Just bought a 2009 Prius

The Toyota dealer here in E. WA had 2 last week. One was sold and shipped to a lady in FL (the salesman told me the FL dealers are adding a $7000 over MSRP premium so she bought it here and had it shipped) and I bought the other one.

As I said, it's a 2009 with the package 3. Drove it home 22 miles and got 51.4 mpg over relatively flat topography. Around our small town I was able to keep just the electric motor driving the car but noticed that it was only able to power the car on electric only for about 1 mile and very easy pedal....after that the gas engine started and ran constantly.

Once I started the car this morning I noticed that the gas engine was on constantly no matter where the gas pedal and getting low mpg, especially when cold. To me this is a flaw...too bad there isn't a simple plug in to top off the batteries overnight so as to save the gas usage.

By the way, I paid the MSRP of $26,399. plus tax.

Can anyone tell me is that really is the MSRP? I did phone another dealer first, that salesman quoted me the same MSRP and told me I would be 11th on the list waiting for a Prius.

Overall I'm very happy. The electronic HUD and dash screen make for interesting watching. I'm worried I'm not watching to road enough.

 

Thanks, glad to be here. Seems like a lot of good information to be had and shared.

I went to Toyota.com as you suggested cycledrum and sure enough it came out to the same. (Yes, it has the floor mats.)

I was wondering if you could answer a question.....

We're going to drive to CA in about 3 months and will be leaving the car in San Diego in an open parking lot for 13 days. I mentioned this to the salesman and he said the "new" engine battery should be fine for that amount of time without a charge since the weather will be warm. I really don't want to have to worry about the battery being dead when we get back to the car so can you confirm what the salesman said, i.e. that the battery should have enough power left to start the car?

Thanks again for the welcome.

 

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like the salesman was right then.

We just got home tonight from a 900 mile break-in trip. We went from Eastern WA to Seattle via Tri-Cities, then around the Olympic Peninsula and home. The topography was everything from flat to mountain passes, some up and down hills, heavy to light traffic. Mostly sunny and cool to sunny and warm with a bit of rain. Lots of little towns, freeway driving and 2 lane highways.

We averaged 53.3 mpg. Wowzer.

I used to watch our GPS a lot but now I watch the energy and consumption screens.

I absolutley love this car, not just for the mileage but for the brilliant engineering that went into it. I have no doubt when the plug in model comes out next year I'll be trading this one in....onwards and upwards.

 

Good Morning All,

I did notice that when the car is cold it takes time to warm up the engine....read, no electric motor usage and mileage suffers. Someone else mentioned that not only does the engine need to be hot for emissions, but the catalytic converter needs to be hot.

I did try to extend my usage of the electric motor while going through small towns but it doesn't last long (mile or so maybe, sometimes a little more.) Since the days were coolish I do believe the catalytic converter had something to do with that...cooling off I presume and some sensor decided it was TOO cool.

I still love driving on the electric motor only....it seems to good to be true...lol.

So let me ask you "experienced" ones. Is 53.3 mpg right where the new car and I as a new Prius driver should be? I do try to ease off going up hills, and using gravity on the downside of the hill to gain back my speed. I was only driving at 60 on the 70 mph freeways. I also tried to feather the throttle while going down extreme hills to get the gas engine to shut off and use just the electric motor at high speed. I'm not certain if it's better to continue the feathering or to just take my foot off the gas completely.

I do appreciate all your help.

 

Oops...one more question.

Is there any way to turn off the automatic resetting of miles driven at each fillup? I would like to keep all the miles driven on any one particular trip for instance.

I've attached a pic of my average mileage of the whole trip but the miles were reset from the last fillup.

EDIT. Guess I didn't attach a pic....lol. Back to the drawing board until I figure out how.

 

Size IS important.

 

Hi everyone,

I guess the cold is affecting my car .... mileage now down to 52.7 after driving to work today. Morning temp at 27 degrees. I did buy some of the pipe insulation for the blocked grill mod.

Sandman, thanks for your advice on mileage. I do have the tire pressure at 42/40.... maybe I'll try it higher next summer. I have been keeping track of the gallons and miles at fillup but they don't come close to matching the car's computer figure. I'd like to put in a block heater but the warranty may be affected by that mod so I'm a little hesitant. And here in WA we're stuck with the oxygenated crap all year round so I know the mileage suffers because of that.

Thanks to all who replied to my question about the resetting of the mpg/miles. I know about the trip thingy (technical talk... ) but as I mentioned the gallons/mileage don't seem to coincide with the car's readout.

CBD2LAC....we're going on a couple of cruises out of SD. First one a 5 day, then when we return we get off that ship on one side of the pier and get on another ship on the other side of the pier for an 8 day cruise. The car will be sitting for 13 straight days. I've used the Carnival website that gives a list of nearby parking lots; then used Google Earth to look at them. We're probably going to choose the one directly across from the port and it's an uncovered one. Hopefully we don't have the same bad luck that you had. I'm curious though....how did the wildfires trash your car? Smoke damage/ash damage?

Thanks again to all for taking the time to educate me. I've been spending time reading the rest of the information on this site and I'm impressed. Not just with the knowledge, but with the adult behavior. I've been on a few other automotive sites that seem to be just full of kids and infighting.