What every newb should know

[yenta33950@yahoo.com]

Got my Prius in March.Love it. I fill up after 2 clicks as the sooner, the cheaper the price will be.

[Tardis Wannabe]

Originally Posted by morpheusx

make sure to share this information with spouse or others who routinely drive your car. I went ahead and told my wife the other day after reading the inverter story. If the Prius for whatever reason will not start, and you suspect it is the battery under no circumstances do you let anyone try to help you jump it besides me. Then also made sure to let her know the consequences, if they don't know what they are doing they could cause about $5000 damage to the inverter.

Thanks all. I've been out of town and just got back. This is all very helpful. I am hoping to have an actual Prius in the next three weeks so I am happy to learn as much as possible in preparation.

[jdchappie]

Would it help this thread show up in the search engine if we included every possible term for putting gas in your Prius.

refueling (recent poster with problems)
gassing up
topping off
fueling
gas
gasoline

Any more?

[JHSmith]

Originally Posted by confused

Thanks so much for starting this thread! I have ordered my Prius and will likely get it sometime in July (fingers crossed). No doubt I will need a good orientation and will many questions. These two important pointers about jumping the car and keeping gas in it are great to know. If anyone else has some basic advice to the new Prius owner (some major pointers), it will be greatly appreciated.

Such a different kind of car than I'm used to, so it no doubt needs to be treated differently.

Thanks in Advance--I want to make sure I take good care of my new car!

To add onto the idea about giving the Prius a jump:

I suggest that sometime when the weather is perfect, you open the hood, uncover / uncap the jump-starting connections and get familiar with which posts are positive and negative. (Also do the same for the 12 V battery in the rear.) Why do this in good weather, when, we all know that you NEVER need a jump on a 75 degree, sunny day. It's always: 1 AM, dark, sub-zero, blizzardly days when your battery decides to need assistance. (At least, that's been my experience on other cars I've owned.)
Also, if I remember correctly, if the battery does die, you cannot shift the Prius into Neutral. You need to release some type of gear. (Actual Prius owners can expound on this.) I suggest that you find out how to perform this operation before you really need to do it.

About the guess-gauge and running out of fuel:

You CAN run the Prius on Traction Battery without fuel. HOWEVER, this is only to get you to the side of the road, not to drive 3+ miles! The owner's manual will state again and again, not to drive without fuel. Some people have driven their car while empty, and forcing their battery management system to deplete the traction battery beyond it's programmed safe limits. Again, Prius types can chime in here and give more data.

The 1 Low Fuel PIP is not a recommendation: It means GET FUEL NOW, and don't look for the cheapest station.

As I said, real Prius owners will correct anything I've said that is not 100% accurate. I have a TCH, but believe that I have given a fair representation of the Prius. It's an excellent and reliable car IF you read AND follow the manual.

[giden]

I just picked up my '08 Touring Package #6 two days ago. I'm sure I've a kazillion questions, so here's my first: How important is it to NOT use cruise control during the first 1k miles? I'm leaving on a 500 mi. trip tomorrow and would LOVE to use the CC, but I only have 150 miles or so on it. Will I damage the car to use CC before 1K Miles? Thanks.

g

[richard schumacher]

It's good form to search for questions before posting, or at least start a new thread. Short answer: there's no harm in using the CC because the drive system doesn't work like the transmission in a conventional car. Toyota's break-in advice is no hard braking, no hard acceleration and no high speed in the first 600 miles.

[Peter97214]

Hi all:

I am a new 2008 Pkg#2 owner and I have just gotten gas for the 4th time. The previous 3 times I have gotten gas, I have filled the tank.

This time I only put 20$ in which is about 4.6 gal where I live and the fuel indicator still reads 1 bar and is flashing.

Have any of you experienced this??

Thx all

Peter

[richard schumacher]

Adding three gallons is supposed to be enough to tell the fuel tank computer that you have added gas so that it will update the fuel gauge, but it sounds like not this time. (Perhaps the car was on a slope where you added gas?) If the fuel gauge does not update the computer may decide to shut the car off. Go now and add more fuel until the gauge updates. If you fill the tank and the gauge still doesn't update, then it's broken and needs to go to a dealer for diagnosis and repair.

[Prius Prime]

One thing I heard here earlier, but hasn't been talked about lately:

Make sure your car is OFF when refueling, not in READY.

There were suspected problems--not registering correctly and not filling completely. Besides, I would think there would be a safety issue, not to mention the car has a complete hissy fit when you do something it doesn't like!

[bootsykowan]

It just finally sunk in about the battery. I don't drive. I had an accident in 4/7/2001 which scared me forever. Since I'm elderly and know I'm deteriorating naturally, and all the young drivers are out to get me, I drive like I'm victimized I also was active in the 1970's with the first OPEC hostage taking and it's not my fault I'm a victim. It's yours.

So I attended a Prius membership meeting and the maintenance explained about recharging the battery. He said that those of us who keep the car stationary are not doing a good thing. Going to the grocers once in a while is not a Prius lifestyle. I do have a P.O.Box so now I go to the P.O. eveery day and I take the long route which is really the straightest one. I'm trying to understand the consumption display. The route I take is 6 miles to and 6 miles back. I'm resetting the consumption display each time. I accidently touched the kmg button yesterday.

Does all this change the algorithms in the mpg energy display. One benefit of all this is that it forces me to drive and makes me psychologically stronger. Should I take a longer route each day to help my battery?