trying to figure out the best way to load the cargo area for the next day's ski trip. I decided on putting down both rear seats, laying skis across diagonally wrapped in a towel, folded blanket underneath in the back seat area that is lower. Poles fit across the back of cargo area. After checking out all the interior and exterior lights, I pulled into the garage. I got lots of beeps long before hitting the back wall. I learned to stop as it start beeping super fast. Open the hatch while garage door is open and it almost hits the door. It missed by less than an inch! Charging was super easy. Just plug in to outlet in garage! Done. I got the Blue Magnetism with Moonstone interior. I named it Blue Moon, and expect to buy gas about that often. I need a new PriusChat username now.
Welcome to the Prime family and congratulations on your new "Blue Moon"! Allow me to comment on the "garage" portion of your post. My wife and I just constructed a new garage with a 9-foot wide door and an 8' clear height to the ceiling. When the door is open, the overhead clearance under the door is about 7'-4". We usually park by backing in and find that the rear view camera is helpful. I put a line of 2"-wide blue painters' tape on the floor of the garage at the centerline. It makes it easy to line up the image on the monitor screen and just back up until the horizontal line on the screen shows the back wall of the garage. (Our EVSE is mounted on the back wall.) The first few time we parked in the new garage, we discovered that the Prime's proximity sensors were very unhappy passing through the 9'-wide door opening, even though there is plenty of room to clear the mirrors on both sides. It just takes a little practice and getting used to the car sounding so upset for a few seconds. The Prime is just a little under 6'-10" mirror-tip-to-mirror-tip, so it clears a 9' opening by about 13" on each side. Someone else cautioned in this forum about low overhead garage doors. I really appreciated that post because it alerted me to something I might not have thought about: most automatic garage doors have a center arm connecting the door to the motorized opener device. If you park "front in" you may find that you can open your hatch, even with the garage door open. Whether the garage door is open or closed, just do not operate the garage door until you close your hatch. If you operate the door with your hatch open, that connecting arm will do serious damage to your hatch lid as it goes by. If there is a keypad on the outside of your garage, or if you or someone else opens the garage door using a remote control from outside while your Prime is inside with its hatch open, that also would be not good. Hence, never leave your Prime's hatch open inside the garage. (If you back-in to park, your hatch will not be under the door, so the risk is limited to your driving out of the garage with your hatch wide open. But you wouln't do that, would you?) Again, welcome. We look forward to hearing from you about your experiences and discoveries with your new Prime!
Your post is an excellent summary of all the things I found and enjoy about the Prime. One big thing I caution on based on other's experience here. The proximity beeps are a great help, but don't rely 100% that they see everything, especially in the wild. They do not see everything every time and others here have the damage to show for it. All I'm saying is don't "assume" they see everything and let your guard down when in unfamiliar areas, IE everywhere outside your garage. The manual even says, they will not see everything. Skinny vertical steel posts in parking lots seem to be a biggie. Just an FYI.
My favorite "bell and whistle" on this car is the remote climate. I am already spoiled with this feature.
Backing in is not an option for me. Backing out is hard enough (drives me crazy, but I'm used to it). The width is fine (it's a two car garage with a big door). I never open the hatch in a closed garage, so that's not a problem. It could happen (but unlikely) that I accidentally close the garage door by pressing a remote, so I will have to be careful about that when the hatch is open.
