Newbie w/ first impressions and questions

You should have the right side of the display on HSI (Hybrid System Indicator) this tells you a lot. Take a look at this video, even though it shows an older Prius the basics are still there.

 

I've owned Hondas (still do) and BMW's and NONE of these cars monitor the oil, axles, belts etc.

These newer cars do monitor your engine parameters (your driving). They shorten the oil change intervals in the event that your driving patterns match pre-programmed algorithms that indicate that your driving falls under the 'extreme' service category found in your owners manual.

No on-the-fly oil composition analysis instrument exists that would tell any driver when their engine oil NEEDS to be replaced. Rather, the newer cars that utilize sythetic oils all start with a long (longer than conventional dyno oil) oil change interval of say 10,000 miles and when the ECU records conditions that are more extreme than the norm (a lot of stop and go, high engine temps, less than 10,000 miles/yr), that same computer will indicate that you should change your oil sooner than the baseline 10,000 miles.

10,000 miles on 0W-20 full synthetic isn't stressing that oil at all. so why add cost and complexity to the car in the form of a computer display when all Toyota has to do is recommend that you change it at 10K.

 

I'm actually moving away from using my HSI these days. Toyota says to accelerate outside of the PWR zone, but that's not so practical in suburban traffic. If you insist on accelerating in ECO zone, gonna PO a lot of people back there.

Word is to get up to speed in a timely manner then do steady speed. I don't hammer it by any means, just accelerate with traffic. Don't want to see the bar well into PWR zone reminding me I'm accelerating too fast when in fact I'm accelerating with flow of traffic.

I'm into the 1 minute MPG gage these days. I like to see the impact of cold starts, how quickly I can get into the higher MPG figures.

 

I think one of the more useful gages is the '1 minute consumption gage'. Cycle the DISP switch on steering wheel until see vertical bar graph of MPG numbers. It may show the 5 minute screen. Hold DISP switch to see 1 minute....

From cold starts, this will show you even the Prius has no ace in hole. First minute from cold in morning might be 15ish MPGs followed by couple minutes at 25 or so. It takes time, maybe 10 minutes to get warm in morning.

I'm doing trips of about 7 miles or greater and the mpg gage is about 53 now.

 

Gage just to right of speedo is instant mpg gage. Can be handy. If it's pegged at 100, you know gas not being burned. This can occur even on the freeway when off gas, going downhill, etc.

Many people think only the gas engine drives the car on the freeway. Looking at the car icon, 'energy monitor', clearly the gas and electric work together even on freeway.

For oil changes, it's every 10k miles or 12 months whichever comes first. Service is every 5k miles or 6 months whichever comes first.

 

Why would need a tach? That's even less useful than the moving car icon.
Even some non-hybrid automatics don't show a tach.

 

This is a good video except it seems one discrepancy - He says accelerate up to speed fairly quickly, then says 'the slower you pulse the higher the MPGs will'. This seems contradictory.

I'll try it and see how it goes. Don't know much I will lift off gas pedal to set up glide. I'd rather not lift off the pedal.

 

Do familiarize yourself with the driving mode buttons - ECO and PWR. probably want to skip the EV button.

PWR mode is nice to use sometimes. Makes the car feel pretty responsive. A bit too responsive sometimes.

I've tried ECO but not getting it so far. Just feels gutless. I'll try it from time to time and hopefully get it.

 

I couldn't agree with you more. As a matter of fact I keep it in the Normal mode most of the time. If I'm on a highway I'll do a modified P&G by accelerating up to about 68 mph and then back-off until the indicator is by the "O" in ECO. I find that the instantaneous mpg gauge is above 60 MPGs and it can hold about 64 mph for a while. Rinse and repeat.

The other technique I use on local roads is to accelerate moderately up to about 30-35 mph and then re-step on the accelerator to get into EV range to maintain the speed. You would be surprised how far you can go. Last tank real MPGs were 54.3. Many times on my 35 mile commute I get over 60 MPGs on FCD, my record is 66.8 for one trip in which I averaged 41 mph.

 

In the Prius, this is the ONLY way to know what gear you are in, in most cars you can also look at the shifter.

While you will have no control over engine RPMs, I do watch them to learn what my car is doing. I use a Scangauge II and watch RPM, engine cooling temp, intake air temp, and bus voltage. (Others have other favorites)http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B000AAMY86?tag=priuschatcom-20 will find RPMs are almost totally unrelated to speed or pedal position.

The Gen 3, PIP, v and c are beltless, the Gen 1 and 2 still had belts.

 

I mainly use PWR to get onto a highway or when going up a hill to maintain speed. You'll find that when using it on an incline, you can back off on it after your initial acceleration and get some decent MPGs on the instantaneous MPG indicator while maintaining decent speed.