Questions from a new Prius Owner.

[bowenj405]

Greetings everyone. We are the proud owners of a 2008 Toyota Prius and I have several questions for those of you that have much more knowledge! Let me know if these questions are better posted elsewhere. Thanks.

Jim

1) The Prius Owner's Manual says the last "bar" on the fuel gauge starts blinking when there's approximately 3 gallons of gas left. Is that accurate?

2) How many of you have replaced the OEM Radio Antenna with one of the "shark fin" antennas? Have you noticed any difference (good or bad) in radio reception?

3) If you're driving on a quiet street in town, do you drive in stealth mode (battery power only) if you only have a block or two until your next turn? I do NOT go out of my way to start in stealth mode if I know I'm going to get up to speed (30-35MPH) for a distance before slowing or turning.

[Bob64]

1) Don't bet on it. Once that light starts blinking, GET GAS ASAP. You do NOT want to run out of gas (If you do, do NOT keep driving, it can cause serious problems to the battery)

2) n/a

3) depends on if there are cars behind me. I rarely drive in stealth mode. I always glide. Using electricity is less efficient then you think. Remember that the electricity is generated from gas. Converting chemical (gas) -> mechanical (gas engine) - > electrical - > chemical (battery chemistry)-> electrical - > mechanical (electric motor) has ALOT of conversion losses.

Best avoid use of the battery for best mileage, always good to stick more charge in the battery when you can't avoid hitting the brakes.

Gliding = uses nothing except momentum/gravity.

[bowenj405]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bob64 @ Oct 4 2007, 05:03 PM) [snapback]521362[/snapback]</div>

1) Don't bet on it. Once that light starts blinking, GET GAS ASAP. You do NOT want to run out of gas (If you do, do NOT keep driving, it can cause serious problems to the battery)

Thanks. I was kinda surprised when I read that in the Owner's Manual - especially since I've ready numerous times that you do NOT want to run out of gas at all. How quickly do the last few bars tend to do by?

2) n/a

3) depends on if there are cars behind me. I rarely drive in stealth mode. I always glide. Using electricity is less efficient then you think. Remember that the electricity is generated from gas. Converting chemical (gas) -> mechanical (gas engine) - > electrical - > chemical (battery chemistry)-> electrical - > mechanical (electric motor) has ALOT of conversion losses.

Best avoid use of the battery for best mileage, always good to stick more charge in the battery when you can't avoid hitting the brakes.

Gliding = uses nothing except momentum/gravity.

I'm working on avoiding the temptation to use stealth mode. We only have about 400 miles on the car so far - and unfortunately my wife gets to drive it during the week. :-( She has a 65-70 mile round-trip commute, however. I only have a mile!
[/b]

[bowenj405]

Sorry Bob64 - I didn't think my responses would get "stuck" in between yours.

In reference to Number 1 - thanks for the heads up. I thought it was kind of odd that the Owner's Manual said there were 3 gallons left when the last bar started blinking. I've read enough comments about getting fuel quickly that I just didn't think that was right.

In reference to Number 3 - thanks for reinforcing what I'm trying to break myself of. It is an eerie feeling to be driving completely on battery power - but I'm trying my best to avoid that temptation.

Thanks again.

Jim

[ACORNBLUES]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bowenj405 @ Oct 4 2007, 03:56 PM) [snapback]521357[/snapback]</div>

Greetings everyone. We are the proud owners of a 2008 Toyota Prius and I have several questions for those of you that have much more knowledge! Let me know if these questions are better posted elsewhere. Thanks.

Jim
[/b]

Unless you have no access to an outlet, get an EBH - engine block heater.

1) It may be accurate; however, there the prius will not let you use the last half gallon (or 1 gal). It reserves it for charging the battery. As a rule of thumb, I would give myself 50mi from when the it starts blinking. I get anywhere from 500mi to 600mi per tank. To my surprise, I've only pump at most 10 gal at both ends.


2) I've replaced my antenna w/ a cheap $15 antenna. The reception is bad. I've seen others post that the shark antenna is not as good as the original.

3) I've learned that i usually get better overall mileage if I P&G. Get up to speed w/ the ICE and then glide.

[PriusOwner004]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bowenj405 @ Oct 4 2007, 03:56 PM) [snapback]521357[/snapback]</div>

1) The Prius Owner's Manual says the last "bar" on the fuel gauge starts blinking when there's approximately 3 gallons of gas left. Is that accurate?
[/b]

LOL! That's about all I can say. And if I must elaborate, blinking means you got about 25 miles till empty, so that's about half a gallon. On my first tank, I drove it till it died (I had a spare gallon in a tube in the trunk). It started blinking and about 25 miles later Zzzz, nada! So I drove a few feet on electric motor only till it was safe to pull over and added an extra gallon. So if you're in the city, you can start looking for gas as soon as the last one starts blinking, but on the highway, out of town, make sure you start looking as soon as you're left with just two bars to be on the safe side.

[sub3marathonman]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ACORNBLUES @ Oct 4 2007, 08:42 PM) [snapback]521451[/snapback]</div>

1) It may be accurate; however, there the prius will not let you use the last half gallon (or 1 gal). It reserves it for charging the battery. As a rule of thumb, I would give myself 50mi from when the it starts blinking. I get anywhere from 500mi to 600mi per tank. To my surprise, I've only pump at most 10 gal at both ends.
[/b]

Ummm, that's what I used to think too. From driving a 2004, 2005, and 2006, I can tell you the 2006, and probably 2007s and 2008s, are a little different. The pip started blinking and I went 24 miles and ran out of gas. It turned out to be really bad because the battery was at about half when it happened. I tried to get to the station about a mile away, but just went a few blocks when it automatically slipped into N and I coasted to the side of the road. I then had to call my father-in-law to come with some gas. Talk about embarrassing. Also, I then had to press the Power button three times before it would start.

With the earlier 2004 and 2005 I have gone much further on the blinking pip. Also, with them I have a more accurate estimate about the mpg it is getting on that tank, on the 2006 it is the cumulative mpg, so I also didn't know what the mpg was for that tank.

[Rae Vynn]

I have the shark fin antenna.
It does cut the low-powered stations a bit.
Not much noticeable change in reception of the larger, commercial, high-powered radio stations... you know, the ones I DON'T want to listen to.

[TonyPSchaefer]

Hey Jim. Congrats on your new Prius and welcome to PriusChat.

#1) Most experienced owners will tell you that when the last fuel pip starts blinking, it means "GET GAS!" Personally, I'm always trying to get that one extra 0.1MPG improvement all the way to the end of the tank but when that last pip starts blinking, all bets are off and I head to the station. Yes, I've run out of gas before. My advice: don't.

#3) I would say that - like all things - it depends. If there is no one behind me, I would consider it. If there's no one behind me and I have a high State of Charge (SoC) on the battery, I would do it. But you have to keep in mind that I would not stealth the entire way. That would just be a waste. What I would do is stealth up to about 30 and then glide the rest of the way. If you're not familiar, gliding is the point at which there are no arrows on the screen. It's basically free rolling as though you're in neutral. This way, you would be not using gasoline and only using battery for about half of the way. But even then, it would depend. If I knew that I was turning into my driveway, I would do it. If I were going to be taking off again, I might not because I would want a high SoC for the next segment of the trip. On my daily commute, there are several opportunities for me to stealth, glide, or pulse and which I do depends on the lay of the land and the traffic flow at the time. The only way for you to know what's best is to just experiment with different options and see what fits. Check my mileage chart in my signature. You'll see that my mileage is getting steadily better year over year as I tweak and fine tune my driving skills and perfect how I handle my regular commute.

[bowenj405]

Thank you to everyone that has replied so far! I can now say with some certainty that the 2008 Owner's Manual is far, FAR off the mark. I filled the car for the first time last night. There were 426.8 miles on the odometer and there were 2 bars left on the fuel gauge. I put in 8.479 gallons. The pump shut off at $24.17. I ran it very slowly to $24.50 and stopped. The MFD indicated 50.0MPG. My calculated MPG was 50.3. Whoo-hoo!

I did some rough figuring last night and figured my wife must have averaged about 56MPG on her commute yesterday! She is trying (at least on her way home) to see how high she can get the MPG. Now I just have to see if I can match her figures on the weekends!

I'm anxious to try P&G this weekend. We have about an 80 mile trip to take on 35-55MPH roads. Should be fun!

Jim