My First 5 days with a Prius

All I can say is WOW! This is really an amazing machine!

Thank you to everyone here at PriusChat for all the information you offer the world as it really helped me understand what I was buying and all the little noises and unique things about the Prius. The User's Guide by John is a great summary of the hundreds of pages from the Toyota manual and really the important stuff everyone should know.

Yesterday afternoon was a real test for me. I had to drive down a dirt road with a bunch of loose sand. The Prius did great with it, keeping good control and traction. I only had the traction warning light come on when I wanted to see if I could make it come on. It was smooth as can be and still kept me moving as it should.

One thing I did notice was that I was only getting about 42MPG and wondering why it was so low (yeah, like 42 is low). But after reading here, I checked the tire pressure and found the dealer had all 4 tires at 31.5 psi. I pumped the fronts to 40 and the backs to 38 and now am averaging 51MPG. It may be partly that I am learning how to drive a Prius, but the added air pressure was noticeable right away.

Living in central Florida I tinted the windows and put on the 3M clear bra. My next purchase will be the mud flaps. I can see where they will help make the car look better and protect the finish.

The biggest problem I have so far is that I keep reaching for the key to turn it off. Old habits die hard.