New Car + long road trip including going over grapvine

I took mine on a 2400 mile round trip when it was virtually brand new. I don't think you have anything to worry about. My trip was to Washington/Idaho and some of the terrain I traveled makes the Grape Vine look like speed bump. I just had my 20,000 mile service performed and have had zero problems.

 

- http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/om/OM47857U/pdf/sec_02-01.pdf (page 2 of the PDF, Page 183 of the manual)
I would personally consider 78 a high speed but that is your call. When it is flat, avoid a constant speed, when it is hilly, the engine speed varies already.

Tejon Pass - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
While steep going downhill south to north, I am not sure you will find any benefit to B going north to south, it will not hurt anything but MPG. Certainly a good time and place to practice.

I see no reason to stop just for the car, have a great trip.

 

Congrats. Have fun . You got some good advice.
Pla y with it a little an see what works best gor you

 

Break in is no big deal. But in general do not use Cruise on big down hills like the Grape Vine.

What I do is to keep my foot off the break, and if the hill is steep enough to have the car speed up then I drop it into B when it gets going faster than I want and then slip it back into D when it slows down. Then I continue to alternate between B and D until I am off of the hill. This will control the speed without overcharging the HV battery. If you use the break peddle you will see the battery go to eight bars and then the ICE will spin at a very high rpm. It always scares me when the ICE does what seems like uncontrollable high RPM.

Thanks,
Dan

 

Going downhill: Put it in B, the ICE spins. Go over 62 mph in PiP (42 in non-PiP?), the ICE spins. Use the brake when SOC is 85%, the ICE spins. What is the difference? You can't over charge the HV battery, that's why the ICE spins.

 

Watch out for road closures at the top of the grapevine (heading south). Really annoying because you can't build up speed going downhill because of it . Hopefully it's done now - but this was the case when I drove it last week.

 

If I thought a new car couldnt make a simple trip I wouldnt buy it. Worst case, thats why you have a warranty. Its not like you are doing the Baja 1000 or something. Just relax and drive, the car knows what its doing.

 

I'm headed to the Nostalgic drag races at Famoso Raceway this weekend. That means going over the Grapevine to Bakersfield. I plan to be in the fast lane almost all the way there. No worry here. And, yes, I 'll move over for those who wish to break the law.

 

Congrats on the new car, the trip and most importantly the sleeping baby

 

One time I was being playful and wanted to know how far my Prius can stay a "99.9" mpg average. So I reset trip A when I started going down on the Grapevine, heading north. It was a whopping 38 miles Brought a smile to my face. Ofcourse others' experience will vary, likely for the better.

 

A Prius is meant to be driven, not hard parked. If you can't take a brand new car on a cross country road trip after leaving the lot, then it shouldn't be made or sold.

When I brought my Prius home, the first thing I did was take it on road trips. OK I lied, I tinted her. Then racked up close to 3,000 miles of road trips within the first month of ownership. I didn't do any of the break-in procedures, really could care less for it especially with new and modern cars (see my philosophy above) and just road trip my a$$ off. I'm now at 22,000 miles in a year and a half of ownership and the Prius is running just fine.

 

You have just discribed the first year and a half of my ownership.

 

Our 2011 Prius have 126,000 miles on it already. Snd thanks to a commute to Bakersfield 3-4 times a week, while living in LA County.
So far no major problems. Still have the original brake pads.
I did change the tires, the usual oil change evry 10,000 miles and filters.
Still getting close to posted mpgs.

I jusy love this car!

So dont worry! You two will go along away