extreme newby driving questions

I have had my Prius v for a couple of months now and I have found that it has plenty of power to get on the highway. If you put it in power mode it will surprise you with the amount of pick up, but I don't even feel the need to do that very often. I might use power mode if the on ramp goes uphill, or if its particularly short, otherwise normal mode works fine for me.

 

The eco mode reduces the sensitivity of the gas peddle. So when you need to accelerate you will have to push on the gas peddle a litttle more agressive or keep the Eco mode off. I went from a BMW with plenty of accleration to a Prius my first hybrid. It took awhile for me to adopt to the Prius about a week or so, but I'm satisfied with the car. The Prius can keep up with traffic and acclerate when needed. Grant it it will never have the power of a BMW but the car delivers other benefits for example unpresented Mileage, Cleaner Tail Pipe emissions, Reliability, room, comfort, and unpresented information at your finger tips and good smart phone integration. The car is a joy to drive but it is an aquired taste. The kicker for me is my gasoline bill went from above $300 per month to $80-120 per month with the Prius. Thats avings went into my travel and entertainmnet budget. My Bimmer was also starting to cost me for maintennace and repairs, the Prius gets 2 years Toyota paid maintennace and after that everying is reasonable. Probaly a little off topic but hang in theer you will enjoy the car more every day.

 

Ditto above. You can set it to "Eco" mode and forget it. Just push the petal to the metal if you need it. Sometimes it will chirp the tires.

 

Chirping is "burning rubber" in a very limited Prii like way. The traction control feature prevents serious "smoke" from the tires. The point is it has enough power at times to force one of your many in-car computers to back the power down.

I prefer the Trip B average mpg reading instead of the instantaneous readout that really does not mean much. Press the "Display" key and get "Average MPG" on the display instead of instantaneous mpg. There are actually three different average mpgs to use, one for the non-resetable odo (standard number of miles the car has run) and one each for the "Trip A" and "Trip B" counters. I like to reset my Trip B counter with every fill-up, which also resets the average mpg. Then you can watch the average mpg per tank.

For realtime indications watch the vertical bar graph to the left side of the instrument displays. Whenever it shows EV you are on battery alone. Whenever the graph goes up past half way you are using a fair amount of gas. You are never using a lot of gas. That's the point of having one of these cars, besides it being a very good car in it's own right.

 

ive also had the v for four days already and i have noticed that it is a little bit more sluggish than the gen ii even if it has a bigger ICE. (i think it is because of the added weight and size.) so it will never be as agile as the liftback counterpart. however i did not floor it since it had 1 mile when picked it up. now i have 160 so i am gradually increasing the power and noticed that it puts decent power to accelerate on the on-ramp. if this is your first prius, one thing i noticed after driving a prius for a few years is you will need learn how to feather the gas pedal in line with how the planetary gear reacts or else you will have a high revving ICE and it still gets you nowhere. After 4 days, I am slowly inching up to 40mpg. i am currently at 39.9 with a goal of getting 43 lifetime. my gen ii did 46.1 over the course of ownership up to 94k miles.

 

While not specific to the v, so far as I know John does not own a v, this is a short introductory manual to ease you onto Prius hood.

John's Stuff - Toyota Prius User-Guide

I have had my v for 4 months, it is peppier than my Gen 2 and THAT was peppier than the other cars I have owned, but I owned two Mazda GLCs, which is a really low bar, 59 HP.

 

Despite its so called sluggishness I've managed to "chirp" the tires on my v a couple times this past summer on bone dry pavement. Traction control isn't just for snow.
Don't be afraid to stomp on it when you need to(though I suggest waiting till past your break in period before any full throttle acceleration or sustained high speed cruising).
Doesn't matter if you are in eco mode or power mode, when you push the pedal all way down you will get maximum available power to the wheels.
Just my experience, YMMV.

 

Power mode is not more powerful. This is a common misconception. Full power is always available in all modes, including ECO. If you need more power, just press harder on the gas pedal.

Most normal cars map a lot of engine power to the first bit of accelerator pedal travel. They do this to make the car feel more powerful and responsive. With the Prius, power is mapped in a fairly linear fashion, so you may need to press harder. ECO and Power modes change the mapping. Power makes it feel more responsive, while ECO does the opposite. It's just a matter of feel, as full power is always available.

Tom

 

Yes, I know all that. It's more convenient to use than mashing the pedal to the floor.

 

Wow. Having people who accelerate on the on ramp would be quite the treat. Here in Washington state, most people speed up to 45 mph and then maintain it while they try to merge with 65-70 mph traffic. I'm usually at highway speed or greater (60 mph+) by the end of the ramp without any problems. I'm not even pushing the gas pedal to the floor to do so. Of course, then I have to it the brakes because everyone in front is going 45 mph!!! Sorry. I just had to vent.

So, yes it has plenty of power to merge.

 

We don't have a "v" yet, but we do have a 2012 Camry LXE hybrid. We leave it in eco mode just about all of the time and are averaging nearly 41 mpg after about 6,000-plus miles. I've found there's always plenty of power for accelerating onto freeways and climbing grades in this mode. I've also found that the eco mode increases the resistance of the gas pedal, whereas the accelerator is much more compliant in power mode. But what else does the eco mode do beside changing the pedal pressure?

 

Move to California. Drivers here will tailgate you down onramps at 65 mph!

 

It 'relaxes' the HVAC rules allowing more temp difference before starting the A/C.

 

So if you're not using the A/C, aside from the gas pedal pushing back, it doesn't make much difference one way or the other?

 

Correct. In Power mode early pedal travel has most effect, in Eco the most effect is near the floor, and Normally it has linear pedal activity. All three modes hit the floor with the same power, and idle with the same power, it is the middle that differs.