Bought my first prius. Any tips?

Hey, congrats! Welcome to hybrid ownership! Now you get to wave to all the nice people who drive a Prius.

My favorite thing about driving is playing the “mpg game” lol... my screen is always displaying the mpg stats so I can modify my driving and get that number up. Key things: stop at stop signs by coasting up to it and braking to a complete stop. Take off slooowly and let the momentum of the car help carry it up to speed. Once approaching target speed, eeeease your foot off the pedal until it’s cruising in battery power. You’ll get TONS of mpg driving like this. I’ve had my C up to 70mpg for a trip AVERAGE! It’s all about how you stop, how you start, how you coast at speed.

The only thing that ever really ‘drains’ my battery is you start the car and immediately crank the ac to subzero and leave it there. I’ve found this quickly depletes the battery and therefore won’t allow much in the way of EV mode, but I doubt it hurts anything. In fact many batteries like to be drained and then filled as opposed to just staying full all the time - someone who knows more than I can tell us if a Prius battery should be conditioned in that way.

You’re gonna love it! Have fun and make sure you don’t forget the Prius wave when you see one of us on the road.

 

I see you live in Utah, winter will cause you some interesting times with the gas tank. It has a rubber badder and when cold it sometimes will not et you fill it up, like maybe 3 gallons instead of 8, can be annoying. I imagine there will be some tips here on workarounds.

 

I live in the northeast and never experienced that...
A rubber bladder would be smaller when cold, it wouldn’t expand so I’m not sure how that could be. Maybe the float that ‘measures’ the tank is getting stuck? Idk. I’d put a bit of Stabil or other additive to get rid of excess water in the tank which could cause freezing and sticking. I don’t let the tank get too low, condensation is more likely to accumulate in an emptier tank. Always use top quality fuel, Shell or Mobil as well. Just never heard of that issue.