New guy checking in from Vermont!

Took delivery tonight. "Blue Ribbon Metallic" Prius III with Hancook iPike snows. (wife call it "Patriot Blue") J vin with Yokahama OEM tires (which came home in the hatchback)

Got it to run on just battery in town for a few minutes (under 25mph) which was pretty cool, very quiet. Looking forward to driving more tomorrow.

Traded in our beloved, but gas-guzzling, V8 4Runner on it so the gas consumption will be a dramatic savings. (payment is about the same) Paid a bit over invoice plus taxes, snow tires, etc. All at 0% which was a big motivator to make the switch now.

This is really my wife's car. I work from home now and she commutes with our son back and forth from the town we live in to the town she works in, and the town past that where he goes to school. We put 20k+ miles a year on our primary car and the 4runner was an extravagance we couldn't justify any more on a number of levels.

Considered the Sonata, Accord, Prius, Jetta TDI Wagon, and RAV4. Looked at new and used.

Because she does all the driving now I pushed her to choose the car. Thought she'd go for the RAV4 but she really liked the Prius. The extraordinary MPG and 0% financing appealed to her inner cheapskate and a number of her friends have them and like them. She works for an Ivy League college, you can imagine how popular hybrids are here.

I've always been a big "forum" guy and I'm glad I found this one. Looks like a great group here and I look forward to joining in.

 

Sure did, brought home a nice one this morning, last "job" for the 4Runner.

15 years of silver or silverish cars and we were ready for something in a bright color. I liked the red as well but this metallic blue is really sparkly.

 

Tooling around today so my wife can acclimate to the controls. Snowy, slushy, slippery here today but the car is very surefooted on the iPikes.

Need to spend some time in the driveway today with the owners manual and get her Bluetooth setup.

Whole family is really digging the car so far.

 

Reset the A trip odo before we left today, 61 mile loop delivering people to school and work, running some errands, etc. Mostly snow covered roads and temps well below freezing.

Not even halfway through the first tank of gas, knobby snow tires on and for this trip I averaged.... 46.2 mpg.



The other trip odo, which hasn't been reset is sitting at 39.x average iirc. I figure with another 3/5ths of a tank left I'll get this 1st tank average up over 40 easily.

The more I drive it the more I like it. It's very smooth, you can ignore all the hybrid stuff and displays if you want and just drive it like a regular car, or you can drive with care and maximize the economy. With the snow tires it worked brilliantly on the snow covered roads today.

I'm a big guy and I fit great in it, seat all the way down but not quite all the way back. More headroom then in the 4runner, I can actually hit a bump without banging my head on the roof. The whole family fits comfortably. My son says he misses the sunroof but I don't.

Stereo is very good imo (we are not audiofiles). Loving the XM radio. Got my phone synced today and set up my speed dial. That all works very smoothly. Will get my wife's set up tonight now that I have the system down.

Overall, very pleased.

 

Just did my 1st fill-up, 367 miles, 38.6 mpg fuelly-calculated. Dash said 1mpg better. It took a whopping 9.5 gallons.

Not bad for first tank, snow tires, and a week where temps never went above freezing. I'd say about half of those miles we weren't actually "trying" to maximize. It's only going to get better.

Second tank is sitting at 46.x right now from the drive home.

 

I promise not to post every great mpg average I get but I'll leave you with this one from today.



Was driving my mom around for some appointments so I reset the trip odo when I got to her house. So the car is all warmed up and ready to go.

44 mile loop, some highway but mostly 45mph secondary roads, plenty of hills = 52.6mpg. :thumbup:

This is on my second tank of gas, which so far has an average of 42mpg and that includes all the 10 degree cold starts every morning.

Not to mention the car is extremely comfortable to be sitting in for 100+ mile stints.

:rockon:

 

3 weeks, 1140 mile update.

Gas mileage is as good as I expected given the unfavorable conditions (low temps, snow tires, etc) I regularly see near 50mpg stints of 100 miles, but recorded by fuelly at each fillup looks like this...

Date Miles Gallons Price MPG
12/28/10 376.4 9.857 $3.12 38.2
12/21/10 394.5 9.665 $3.09 40.8
12/16/10 367.0 9.500 $3.09 38.6 First fill up!



I don't think I'll have any problem averaging closer to 50mpg when conditions are more optimal and the car is broken in. Coming from a truck that took 20 gallons to fill up and went a whopping 320 or so miles on that fuel, the difference is night and day.

As far as the car is concerned, we are all very pleased with it. Smooth, comfortable, drives just fine for our needs. It's very easy to adjust your driving style to maximize mpg and even small changes make a notable difference.

• We are enjoying the XM radio and will probably re-up the subscription when the free 3 months is up.
• Snow performance has been excellent thanks to the Hankook iPike's.
• The freezing temps have brought out a number of squeaks and groans from the dash and glove box area on the passenger's side, those will need to be addressed
• Headlights are very bright but the cutoff is very sharp and a bit to close to the car imo. I am going to experiment with adjusting them up a bit...don't want to blind anyone though.
• Hatchback is proving to be only mildly more useful then a trunk, but it's nice to have. It's great for shopping trips.
• Once you get used to the keyless the "old way" seems so stone age. Why doesn't my house unlock when I touch the doorknob?
• I quite like the way the car looks. The added angularity and creases of the GenIII make it a much better design compared to the much softer GenII's.
  [*}We love the color.... very happy with that choice.

Added:

• Husky Weatherbeater Mats front and rear

Plan to add:

• Mudflaps

My big Lab Finn didn't like the way back, vertical space is too "short" and he wound up sitting up on the back of the flipped down seat, which puts him way too high for safety. So I flipped the seat back up, moved his blanket to the seat, and he rode much more comfortably (and safer imo) that way. Oh well.