Advice for owning and driving a new Prius

start the car and drive. that's what i did for the 10 hours/600 miles from west virginia to long island when i picked mine up.

beyond that, do some searching/reading at this site where you will read great tips for getting max mileage. probably the best anecdotal one was to drive as if there was a raw egg between your foot and the accelerator pedal.

 

(Evan, it appears that the url you intended wasn't included.)

The pickup checklist is at http://www.vfaq.net/docs/pickup_checklist.html

Plan on spending 20 minutes sitting in the car at the dealer reading the before-you-drive section of the owner's manual, and at least skimming the rest of it.
No hard braking in the first 200 miles, no "excessive speed" (whatever that is) in the first 600 miles.

 

Congratulations. Follow Evans advice.

 

Just drive it. Keep your eyes on the road, if you can 8) . Becoming one with the car will happen. ICE on ICE off.

 

Another thing -- The dealer told me NOT to use the cruise control for the first 1000 miles, It may cause the ICE to race too much before it breaks in.

 

:lolup: :lolup:

Yes, oh master!

 

The egg-under-the-foot philosophy is not universal. Some folks, including the guru of Prius, john1701a, advocate accelerating right up to speed, and then easing off, much more like you'd drive any other car. Don't floor it, but don't baby it, either. In other words, JUST DRIVE IT!

And try not to stare at the screen.

 

yeah just try! 8)

 

i recommend paint sealer and fabric sealer. also keep in mind that you can probably get a better deal than what your dealer can offer you by shopping around.

my sister works for Ford and she says the soundguard/undercoat is a rip off.

other than that, you will find that the Prius can and does drive like any other car... it simply does it waaay cooler!

 

well, in my experience, i LOVE driving the prius that way, just getting up to speed and so on, but it took the egg approach to really get my gas mileage up. of course, cruising at 75 doesn't help either. but i'm convinced the key to the high mileage is learning to feather the pedal enough to spend max time in EV mode at higher (20-30 mph) speeds.

it's a cool feeling when i get it going that way, sort of like being one with the car! ICE on, ICE off...

 

I see it differently: At higher speeds (30-ish) the ICE can run effeciently, and I let the car decide whether or not it wants to run on battery power. Remember that there's an inherent loss in the conversion mechanical-to-electrical and back.

However I have made two observations: 1. that the car is reluctant to charge the battery above 6 bars (it will do it, but it prefers not to), and 2. that at much slower speeds (below 20 or so) the mileage is usually very poor.

So I strive to use electric (via the EV switch if necessary) any time the SOC is above half and I am travelling slowly. A good example is when road work slows traffic way down or where there are lots of stops. If the SOC is lower, I figure the car will strive to recharge it, so the engine output will not be wasted.

 

I think there are 4 modes of getting up to speed:

• 
  1. Reduces the amount of EV distance at speed due to to the laws of physics - it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The kid on the razor scooter thinks you want to race
  2. Uses the ICE to get the car to speed and may charge the battery but does not deplete it. This leaves the highest SOC possible for EV distance
  3. Gets you up to speed faster but you'll still have more EV distance available than 1
  4. You and the Hummer next to you are getting the same mileage
  
  I think if conditions allow, number 2 works best for mpg. It isn't the "egg under the pedal" method but it is approaching it because just a little more pressure and you'll be in number 3. None of this matters in the first 5 minutes as the ICE will run anyway.
  
  Of course this assumes flat terrain and no traffic. If you happen to know that you'll be on the interstate in 1/2 mile and you can reasonably do EV mode to get there, number 1 can make sense. This is why some people want the EV button. They do sometimes know better than the computer

 

And, of course, after you get home read the entire manual. There is some important stuff that's not obvious (like towing, jumpstarts, storage for more than two weeks).

 

no matter what the operation of the car, the best mpg will occur when the least amount of energy is expended. that means the least energetic acceleration.

all these posts about people who accelerate rapidly to speed then ease off and coast will not be better than accelerating slowly to speed.

the amount of energy to accelerate is not linear. the energy required to accelerate is exponentially proportional to the rate of acceleration. therefore the slowest rate of acceleration will expend the least amount of energy.

 

Dave: you are ignoring the entire question of the internal efficiency of the ICE, PSD, and HSD. You are looking at driveshaft-to-wheels efficiency, rather than tank-to-wheels efficiency, which is the real measure we are all interested in.