Picked up my Red C II

Just picked up my Red Prius C II today (after waiting 3 weeks). So far my only complaint is the cup holder under the center section. Had to lean a fountain drink to get it in the holder and it leaked from the lid as I leaned it in. I like how the trunk lid still has the touch pad to unlock/open, thought it might not since I don't have the smartkey option. Used the bluetooth to make a call and it sounded pretty good, other person could hear me fine too. The mic is mounted on the roof toward the middle front (if anyones curious). Also I was wondering if the car would lurch forward when the gas engine was off, and it does. I was thinking I might have to press the gas to creep forward in traffic but gladly that's not the case. Also it's good at not rolling backward when starting again after being stopped on an incline, another thing I was concerned about. Still learning how to get good ECO scores, my start is always 4 or 5 but my cruise and stop are mostly 3's. I can't wait to take it for my morning commute tomorrow.

 

Thanks everyone I drove it to work this morning and learned some lessons the hard way. One of the turns on my morning commute is a sharp almost L shaped left turn. I took the turn too fast and my 32 ounce fountain drink cup flew out of the cup holder and broke open and spilled all over the passenger floor. Thank god it was only water, but I was freaking out because I read that you shouldn't spill anything that it could cause an electrical fire, thank god it did not. Went immediately back home and sopped it up with three towels. I would air it out to let it dry but can't roll down the windows yet due to the tint on the windows needing to cure. Won't be doing that again! My corolla would have held the cup in place just fine but I guess it will make me a more careful driver . The other thing is I can't believe how easy it is to accelerate into the red zone when starting from a light. I have to really granny it to keep it in the green on the eco bar. It's almost like having to learn how to drive all over again (been driving 14 years now), it's a strange feeling going from feeling like an expert to feeling like a novice for something I've been doing for so long. I know I could just keep driving the way I always have but the whole point to getting the prius is to maximize the savings. I'm hoping I'll get used to the new way of things soon. Also I park on the 9th floor of a parking garage for work so I tried putting it in EV mode seeing as I would be going less than 35 mph. That didn't work out too well. It struggled to go up the inclines on EV mode and got 9 mph climbing and traction battery was low after only 3 climbs and EV mode canceled. I guess I won't be using EV mode much if at all.

 

Looks like I'm a fast learner. 71 Mpg's for 8 mile trip home from work today. Even though she dosn't seem to give me high marks on my cruise most of the time, and even gave me a harsh sounding 63 out of 100 eco score.

 

That sounds just like my experience with it so far too! I've learned that the red power portion is not necessarily a bad thing, if you can balance it out by doing more driving in the lower green segment of the eco bar, I've noticed if I get my speed less than 41 and keep it in the lower half of the bar especially in 35mph streets (and you see the green EV symbol come on) I can raise my mpg back up from what I lost in harder accelerating and still average out to high 60's low 70's mpg by the time I reach my destination. Sure, the less you can stay out of the red the better but it's not necessarily going to ruin your whole trip if you do it sparingly like when getting onto the freeway.

 

WOW, short trip (4 miles) to wallyworld, held it in EV as much as I could without pissing people off behind me (2 miles/half the trip) I scored an incredible 96 mpg

Had the car four days, driven 170 miles, used a quarter tank and that puts me at 71 mpg average if I can keep doing what I'm doing. Wooo hooo!

Screenies of my wallyworld results:


By the way, I'm starting to think that the only way to get a 100/100 ECO score is to walk to my destination instead. LOL

 

It was a warm start, so maybe that's cheating, forgot about that. Yeah, it does get incredible mpg for short trips if you use gas to get up to speed (and regen the battery) and then drop it back down to EV to cruise. (30 - 35 mph streets). What kills the short trip mpg is when you use only or mostly gas the whole time, it seems.