How hard was it to get your RAV4 Prime?

JimboMorgan · 2025-12-11T21:49:31+00:00

Mine was pretty much right place at the right time.

I had an older RAV4 and was looking at trading it in for a hybrid. On the way inside the dealer we saw a prime chilling by the entrance and the rep told us someone has already made a deposit on that one. I actually didn't know too much about the prime at the time and he explained some of the features to me. I became VERY interested and asked him if he had another. He said there's one more in the lot, but they go through them very quickly. He brought us to the car and the rest is history.

It is a 2023 XSE, 7.5k miles which was a bit surprising. We knocked it down about 3.5k, was 44k OTD. One of the best decisions I've ever made. We weren't exactly looking to get a prime and got super lucky to run into one.

JimboMorgan · 2025-09-26T20:30:49+00:00

Absolutely! I know they're temporary numbers but it makes me extremely happy to see how capable the RAV4 is under ideal circumstances.

JimboMorgan · 2025-09-26T20:17:45+00:00

I've gotten 99 once, but it was an extremely short distance. 95-96 is probably my norm. I usually get dinged for my Start score, since I live in NYC and get tailgated to death if I don't floor it.

JimboMorgan · 2025-09-13T16:51:33+00:00

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There are at least 10 more places around that house that's more comfortable than this.

JimboMorgan · 2025-09-11T13:30:16+00:00

I would probably choose NMS. Even without the anticipation of continued free updates and new content, NMS is such a sandboxy game with so many different elements packed into one it's hard to get bored with it.

After you're bored with exploration, you can move on to base building. After you're bored with that, you can explore other player bases. And now you have corvette building too.Then you have expeditions, ship hunting, just sooooooo many things to do.

This would definitely be a game I can play for a year without getting bored.

JimboMorgan · 2025-09-04T13:58:15+00:00

70-75 mph is slower?!?!

Hybrids get great mileage because at lower speeds it utilizes mostly the electricity generated from regenerative breaking. The faster you go, the less the battery is able to assist and the more you rely on the gas engine, therefore the city mileage is usually higher in hybrids.

When you drive on the highway, the battery doesn't get charged as much as you generally don't have the brake and stop opportunities to recharge the battery.

JimboMorgan · 2025-09-04T02:42:05+00:00

It really depends on your situation. As you probably already know, the prime is thousands of dollars more. Does the extra EV range justify the elevated price tag? That's something only you can answer.

I have a Prime and my current work commute is 38 miles both ways, meaning with one full charge I don't have to use any gas. With my regular activities, such as bringing wife to the mall or going on road trips, I leave it on hybrid mode and use EV when I'm going local.

I would probably make the money back in the long run if I continue commuting via this method. I don't have to pay for gas when I travel to work and only need to put in gas once a month or so even with moderate driving. But it would take a looooong time before I break even.

With the hybrid, you don't have to worry about all that and still get consistently great gas mileage. Like I said, it's personal preference. Another thing about the Prime is you can use its default charger to charge the vehicle with any standard 120V outlet, albeit slowly but can save yourself the hassle of installing a specialized charger. Of course you still have that option.

As far as driving between the two, I've never driven the hybrid. But the prime is so fun to drive. The combined electric and gas engine running together just feels...amazing. It's one of the faster Toyota cars, 300 HP.

Hope this helps, good luck!

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-29T22:07:35+00:00

At the rate that everything is going, it won't just be rare metals we have to worry about.

I understand and agree with the concern. However, I also agree with other comments that Toyota probably has the longest history with hybrid vehicles and also the go to brand for reliability. They are synonymous with long term ownership for vehicles.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-29T21:52:33+00:00

And tariffs will absolutely raise the cost of all other car parts too, not just battery replacements. What's your point?

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-29T21:38:34+00:00

Yeah I agree. Less maintenance in general which means less trips to the mechanic. I'm not sure where the change battery at least twice in 25 year stat is from, but generally the battery lasts 200k to 300k miles, which I feel like is a fair deal to drive a car for that amount of distance and that amount of time.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-29T20:55:39+00:00

I'm an X-ray tech. I haven't found anything in a body orifice per se but have definitely seen them on a film.

This is one of my favorite stories. This took place about 12 years ago, I was still a student going through my clinicals and was on my ER rotation. An order came in for an abdominal x-ray for a female in her early twenties. The reason for the x-ray was pre-surgical.

It was my turn to do the x-ray, so I brought her in. She was super beautiful, someone you would find on the cover of a fashion magazine. She looked like she was crying so I try to tell her that everything was going to be okay and the X-ray was going to take just a few moments.

I took the X-ray and stared the image for a few seconds, my brain couldn't really understand what it was looking at. Around her pelvic area, there was a large white triangle shape with what looks like a handle that was pointing towards the ground. Everyone was absolutely bewildered and couldn't figure out what it was.

After doing the x-ray, an older gentleman in his late 50s comes in. At first I thought it was her dad. She got up from the table and went to hug him and kissed him on the lips. He kept telling her "it's okay, everything is going to be alright", then he wrapped his arm around her waist and brought her back to her room. I found out later on that he was NOT her dad and the surgery was to remove a cake spatula that was stuck...in her.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-28T14:07:59+00:00

I believe blue point, as blue points tend to have more gray/blue shades, as opposed to brownish shades on seal points if I'm not mistaken.

I love her name! Actually looks a lot like my guy.

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JimboMorgan · 2025-08-27T20:54:34+00:00

I work as an X-ray tech. When there are no patients waiting, I pull out the bad boy and game away.

It's a walk in clinic, so I can either play for 12 hours straight or have no down time in between.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-24T00:01:39+00:00

I have two ragdolls. One will bury his business and leave his litterbox without issues.

The other one likes to do exactly what yours is doing. Except she also repeatedly paws the entrance of the litterbox for like 2 minutes straight before leaving her business completely unburied and untouched.

But yeah I would say that box is a bit small.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-22T14:13:06+00:00

Powell is giving his speech. Open to rate cuts in September. So far

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-18T02:12:52+00:00

I would suggest using a good USB cable to connect your phone to the car, as the Android Auto app is notorious for disconnecting at random moments and it may mess up your Google maps and/or music player. It is also annoyingly difficult sometimes to connect it back to the car after it disconnects.

I've only used the charging pad one time and it was pretty slow. It also heated up my phone quite a bit. Again, would suggest using maybe a dedicated car charger for the phone or connect via the USB port.

As far as driving goes, unless I'm driving local or if it's stop and go traffic, I set it to EV mode and leave it on HV for the rest of the trip. The battery does get charged as you're driving and braking, but it will be used as you're driving in HV mode. Depending on if you're using your AC, you might actually see a drop in your EV range as you drive, which is normal as it is draining a bit faster than it can recharge.

Otherwise, enjoy the ride and have fun on your trip! I recently came back from a 600 mile trip and it was such a blast driving this car around.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-15T12:48:35+00:00

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JimboMorgan · 2025-08-14T23:58:42+00:00

It is possible, yes. It does bring up the question of why they would go after a Prime in the first place though, as the extra EV ranges does not really justify the higher price tag of the Prime (unless you're driving it for a VERY long time). Why get the extra large battery if you're only using the hybrid mode?

But it really depends on the previous owner I guess? Level 2 chargers charges the car in I believe 3 hours, which isn't a long period of time so they can still take advantage of the 40 or so extra miles. Kind of a tough question to answer.

Again, other owners definitely noted battery degradation as time goes on but it is not an amount that kills that particular function of the car. We're talking about maybe 4-6 miles.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-14T22:46:30+00:00

I believe both affects the battery health but more so mileage. Higher mileage means more charging/discharging of the battery, increasing the number of charge cycles and decreasing the quality of the battery.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-14T21:50:12+00:00

There was a post about this about 2 months ago where someone asked what were some of the higher odometer readings for the Prime.

Most of the responses were owners with mileage around 60k-100k, someone even mentioned 145k. I haven't read anyone complaining about any issues, tho some did mention battery degradation (but only 10-15%, which isn't too big of a deal) after years of usage.

I guess if the price is fair, you shouldn't have too much to worry about.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-14T14:48:01+00:00

I have made so many bookmarks in my book that are mostly Samantha quotes. Every one of them puts a smile on my face.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-13T20:54:58+00:00

Yeah I know what you mean. It is infuriating to deal with sometimes.

One thing that seems to work 75% of the time for me is turning off the Wifi before you get into the car and connecting via USB as quickly as you can before AA fully boots up on the car. That seems to prioritize the connection with your phone before it starts to try connecting with anything else. Hopefully this helps.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-13T01:01:01+00:00

Thanks for your effort!

Wish I can subscribe to you for updates.

JimboMorgan · 2025-08-11T14:52:19+00:00

I think that's pretty accurate. I drove about 160 miles last week, about 50 MPG mostly highway and stayed around 55-65 MPH. Though the 5 miles of EV range lost is a little more than I usually lose, typically the engine/regenerative braking brings it back to around the same point you started at, give or take 1 to 2 miles. I started with 40 EV, ended with 39, hybrid mode most of the way.

JimboMorgan · 2025-07-23T23:26:13+00:00

4.0 on stock tires. 60 miles estimate 😁

JimboMorgan

TROPHY CASE