At last, I am bona fide. Meet my new Pri4 Deluxe Solar!

Congrats on you new Prius. I suggest you use the tern "Four" instead of "4". That is technically correct and will avoid some "generation" issues in the future.

The window tint is an absolute "must" for me. I was able to get the dealer to have that done prior to writing the check for the car purchase. You will also find that the "Four" is going to save you a lot of decisions in the future. I constantly see people writing about "should I get the EBay back-up camera", or "should I get leather installed", or "should I get this or that". I am glad that I answered those questions when I decided on the Four over the Three. I do know that most of these things can be ordered on the Three but it seems that a lot of people only consider them after their initial purchase. I also love my sharkfin antenna and side molding (after-market purchases).

I got the scan gauge to let me stay on top of things like coolant temp, etc. I have not been bothered by the lights on cars that follow me at night. But then, I don't do a lot of night driving.

I expect you will love the car more and more. I use to get "grief" from family members because they remembered me as the guy that had to "be involved" in the driving experience. I drove the Saabs, the BMWs and other cars noted for their handling traits. I tell them now that I am still "involved" in the driving experience, just on a different lever. I now take pride in anticipating stops, and doing other gas-saving tricks.

 

Congrats--enjoy.

 

Congrats on the car. Window tinting is will help with the lights through the back window. I drove mine for a week before getting the windows tinted and it made a huge difference.

 

Congrats, I love my Four/solar.

 

Congrats! I was hope you would report in when you'd picked up your Four. Great color!

Play a little with the angle of the rear-view mirror. The auto-dimming will work, but it's a little quirky. I know that doesn't help with the side mirrors. But to avoid blind spots, the side mirrors should not be looking behind the car anyway.

 

Nice! I Love The Color. Best of Luck with Your New Ride.

 

Great choice of color ! I could have worked a killer deal on a 2011 but I wanted that Sea Glass Pearl too. Enjoy !

John

 

Congrats on the new ride.

As far as the mpg's you are getting so far, don't seat it. First there is the break-in period. Then watch this video to get an idea on how to get better mpg's:

Consider joining in on Fuelly to track your mpg's and to share with the rest of us as time goes on.

 

I don't know which temp I'd measure -- There's engine coolant, inverter coolant, transaxle temperature and traction battery temperature.

 

congrats ralleia. i remember your dealer screwing you over by selling "your car" and forcing you to wait another month. then you had the month long debate 3 vs 4.

1. scangauge. ive been looking to get one for two months. the cheapest ive seen so far is amazon's 160.
2. like everyone said, tint does help. lights that are blinding you are probably due to people that improper HID kits. properly set up HIDs have cutoffs that never shine the light above the bummer. if you can't see far enough with the factory lights, then follow wick1ert's thread. HID cutoff not as good as I thought? | Page 8 | PriusChat

did you get the dealer to turn the continuous reverse beep into a single beep? turn sks on for all doors instead of driver side? if no, then you can change these yourself with the scangauge.

and seagrass green? its nice. but i thought you were another brigade member.

 

I installed the OEM foglights on my 2011 Prius 3, so I'd highly recommend doing the same on your 2012 when they come out with a kit. However, there is that problem regarding having to buy a new lower grill to accommodate the foglights. They definitely allow you to put more light down the road.

 

Fortunately you don't have to settle for 1 - the Scangauge displays 4 data points at once!

 

SKS is the Smart Key System. Default is that only the driver door opens upon touching. Option is to have all doors unlock when you touch.

 

sks - smart key system. or keyless open/lock system.

fogs - not to burst your bubble but its really hard to diy the fog lights on the 2012 because only the 2012 five has the bumper grill to support the fog lights. you need to buy a $160ish bumper to replace your four's bumper. then buy the fog lights at pc store for even more $$$.

 

U can go to autoanything.com as they sell scangauge w/ free shipping & use their 10 to 15 percent promo which they give out frequently. They will charge u tax since u live in CA. but still cheaper if u get 15 % off.

 

As others have already mentioned, ScanGauge-II ($134.95 at cleanmpg.com) is the most popular, but there are numerous other engine monitors available. ScanGaugeE, displaying just 2 items, is cheaper. A similar competing product is named Kiwi. And several other devices can connect via BlueTooth to your smart phone.

Pointing the mirrors back is a waste of effort, as it is nearly impossible to get the aim right. A bunch of retroreflectors on the back of the car will do better.

Many of us no longer point the outside mirrors straight back, thus avoiding the headlights of cars directly behind. Instead, point these mirrors to the side, minimizing the flank blind spots when driving on multilane roads. This has been discussed in many threads.

With this strategy, only the inside mirror points straight back. If the night dimming switch isn't enough, i.e. they are tailgating with high beams, then you just need to let or make them go around, forcing them to pass if necessary. The cargo cover will not help, it is too low to block the lower window.