Prospective Prius Buyer Questions

What conventional car lets you run the A/C with the engine off? Do you mean just running the fan to suck in outside air? In either case, the answer for the Prius is "yes"; when running the A/C or fan you have to have the Prius "ON" so that the engine will start as needed to avoid draining the traction (drive system) battery.

Getting used to the HSD: that depends on how much gas you want to save. Just drive it and you'll do fine. Many people find they can't help but baby the thing in response to the energy displays. The single best rule for saving gas is "coast as much as possible".

Several posters here have commented on how reliably Prius operates in cold and handles in snow.

 

Does your Sable have traction control. The Taurus that my son drives has that and the two are the same car. It goes well in the snow without snow tires with snow tires it goes very well. You probably have good snow removal if you live in a area with a lot of snow. In western Washington we use the God method of snow removal. God put it there and god will take it away. After a few days of cold weather it gets fairly bad and we had no problems. Getting to the point of all this. The Prius can come with both traction control and skid control and should do even better in the snow and this is confirmed by others reports. Don't skimp on the safety features. Get traction, skid control, side airbags. It will be a bit tough just coming out of school but it is one area you should not skimp on.

 

In Fargo it gets down to 40 below zero occasionally, lots of ice, but not a lot of snow. I cannot speak about deep snow because I wait for the snowplows to come through. But on ice it handles great. At 30 below zero (and with regular oil) it runs just fine. I do not notice any sluggishness at all. I park in an unheated garage, but even after being out of doors all day long in sub-zero weather it runs fine, no sluggishness.

The HSD takes no getting used to at all. You just drive it. It took me 2 or 3 days to get used to the different view. I had much better visibility out my Civic station wagon, which had lots more glass. Parallel parking took me longer to get the hang of. Several months. You cannot see the front or the back of the car. But with practice you can learn. I could have learned it more quickly had it been an issue for me, but parking is not a problem here.

I think you have to leave the car in Ready mode to use the A/C. The engine will run as needed to keep the HV battery charged.

You never need to worry about the HV battery. The engine will run as needed to charge it, and the car's electronics will protect it from over-charge or under-charge. ACC mode uses the 12-v. battery to run accessories, and you can run it down pretty fast because it is very small.

Powering on the car uses the 12-v battery to boot up the computer. The HV battery starts the ICE and keeps the 12-v. battery charged. There is no alternator or starter as such. You never start the ICE. The computer starts the ICE when conditions call for it.

 

I'll speak only to the question about adjusting to driving. Other folks have handled the other questions very well.

It took me less than 10 minutes for my driving style to begin changing as a result of the instant feedback from the energy and consumption screens. My style continues to evolve as I become more comfortable with the car.

 

You might be surprised. The ICE is usually so quiet and smooth that if you have music or conversation you may well not be able to hear it.

 

Bite -
Read through the posts here. I was able to drive for mpg without playing the snail immediately with my (hint hint) rented '04 Prius from Enterprise. Stealth, no problem; 50 mpg, no problem. I can understand your concern about the engine shutting off at a stop given your prior experience but it is easy to get used to and you will soon wonder why regular cars don't I got used to the Prius so fast that when my week was up, driving my '95 Odyssey seemed wierd and I am the original owner!

The rear view mirror "view" took some getting used to. I think in part because the section of the window below the spoiler is tinted so it doesn't visually blend with the upper window.

Right, it is less likely to roll over. A lot of SUV owners get over confident with 4x4.

 

I've never tried running it in IG or ACC mode, but since the A/C runs directly from the HV battery, I'm going to guess that it simply will not run if you try to turn it on when the car is not in Ready mode.

In an average year here in Fargo there's probably two weeks when A/C is needed. (The heater, on the other hand, runs about 7 months out of the year.)

 

AC runs only in Ready mode but it is a electric compressor so it runs with the ICE (internal combustion engine )off from the battery. It is also variable speed unlike the compressor on a conventional compressor that runs full on, or full off. This allows further savings. This is an incredible car. If you don't own one soon you will own on as the world transitions from conventional ICE cars. Who knows where it all will end but this is the car of the near future.

 

You get 2 fobs when you buy the car. If you need another, if you have SS/SE they're pretty expensive. I forget the exact price with programming, but it's in the $350 range. I think almost everyone finds 2 to be plenty. Also, with SS/SE, it's nearly impossible to lock the FOB in the car. It can be done but it's extremely tricky.

Nope, they're expensive, but not THAT expensive. The basic SE/SS fob cost me 140 bucks from a dealer in Pennsylvania (name and address somewhere on this chatline archives), and another 50 bucks to have my local Seattle dealer program it. You will need to bring your two other fobs with you when you get your extra fob programmed, as they are interconnected somehow so that any one of them will work in the car. I have an extra third fob just for security.
Bob