So, the only tale I have from this weekend is another football trip, and those must be getting pretty boring for you guys (although a 56 MPG round trip excited me).

What did you do with your Prius this weekend?

Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales, has been urging his Japanese bosses to allow him to start a Prius subbrand for the US market.  It appears that new Toyota president Akio Toyoda has been listening.  According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Toyota executives announced at a recent dealer's meeting in Las Vegas that they are considering offering new hybrid models larger and smaller than the current Prius hatchback.  Perhaps the Prius MR2 will be a reality?

Back in July you probably first heard about an upcoming Prius app right here on PriusChat.  Toyota released their Prius app in the iTunes App Store yesterday, and so far the response from iPhone users has been, well, underwhelming.  What does the app do?  Does it....

Need a reason to move to Colorado?  Here's one: the state will give you up to a $6,000 tax credit toward converting your plain-old Prius into a snazzy PHEV Plug-In Prius capable of getting 2,500 miles on a tank of gas.  Clayton Cornell over at Gas 2.0 put together a great article on the ins and outs, and he crunched the numbers for all you "When will it pay itself off?" people.

This weekend my wife and I loaded up the dog and tailgating supplies to head to Athens, Georgia and the University of Georgia for the South Carolina/Georgia football game.  We started out basically where we left off last weekend - 100 miles and 60 MPG into a tank.  Our first stop was in Greenville, SC Friday night to drop off the dog at his grandparents house.  Trip from Charlotte to Greenville: ~120 miles, 56 MPG.  4 MPG drop isn't bad for all interstate driving.  The next morning my Dad and I gave my 2010 Prius a much-needed wash.  It had been before our move

Toyota's been sneaking around on Nickel-powered Priuses behind their back, performing a 3 year, 126 car road test of Lithium Ion batteries in the 2006 Prius.  The results?  The cost doesn't justify the "small" fuel economy gains.  Here are all the details from Bloomberg:

It's getting to that time of year when it's chilly when you leave for that morning commute.  You've probably started to notice that your Prius gets notably worse gas mileage on these cold mornings, and the PriusChat Shop has the way to remedy it.  An Engine Block Heater is an easy to install add-on to your car that allows you to "pre-heat" your Prius' engine, enabling you to start out with fantastic mileage even on the coldest of days. 

The actual concept car won't be shown in the flesh until next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but Toyota released a bunch of details and new photos today of the Prius Plug-In Concept.  Here are the highlights:

• Lithium-ion battery technology allows for compact packaging and quick recharging
• Rechargeable from domestic power supply or public charging point in about 1.5 hours
  
• Extended EV (electric) driving mode of up to 12.5 miles at speeds up to 62mph
• Over longer distances, Prius Plug-in switches to conventional petrol-electric full hybrid operation
• CO₂ emissions cut to less than 60g/km

With some new 2010 Prius owners being charged $100+ for an oil change due to the 0W-20 synthetic oil requirements, we have some good news.  PriusChat forum member Sphyrna has posted a document provided by his dealership in Miami showing that the 2010 Prius oil change interval will be changed to 10,000 miles instead of the current 5,000 miles.  The document appears to be a training material for dealerships and contains other pages showing that th