ICE starts at 15 seconds. Problem?

From what I've been reading and our experience with our previous Prius the ICE kicks in at 7 or 8 seconds after hitting the start button in the morning. I noticed with this car the ICE doesn't fire up until after 15 seconds. Is that indicating a problem and if so, any ideas as to what's wrong and the most obvious fix? We're taking a 3,000 mile trip next month and I want to make sure everything is right before we go.

FWIW, I'll be replacing the 12v battery in a couple of weeks since the original one is still in the car.

 

It's doing that every time. In the morning cold start when it's around 60 degrees out and the car has been kept in the garage overnight. In the afternoon it's been 80+ when I fire it up after driving it for 20 miles and stopping at a store briefly. It doesn't seem to matter. Same thing last weekend after driving it a couple of hours to Ridgecrest and stopping up there for all of about 10 minutes with the temperature around 90.

 

Patrick, there are no warning lights but mpg is down well over 10 - 15% from what I was getting out of our 2006 over the same drives and conditions. This car does have 16" rims with Pirelli Cinturato P7 A/S Plus tires; the other one had 15" rims with Michelin Energy Saver A/S tires. I expect a few mpg of the loss is due to that.

A run to California City (over 200 miles round trip) in the other car yielded 48 - 49 mpg at 65 mpg using cruise control. This car over the same run is only around 43 - 44. I've noticed the biggest drop on short local runs around town where the other car was in the mid-30s and this car is in the mid to upper 20s.

 

I can clearly hear the pump and it doesn't seem to take any longer to fill the thermos than the other car did, but thank you for the idea.

I suspect Patrick may be right and this is just a different car that isn't as efficient as the other one. Someone else put the first 100,000 miles on each of them. I'm sure their driving styles and maintenance must have affected each car's long term performance differently. Hopefully a new 12v battery will restore an mpg or two on the long hauls and I'll quit comparing one Prius to the other. Outside of the dropoff in mpg we really do like this 2008 a lot better than the 2006.

 

The CarFax shows normal service manual maintenance through 100,000 miles and we just got the car at 101,000. It hasn't seen our dealer yet. I plan to take it in before our Colorado trip and have the 105,000 service done a touch early. In addition to that, I also plan to have the brakes checked since they're not particularly smooth and they squeal a little.

In addition to those things, what specifically should I have them do that is not in the service manual? Am I looking at a $1,000 service like the 125,000 one? Prius service is still pretty new to me.

merged.

Thanks. It must just be a variation from car to car then.

 

You guys are the best! Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

 

1. Transaxle fluid was changed at 90,000.
2. Since I'm having the brakes checked soon I'll have them pay extra attention to the rear ones.
3. There was no sign of misalignment on the very worn out Coopers that I replaced with these Pirellis but I'll have it checked anyway.

Thanks.