Is it ok to run the the PWR bar in eco mode ?

The engine speed on your Prius is computer controlled. You can't run it at excessively high RPMs even if you want to; the computer won't allow it.

Tom

 

No way people can average 75 mpg (unless you have the PHEV mod done). It's just physically impossible unless you live in the warm, flat, rural farmlands/praries where you are the only car in the 10 miles vicinity and you can drive non-stop at 55mph for hours.

Consider this: @ 4.7L/100km/50 mpg you drive the Prius like any other normal car. @ 3.7 L/100km/63.5 mpg you drive the Prius like a crawling snail (I tried, it is possible). Your gas$ saving? 1$ over 3-4 days (depending on how much you drive per day), and that is for Canadian gas prices, you'd save even less in the US.

And your $1 saving might end-up costing 10's of $ extra gas burning for all the other cars trailing you in low gear and/or swirling around you angrily. As I said before, you'd do the world a deservice, literally by causing more harmful emmisions by other cars, not just by making the Prius a bad name.

Over long years of your Prius ownership, you'd live in constant fear of Prius hate from the rest of the drivers. If you attract one impatient tailgator who couldn't control his brake in time and rear-ended your precious Prius, the deductable$, the aggrevation and the time lost is just not worth it, not to mention your Prius won't feel the same even after the most skilled technician fixes the damage.

I didn't just imagine these scenerios. I lived through it, by experimenting both driving styles. In my 1st month of Prius rough-in period, I was gingerly trying out hypermiling to maximise mpg, I got a dozen or so episodes of Prius hate (twice someone throw pebbles on my window glass making nerve wrecking cracking noise, luckily the glass held up), and I did get rear-ended once (luckily just a pea sized nicked on the bumper). Once I change my driving style to match the flow of traffic, all prius hate disappears.

So new Prius owners please take note.

 

I didn't know if they were pebbles but the cracking sound on my window glass was freightening enough. They could be coins from their wallets?

 

mpg depends a lot on local terrain, frequency of stop & go traffic and temperature, and distance of trip. It might be impossible for some situations to get 60 mpg, but rest assured that you are still way ahead of other cars because they'll be worst off driving in the same mpg demanding area.

It might be more difficult to get 60 mpg in the colder temps. I installed the electric block heater and was able to reduce the warm-up gas wasting every morning. Maybe you can try that. I bet the EBH will help even in warm temps, since the ICE needs warming up to 80c even from 40c outside temp in summer.

 

53 mpg is pretty good. As pointed out above, that may be about as good as you can do. I average about that in my Gen II in the summer. If I reset the mileage meter after filling up in the city on my way home, I will average 60 to 65 mpg for the 30 mile trip, but that average will quickly drop to the mid fifties once a few sub-optimal trips are thrown into the mix.

In the winter my average drops to the mid 40s. Terrain, temperature, and trip profile makes a huge difference in mileage. Many of these factors may be out of your control.

Tom

 

I doubt that can be done much above 46 mph.

While Ken achieved 117 mpg over a significant distance on level ground, and one of his compatriots did the same over a whole tank, and I beat 75 mpg on non-level ground, I strongly doubt that anyone can do it on level ground at 55. Bob Wilson's mpg-vs-speed graph just doesn't support it.

 

The slot is in the GenII. In the GenIII, step on the brake pedal and hold the Toyota emblem side of the fob up to the power button, then press the power button. This is in the manual (p. 542), plus I think the car may tell you what to do on the MFD if you try to start it and the key isn't detected.

 

It will say, "Key not detected". But if you try it a second time, then it will tell you what to do (I just tried it).

 

I commute between Mississauga & Etobicoke daily on local non highway roads. Highways are bumper to bumper between 7 to 9am and it's much longer distance for me. Local roads are stop and go with lots of traffic lights and lots of idiot drivers (including me, sometimes.)

If you want to avoid my area you might want to avoid the whole GTA. It's dog-eat-dog out here.