New Here! First Car

Congrats and welcome to PriusChat! That is a fantastic price!

Well, the first ding or scratch is always going to hurt. And it's the same every time I get a new car.

If you treat the car well, it will give you a long service life.

• That means keeping up with the Toyota recommended maintenance. (I would review it before every service so you know what's required and you know what to decline from the dealer who may try to sell you other service items).
  
• Keep tyres inflated for proper ride comfort, mpg, and extended tyre life. (Recommended PSI on driver's door jamb for quick reference. A rough guide is 1 psi loss/gain for every 9°F drop/increase). Always check the pressure when the tyre is cold (not driven more than 2-3 miles and obviously not sitting in the sun all day)

For the first bit, we usually like to give the advice to first time hybrid owners to "just drive it". What that means is, for the first bit in the beginning, just get in and drive it like a normal car. It's easy to get excited about all the screens and information and to want to learn everything about the hybrid system. Maybe you want to eke out every mpg (or at least learn how to get better than average mpg).

If you "just drive it" first, then you get used to the car's intricacies and once you get familiar with that, you can start to learn things like Pulse & Glide, learning your commute to maximise mpg, and getting the most out of the readouts on your car.